Matthew East

I recently posted about the Water Aid 6 Peaks Challenge that I am taking part in. The challenge starts this Friday, 4 July 2008.
The fundraising effort is going well – we have now raised over £3000 towards our target of £4000 for Water Aid! However we need more support, so please donate if you can.
I’ll [...]

As some may know I have entered, together with a team from my company, Holman Fenwick Willan, in this July’s Water Aid 6 Peaks Challenge.
This is a challenge to visit the summits of the highest peaks in each of the six regions of the British Isles, all within 72 hours: Snaefell (Isle of Man), Snowdon [...]

Lots of politicians and other people in the UK at the moment are complaining that some racist behaviour is being shown on television, specifically in the Big Brother show (Celebrity edition!). Here’s an example by our culture secretary.
In fact, in my view this is simply an excuse to scapegoat Big Brother for the fact that [...]

The Week has a section entitled “It must be true… I read it in the tabloids”. It’s hilarious. Most of them have a ring of truth about them. Take this entry for example:
An American publisher has compiled a list of “the worst analogies ever written by pupils at US high schools”. They include:

He was as [...]

I’ll add my (slightly late) new years wishes. I hope 2007 brings everyone what they are looking for, unless it’s morally wrong (in which case, shame on you!).
Here’s what I’m hoping to do in 2007 (in order of importance?):

Get married
Stay healthy
Buy a flat
Get stuck into my new job
Help promote free software

Ambitious stuff. Good luck everyone!

Romina pointed out this excellent “investment opportunity” advertised on gumtree london today.
A trullo is a traditional dry-wall building from Puglia in Southern Italy, protected by UNESCO. See also the Wikipedia entry for what they should really look like. Someone is selling a real one on gumtree too.

Geoffrey Boycott:
My father worked down a coal mine six days a week. He was always dirty from coal dust and constantly worried the roof was going to fall in on his head. He would have thought playing cricket for a living was a wonderful life and he would have done it for nothing.
There’s something beautifully [...]

So here we go. This week, I have been:

Almost constantly eating mangoes – why did no one tell me how nice these are?
Job hunting – even though it seems like most lawyers are on holiday during August, some interviews appear to be trickling in at last, which is nice.
Compiling a huge chronology for an arbitration [...]

For a few weeks, my blog hadn’t been aggregated to Planet Ubuntu. It’s now back and here are the posts I made while it wasn’t aggregated. Maybe some readers will find them informative:

Fri, 02 Jun 2006 – Where I live – A rare personal post about where I live.
Mon, 05 Jun 2006 – Printed Ubuntu [...]

Animals are really resourceful. When this moorhen found that all the good nesting places in the lake were already taken, she decided to make the best of it.
]]>