Judgement Day!

One wonders whether Judge included Jim on his insurance policy?

Driver Wanted!

Supreme court Judge of the Vico, ruler of all Vicovers with his jaws of steel, and patron of the Vico ball factory, awaits impatiently as the driver of his official state chariot gets caught short and nips off for a leek ... or maybe a garlic!

The garlic and leek promenade

At this time of year the path leading down to the bridge is bordered by three-cornered leeks Allium triquetrum. They are characterized by a triangular-sectioned stem and green stripes on the white flowers. They are not easily confused with the later flowering garlic, which also grows in the vicinity and which Dr D correctly identified. They both have a strong oniony garlicky smell.

Neap tide

There's very little range in sea levels today - could be a good opportunity to watch the tide go out and be disappointed not to see the usual rocks appearing. And it would be exciting to not see the pool filling up.

Tamsy's Taxi Service

Due to increased transit times in rough seas, patrons are advised to pre-book tamsy's taxi before plunging into the Vico during storm force 11 gales, in order to avoid disappointment!!!

Tim Murphy

Tim died suddenly on 14 April 2007. His diverse encyclopedic knowledge, wonderful sense of humour, and accomplished culinary skills will be very sadly missed by me, and many other Vicovers.
Most of all, his boundless generosity meant he always had a friendly and attentive ear for anyones problems, and would go to the ends of the earth to help in any way possible. Such enviable virtues are seldom accompanied by the humility and modesty that Tim displayed in abundance.

Tim's funeral was held on 18 April in his idyllic hometown of Schull. I am happy to say that Tim received a very noble send off, with a heartfelt graveside oration by his brother-in-law and friend, John O'Donohue. Our attendance was greatly appreciated by his extremely warm and welcoming family.

Of course, in true Vicover fashion, we commemorated the loss of our beautiful friend with a few lengthy swims in his lifelong swimming spot, which lies just a stones throw from the foot of his grave.

Tim lives on in many memories...

Seaweed removal using robot

The Vico Maintenance Department is investigating the use of slimy floating stuff (noticed yesterday floating in the vicinity of the North steps) to remove seaweed and graffiti by controlling a scrubbing robot. Southamton University have succeeded in getting slime-mould to control a robot, or, as an academic would put it:
"an experimental setup that interfaces an amoeboid plasmodium
of Physarum polycephalum with an omnidirectional hexapod robot to realise
an interaction loop between environment and plasticity in control. Through
this bio-electronic hybrid architecture the continuous negotiation process
between local intracellular reconfiguration on the micro-physical scale and
global behaviour of the cell in a macroscale environment"
Alternatively, Dr D could be used instead of the slime-mould.

Unexpected Eclipse

The astrophysics group has noticed that at certain times of the year - specifically about 5:30pm on sunny Saturday afternoons - a phenomenon known as the "Santi Ecliptic" occurs, causing a distinct drop in ambient temperature in its shadow.

Double figures

The Vico Temperature Monitoring Department is pleased to announce that, according to our highly accurate self-certified temperature measuring equipment, we are now in double figures.

Phew - Wot a scorcher!!

This Easter must have been one of the sunniest on record (confirmation from Vico Meteorological Department pending), but it's taking a long time to have any effect on the aqueous saline heat sink (the sea).
There was limited seating space due to the warm weather. The little guy with brown teeth took my favourite spot - and he kept eyeing up this beautiful, lithe, black bitch, but she was way too big for him, so he played with his ball instead while I tried to attract his attention with a pressure induced vortex oscillation.
Tamsi must have got a cheap Lufthansa flight because she was nowhere to be seen, so the rescue services could relax.