I felt that since everyone who made the trip to the strawberry fields yesterday will be writing about the fields, I’m giving it a different slant.
There were 10 of us in all, Bingboula, Catherine, Gary, Jessy, Jill, Mahesh, Mamie, Tracy, Yovina & I. We set off from ASDA in three cars, and Mamie and I had the ‘good’ fortune of being driven by Tracy in Jessy’s brother’s car. As we were leaving Manchester joining the M602, Tracy had a little battle of wills with a truck that was attempting to exit it. Fortunately, after a brief contest which had Mamie and I saw a lot of our life pass before our eyes, Tracy gave in and let the truck pass us. We then managed to make it to the fields without further incident, apart from the humorous episode where Jill in the lead (driving the rental car) turned into a side road to let us catch up with her, and then both cars followed her into the side road so we ended up nose-to-tail in a circle .

(to be contd…)

Ok, I’m back. Ioannis has posted the pics on our isom weblog .

I’ve decided to give a little commentary on the strawberry pics, especially regarding the fact that some of us were really clueless as to what to do in a field. For instance, Tracy dear thought that the stuff had to be dug up from the ground, bless! Jill bumped into a visitor from another planet and did as recommended, extending a greeting to them that we are a peaceful people. And although the sight of those bug-eyed, claw-tentacled aliens didn’t unsettle her, the partially-nude Adonis certainly did. Mamie was prepared for the aliens though, she was carrying almost all her earthly possessions in case they gave her a lift. And when her hands got full, well… Bingboula discovered that the blue-coloured plants that the aliens introduced seemed to have a lot more strawberries in them! And here Tracy and Jill celebrate a victory for Earth as the low-flying spacecraft narrowly misses their heads (the aliens having got what they came for.) Mahesh observes Mamie settling down to a quick lunch after the ordeal of being strung upside down. You can even see the Deputy Commander of the aliens gloating over the captive Earthmen and Earthwomen as they cry out in pain and anguish.

A quick hello to Jill, who has joined the isom community of webloggers that I founded. You will find her ramblings at her weblog, called geeronimo. This just gives us more opportunity to go around pollinating each others’ weblogs.

So isom’s organised another great trip, picking strawberries in July. We have managed to get a van driver on minimum wage, hopefully we’ll rent a van, and then this Friday will see a bunch of grown-ups competing in a very un-grown-up-like manner to see who picks the most strawberries and raspberries. I have a plan for success worked out, but obviously due to security reasons it cannot be disclosed on these pages. Now the rest of the time leading up to Friday will be devoted to choosing a selection of songs to suit the journey!

Tuesday evening, around six-thirty-ish, I get a callback from Ioannis saying that he’s off to Exchange Square, more precisely, the Sinclair’s Oyster Bar, for a pint with his ex-coworker and friend Rob. After ‘much persuasion’, I joined Ioannis and we went there for a couple of pints and a few laughs. Rob’s friend Riz was with us too. Then Ioannis suggests going for a curry to Rusholme, which means the only one restaurant worth considering, i.e. Sangam! After stuffing ourselves with Karahi chicken, lamb and chili paneer, we were politely asked to leave the premises at half-eleven or so, after which Ioannis headed for his bed. But the three of us still had a spark of life left in us, so we decided to hit Oxford Rd and ended up in Revolution. After being shuffled out from there at one, we had to call it a night (but not before checking on the Footage to see if they’d let us in).

Here’s an idea. We need an ISOM Awards ceremony for the end of our academic year. So the main topic for discussion is, what kind of categories should people be nominated for? All suggestions welcome. I’ll start it off by suggesting a “Most Likely to Still be on the Dole in a Year” Award. Once we have a list of awards, we can go about selecting and then voting for the nominees. How about it?
P.S All other weblogs trackback to this so all ISOMers will have a chance to read about it, no matter which weblog they visit.

Hey guys (in Manchester)! How about a weekend in Munich? Let’s have your comments. In case you need reminding, there’s a certain someone who lives there now, and (against his express desires) I managed to invite ourselves to a weekend there. There might be some festivals going on that we can time our visit to coincide with, suggests Jonny.
P.S. Munich is in Germany 😛