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Camping in style

Monday, May 11th, 2009 Posted in Personal Lives | No Comments »

I recently took a week off to do some volunteer work as part of Leeds Atheist Society’s Rationalist Week 2009. During the week the society erects a marquee opposite the student union and runs a series of talks, debates, socials and other events in order to raise awareness of the society and it’s beliefs.

This year the tent was open 24 hours a day and ended up with the most hardcore of us pretty much living in the tent for the week – despite it being April and us having a heater it was still freezing! Still we managed to survive and are no doubt stronger for it .

During the week I managed to get myself through six talks and speeches though the real stars of the show were our debates with the Christian Union and Islamic Society as well as the range of bands and entertainment we put on. Needless to say we were all shattered by the end of the week but definitely well worth it – roll on next year!

Durham

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 Posted in Personal Lives, Travel | No Comments »

Last week I headed up to Durham for the day to help out at the Durham University Humanist Society’s Reason Week. The society are doing some really great work up there and so I was glad to go up and give them a hand, though I may have swallowed up more of their time than I actually spent helping lol!

In between events Ellis even managed to provide me with a tour around the city and many of the college bars too including Castle Bar which is built in the basement of the castle’s keep! Drinks up there are significantly cheaper than Leeds too so it’s a fantastic place to drink as well as absorbing the sights.

How I met Richard Dawkins

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 Posted in Personal Lives, Travel | No Comments »

I was down in London last week for the press launch of the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies (thankfully abbreviated to the much shorter name, AHS) to which I sit on the board of trustees, as we made ourselves known to the British media.

We managed to rack up an impressive line of speakers including AHS president Norman Ralph, British Humanist Association president Polly Toynbee, Professor A. C. Grayling and Professor Richard Dawkins (described unknowingly by Lil as “the posh old guy with the banana”). It was all very exciting, I said “what type of microphone would you like” and Professor Dawkins replied “a lectern will be fine.” That’s my Richard Dawkins story .

We got coverage by The Guardian and The Independent (who were impressed by our president’s “sharp suite and trimmed goatee”) as well as plenty of donations so the future is looking bright for the AHS. All eyes on our national events now.

Pictures: Richard Dawkins poses with myself and other members of Leeds Atheist Society, myself asking people to take their seats for the second round of speeches (ha, how glamorous) and Polly Toynbee delivering her speech.

Feeling skeptical

Monday, January 19th, 2009 Posted in Personal Lives | No Comments »

With the original London based group of Skeptics in the Pub recently having celebrated their tenth anniversary and the concept rapidly spreading elsewhere with groups starting up in Birmingham, Leicester and across North America too, Leeds was certainly overdue for a group to get started. As such, this January saw the first meeting of Leeds Skeptics in the Pub.

And who was to deliver in the inaugural lecture to the group you ask? Why, yours truly of course. Talking about the It’s Only Water campaign which aims to raise awareness of the pseudoscientific joke that is homeopathy, I delivered the talk to a packed out room at Carpe Diem before tucking into a well earned pint. Perhaps skeptics aren’t so skeptical after all!

London town

Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 Posted in Personal Lives, Travel | No Comments »

A weekend in London for me and 21 of my close friends? Sounds good to me.

As part of my society’s annual weekend away we headed down to London at the very end of November for a few days of eating, drinking and partying (and maybe even some educational activities too). We found a number of great watering holes hidden away in back streets and alleys as well as a selection of good clubs as part of London’s legendary nightlife.

While we were there we also got round Conway Hall, the Natural History Museum, Speakers’ Corner (at which I got up on a ladder and did some preaching myself) and the Church of Scientology so, having picked up a copy of Dianetics, I will soon be ready to cleanse those pesky engrams from the reactive minds of my colleagues back in the office.

Chicken brain

Monday, November 3rd, 2008 Posted in Personal Lives | No Comments »

I went to Nando’s on Sunday for a meal to celebrate my birthday. Obviously with it being a Sunday and a lot of people having work the next morning a lot of people were unable to make it in the end so it was just me and eighteen of my friends (life is hard being popular ).

While there we managed to find a brain in one of our meals. The manager seemed fairly insistent that it was not in fact a brain and was instead a kidney or a liver but we got photos of it so judge for yourself.