Cymbidium

The yellow cymbidium has come in to flower again so I went for a bit of drama here. I'd hoped to have worked up enough to join old FT chums on a walk tomorrow but it's not looking good, still a lot to shift.

For his own amusement son Rob has created a programme that mirrors evolution in a very simple way, little blobs that change when exposed to food, light and heat. Over time they develop heat sensors, then sight (or sometimes they just die out). It's playing in the background on the laptop and it's up to 850 generations of blob. No apparent application, but interesting.

Meanwhile Rob and John's new game, The Ninth Realm, is nearly ready to bring out of Beta for a full launch. They're both pretty excited about it. "So what did you do at work today?" I asked John yesterday. He said: "Well this morning we were discussing Narwhal tusks, then we made up a spell and this afternoon I drew a gargoyle."

I was pretty pleased with the readership I got for the blog on Margaret Thatcher, but it did put back the other stuff, must get on with that now.

Late PS: I'm just off to bed after a late session on the keyboard and I'm still running Rob's programme - now in to 1,500 generations of blob. If it's still running in the morning I might do a screen shot for tomorrow's blip. It's been fascinating watching the shapes develop.

PPS: Just catching up with the fuss over the changes. Can anyone tell me how I see the new home page when I'm already a member? It's beginning to feel like a cult. I'm not keen on cults. Answer: yes, of course, just need to sign out. Oh, I can see now, it's like the Berlin Wall, we're all fenced inside our compound - creepy.