Status-Q

The Returning Soldier war memorial is a much-loved Cambridge landmark. He used to stride confidently up the middle of one of our main streets, but was moved onto the pavement recently, poor chap, to make more room for turning buses. A great pity, but perhaps it's just as well. You wouldn't want to make it back from the trenches in one piece only to be knocked off your pedestal by the number 14.

It struck me, as I cycled past tonight, how different his life must have been from that of the people in the cubicles behind him...

(Click to enlarge)

...but on some mornings, it's enough.

Lord Byron used to swim just near here, they say. But not, I suspect, at this time of year.

Byron's Pool, near Grantchester

(We have hi-tech bike sheds at the Computer Lab.)

Parking in our street used to be a free-for-all, but they've added some double yellow lines now.

In-store signage is often not very well thought out. Long-time readers may remember the seasonal toilet rolls at one of my local stores, and an aisle entirely free of long-life milk at another.

Yesterday we spotted this in HomeSense in Cambridge:

The bizarre messages continue elsewhere in the store. Above one checkout was a sign with an arrow saying "Pay up to 60% less here." Less than what? Less than the ticketed price? Less than at any other checkout in the store? Do these people have any grasp of how meaningless these signs are? Or -- more worryingly -- do signs as meaningless as this actually work on the general populace?

Now, they may be cleverer than they look. My nephew Matt points out that they might be trying to encourage people to buy today because the savings will be lower tomorrow. This does make some sense, because it's the kind of store that, though it looks mildly interesting from the outside, I think few people would voluntarily enter twice.

The new Materials Science and Metallurgy building, Cambridge.

I cycle past this sign regularly:

I think this indicates that all of Cambridge is now part of the Cavendish Lab. I know they've been expanding a lot recently, but I didn't realise they'd got that far.

On the other hand, I may be confused. It's difficult to keep a clear head when you're cycling backwards like that.