I had forgotten to convey this important bit of news. Which I read in The Sun on the way to Portugal so may not be real at all. But anyway: Mario Rosenstock, a performer, has impersonated Jose Mourinho to record "Jose and his Amazing Technicolour Overcoat" and "Sign a Little Player or Two", both versions of well known songs. Jose Mourinho apparently has liked the versions and has given the ok for a recording of the songs. There is now a plan for these songs to contend for Christmas No.1. For those not in the know, this is an important accolade in the UK music business as can be seen in the film "Love, Actually" where Bill Nighy takes his clothes off after winning it.

:)

On a less important note, Portugal is building the biggest solar power central in the world.

Two things that definitely don't compensate for the fact that the sun has gone and it is now pouring with rain

I have to say I came back to Portugal with a heavy heart. But yesterday Hugo went to pick me up at the airport and we went to dinner at 10.30pm. Today I called Fatima at 12 and she said she cancelled previous arrangements to have lunch with me at 1pm. We had soup by the seaside.

And it's an absolutely brilliant sunny day - it must be about 21-22 degrees and I am getting a tan already.

Plus: Seu Jorge is playing in Casa da Musica next week!

Porto is really pulling all the stops out to make me stay

STILL UNDEFINED

So the main thing is how the interview on Wednesday went. With Sophia’s help I managed to find a suit close enough to the Jackie Brown one I wanted (in Zara, where I tried seven suits on). During the interview, I found out that no one there uses a suit, except when they have to talk to the authors of the reviews. Which knowing the way most scientists dress, is a bit of a laugh. The interview proper took about two hours, with questions about: the journal (I was applying for position of assistant editor, which is just correcting errors and rewriting), immunology, my CV and the usual personality stuff. They cross-examined me, i.e. asked the same question twice with some time in between and with slight modifications. They asked me the name of immunologists who had taught me seminars four years ago. They asked how much percent of my PhD left I had to write. They asked which was the latest issue of the journal I had read, and the name of the authors of the paper. Etc. They had a third person there solely to write down what I said. I found out later that most of them came to Elsevier after a few years post-doc and so are all scientists.
After the interview, I still had to do a 20min copy-editing test and then talk informally with the publisher and some other people who work there. I think the interview could have gone much better, but was all right. No idea about the level of the other candidates.
Am going to Portugal on Tuesday, and will find out there whether I have got it or not. So still don’t know if I’m coming back in one, two or several weeks time.
It is funny how your life can go from being quite structured to completely unknown in less than a week.

New Dylan Moran joke?

You know that one where Dylan Moran talks about fellating a smurf... Actually not his funniest, I thought, but he ruffles his hair in that sexy way while saying it so it's still great.
Well, UNICEF has gone one better. Here's a link to the full ad that all the papers are talking about. Warning: this ad might shock anyone who uses to watch the smurfs as a child.

http://video.cgi.cbsnews.com/vplayer/play2.pl?type=wmv&id=938023n&ord=20613043.31771475

Hope you can open it!

Meanwhile, another long period without updating. Went for another climb at the Westway. Have been finishing lab work and trying to tidy three years worth of stuff. Am going to see one of my Capoeira teachers do extreme fighting on Saturday. And all of you, keep your fingers crossed for me on Wednesday! I now have to go and buy a suit, though. Am looking for one like Jackie Brown buys in the Quentin Tarantino film, just before everyone starts shooting their heads off. Any ideas of where I can get it?