Too much going on!
After finishing the dissertation (March 30th), I was hoping for a reasonably quiet three weeks until the start of the new (and final) term (tomorrow). Well, for that, I should've stayed in Exeter... still, it's been interesting.
I should thank everyone for their birthday wishes, both here on LJ and those who will read this on Facebook. The birthday was relatively uneventful, but the 'birthday treat' was a week later when we (parents, sister & I) went to Stuttgart to have dinner here. It didn't quite live up to expectations - the rest of the family had been there before, a year ago, and thought it was better then. Still, it was an experience to say the least, and certainly not bad.
The next day we went to Frankfurt for this protest march - the motto translates as "freedom not fear", so it was about all the exciting ways in which the German government is pushing for more surveillance and less privacy. 2000 people (as the organisers claim) is not a bad turnout for a relatively obscure cause like this - obscure compared to, say, anti-Iraq-war marches. And it's nice to see that (not necessarily due to this march, although I like to think it's having an effect) this guy, who's the driving force behind many of the surveillance developments, is increasingly coming under pressure even within the government. Mind you, he'd better get told off when he seriously suggests that "innocent until proven guilty" shouldn't apply to terrorists.
Then my great-grandmother died, rather unexpectedly, about a week ago, at the age of 95. She'd been quite ill and frail for about five years, but no one expected it to happen this suddenly. Still, I can't say it's affected me much. I feel relieved, to some extent, as it was getting nearly impossible for my grandmother to take care of her, although it's also going to be hard for her in the short term to cope with the loss. The funeral was on Thursday, so we had to go there (about 400 km from Luxembourg) for a 24-hour rush, getting back on Thursday evening so I could leave for Exeter on Friday morning.
I had two passengers this time, which is always good to make the use of the car worthwhile. It was certainly quite a load - all three front seats in use, and the back of the car filled up to beyond the level of the front seats' backrests. I still only burnt about 70 litres of petrol for the whole trip, which works out to about 8.4 l/100 km or nearly 34 mpg. Not nearly as good as the Prius, of course, which has been getting about 5.0-5.5 l/100 km (50-55 mpg) in mixed driving conditions, but then the Prius is rather smaller.
Next, in about an hour, I'm leaving for Sheffield to interview for a PhD place tomorrow morning, coming back to Exeter late tomorrow evening. Yeah, I'm still not decided on whether I want to take the place or not if the interview is successful, but I want to keep the option open, and looking around Sheffield and the Uni there should help me decide.
And then it's about time to get started with revision, the final final exams aren't too far away and some of them could get pretty nasty.
I should thank everyone for their birthday wishes, both here on LJ and those who will read this on Facebook. The birthday was relatively uneventful, but the 'birthday treat' was a week later when we (parents, sister & I) went to Stuttgart to have dinner here. It didn't quite live up to expectations - the rest of the family had been there before, a year ago, and thought it was better then. Still, it was an experience to say the least, and certainly not bad.
The next day we went to Frankfurt for this protest march - the motto translates as "freedom not fear", so it was about all the exciting ways in which the German government is pushing for more surveillance and less privacy. 2000 people (as the organisers claim) is not a bad turnout for a relatively obscure cause like this - obscure compared to, say, anti-Iraq-war marches. And it's nice to see that (not necessarily due to this march, although I like to think it's having an effect) this guy, who's the driving force behind many of the surveillance developments, is increasingly coming under pressure even within the government. Mind you, he'd better get told off when he seriously suggests that "innocent until proven guilty" shouldn't apply to terrorists.
Then my great-grandmother died, rather unexpectedly, about a week ago, at the age of 95. She'd been quite ill and frail for about five years, but no one expected it to happen this suddenly. Still, I can't say it's affected me much. I feel relieved, to some extent, as it was getting nearly impossible for my grandmother to take care of her, although it's also going to be hard for her in the short term to cope with the loss. The funeral was on Thursday, so we had to go there (about 400 km from Luxembourg) for a 24-hour rush, getting back on Thursday evening so I could leave for Exeter on Friday morning.
I had two passengers this time, which is always good to make the use of the car worthwhile. It was certainly quite a load - all three front seats in use, and the back of the car filled up to beyond the level of the front seats' backrests. I still only burnt about 70 litres of petrol for the whole trip, which works out to about 8.4 l/100 km or nearly 34 mpg. Not nearly as good as the Prius, of course, which has been getting about 5.0-5.5 l/100 km (50-55 mpg) in mixed driving conditions, but then the Prius is rather smaller.
Next, in about an hour, I'm leaving for Sheffield to interview for a PhD place tomorrow morning, coming back to Exeter late tomorrow evening. Yeah, I'm still not decided on whether I want to take the place or not if the interview is successful, but I want to keep the option open, and looking around Sheffield and the Uni there should help me decide.
And then it's about time to get started with revision, the final final exams aren't too far away and some of them could get pretty nasty.