Ultra-brief weekend summary
Friday: homological algebra lecture. Think I might be starting to get it now. To QM, to help out with the People and Planet shaving-heads-for-Children-in-Need thing. My role was money-collector and clipper-use consultant. Despite the promised 9pm start, we actually started nearer 11, and finished way way late. Home, sleep.
Saturday: up, panicked last-minute packing, dash to Queen Street (we shouted the name at the taxi driver about four times before he deigned to understand us). Train trip to Cambridge, on which I met a linguistics student, whom I asked about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis ("well, it's more sociolinguistics, which isn't really what I do, but..."). It seems the Stockholm anti-SWH bias is not worldwide. Then, a nice walk through Cambridge (apart from the loss of my hat), to the house of Gill, which was filled with joyous people who I hadn't seen in far too long. Don the old soup-and-fish, and then off to Saf's 21st birthday party! At which many many lovely people who I hadn't seen in far too long were present! Hurrah!
I've been trying for the last couple of days to think of a party I've been to that I've enjoyed more than Saf's magical masked ball of joy, and I don't think I can. My own 21st, the Full Moon party I went to in Kho Pha Ngan, Balliol Summer Event in 2000, the Ladpad housecoolings, and the Prior-Jones Penguin Party come close, but none of them exceed it. So: Saf's party was the best party I've been to in a lifetime that has been dedicated largely to hosting* and attending excellent parties. It rocked. The food and drink were great, there was a ceilidh band (and I actually danced most of the dances, and what's more enjoyed it), there was a FREE BAR, there was a lovely setting, and most of all, the company was excellent. I was surrounded by countess_rezia and antoniabaker (first time I'd seen them since they got together, and they're just as lovely together as I'd suspected), steerpikelet, sebastienne and Sian (sorry, don't know her username) [Edit: and neoanjou, who said nice things about my blog :-)], which was lovely, and before and afterwards I got to talk to or dance with pretty much everyone (apart, alas, from Saf herself, who was in full-on organisy mode, sushi_radical, whom I'd been looking forward to meeting, and half_of_monty, who was much missed). We were kicked out of New Hall at about 2, then we went back to the House of Gill, drank some more beer, had a great conversation with Sian about the Welsh rugby team, and collapsed into bed somewhere between 4 and 6am (that bit's a bit of a blur).
Sunday: Awoke at about 1030, then slowly gathered faculties and had a read-through of some of The Adventures of Stoke Mandeville, Astronaut and Gentlemen, before heading out for a long brunch at Wetherspoon's and the rest of the read-through. Mmmm, brunch. Mmmmm, b33r. Hurrah, people enjoying one of my favourite plays. Then I went to a camping shop with Gill et al, and bought a new hat to replace the lost one. It's made by North Face, who make me a bit suspicious by the aggressiveness of their marketing, but it's a nice hat, and it's RED. Then we went back to the House of Gill, watched some Star Trek, then went over to the House of Light Entertainment for a rehearsal of The Matrix: The Pantomime. I cannot describe just how good that's going to be. Then there was lovely curry, made for us by short1sandwich and r_e_mercia, then home. A largely sleepless night, filled with kittens walking over me.
Monday: Arose at 0645, drank tea until things started to come into focus, said goodbye to Gill (who was poorly - send her sympathy), then packed and walked to the station. Long long train journey back to Glasgow, punctuated by attempts to understand the various definitions of abelian category (each equivalence theorem is easy, but there are so many of them, it's hard to get a sense of the structure). Met at the station by the lovely wormwood_pearl, then back to the department just in time for my flatmate's lecture on André-Quillen homology. My office-mate Martin said that he had some exciting news, but wouldn't tell me until after the lecture. "Oh, are you getting married or something?" [Pause] "Well, that's just taken all the excitement out of it". So the raclette evening that Philipp had planned for that evening served double-duty as an opportunity for us to congratulate him :-)
Blimey, that was a busy (not to say bloody fantastic) weekend. I'm off to do some marking. Or possibly have lunch. Yes, wouldn't do to mark on an empty stomach.
* This may be presumptuous, but parties I host myself do tend to be full of my friends, who are all lovely people, and this is always the most important factor, at least as far as my enjoyment of the evening is concerned. And I think the guests tend to enjoy them...
Saturday: up, panicked last-minute packing, dash to Queen Street (we shouted the name at the taxi driver about four times before he deigned to understand us). Train trip to Cambridge, on which I met a linguistics student, whom I asked about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis ("well, it's more sociolinguistics, which isn't really what I do, but..."). It seems the Stockholm anti-SWH bias is not worldwide. Then, a nice walk through Cambridge (apart from the loss of my hat), to the house of Gill, which was filled with joyous people who I hadn't seen in far too long. Don the old soup-and-fish, and then off to Saf's 21st birthday party! At which many many lovely people who I hadn't seen in far too long were present! Hurrah!
I've been trying for the last couple of days to think of a party I've been to that I've enjoyed more than Saf's magical masked ball of joy, and I don't think I can. My own 21st, the Full Moon party I went to in Kho Pha Ngan, Balliol Summer Event in 2000, the Ladpad housecoolings, and the Prior-Jones Penguin Party come close, but none of them exceed it. So: Saf's party was the best party I've been to in a lifetime that has been dedicated largely to hosting* and attending excellent parties. It rocked. The food and drink were great, there was a ceilidh band (and I actually danced most of the dances, and what's more enjoyed it), there was a FREE BAR, there was a lovely setting, and most of all, the company was excellent. I was surrounded by countess_rezia and antoniabaker (first time I'd seen them since they got together, and they're just as lovely together as I'd suspected), steerpikelet, sebastienne and Sian (sorry, don't know her username) [Edit: and neoanjou, who said nice things about my blog :-)], which was lovely, and before and afterwards I got to talk to or dance with pretty much everyone (apart, alas, from Saf herself, who was in full-on organisy mode, sushi_radical, whom I'd been looking forward to meeting, and half_of_monty, who was much missed). We were kicked out of New Hall at about 2, then we went back to the House of Gill, drank some more beer, had a great conversation with Sian about the Welsh rugby team, and collapsed into bed somewhere between 4 and 6am (that bit's a bit of a blur).
Sunday: Awoke at about 1030, then slowly gathered faculties and had a read-through of some of The Adventures of Stoke Mandeville, Astronaut and Gentlemen, before heading out for a long brunch at Wetherspoon's and the rest of the read-through. Mmmm, brunch. Mmmmm, b33r. Hurrah, people enjoying one of my favourite plays. Then I went to a camping shop with Gill et al, and bought a new hat to replace the lost one. It's made by North Face, who make me a bit suspicious by the aggressiveness of their marketing, but it's a nice hat, and it's RED. Then we went back to the House of Gill, watched some Star Trek, then went over to the House of Light Entertainment for a rehearsal of The Matrix: The Pantomime. I cannot describe just how good that's going to be. Then there was lovely curry, made for us by short1sandwich and r_e_mercia, then home. A largely sleepless night, filled with kittens walking over me.
Monday: Arose at 0645, drank tea until things started to come into focus, said goodbye to Gill (who was poorly - send her sympathy), then packed and walked to the station. Long long train journey back to Glasgow, punctuated by attempts to understand the various definitions of abelian category (each equivalence theorem is easy, but there are so many of them, it's hard to get a sense of the structure). Met at the station by the lovely wormwood_pearl, then back to the department just in time for my flatmate's lecture on André-Quillen homology. My office-mate Martin said that he had some exciting news, but wouldn't tell me until after the lecture. "Oh, are you getting married or something?" [Pause] "Well, that's just taken all the excitement out of it". So the raclette evening that Philipp had planned for that evening served double-duty as an opportunity for us to congratulate him :-)
Blimey, that was a busy (not to say bloody fantastic) weekend. I'm off to do some marking. Or possibly have lunch. Yes, wouldn't do to mark on an empty stomach.
* This may be presumptuous, but parties I host myself do tend to be full of my friends, who are all lovely people, and this is always the most important factor, at least as far as my enjoyment of the evening is concerned. And I think the guests tend to enjoy them...