Tim, Martin and Lesley finish off the first day with their presentation. This is the event which has brought me to Edinburgh (and, two years ago, to Maastricht); one of the best and most interesting academic conferences. Pic taken from the floor, literally — while I was speaking just before these guys, someone pinched my chair!
Fourth of the promised five-in-a-row from Manchester, where I will spend about 90% of this waking week. Today was the first day of the two-day “Mapping Information Landscapes” research seminar I have spent several months getting organised and it was good to relax at the halfway point with dinner on the fundholder. Considering I spend a reasonable amount of my working life with these three people (in different ways), none have yet appeared on the blog, so welcome, all.
Here is the second of this week’s series of five guaranteed pictures from Manchester. One reason I am there so much this week is the presence of a group of visitors from the Sociology degree taught by our colleagues in Moscow, and today I took them on a walking tour of the city centre’s more sociologically interesting spots. Here Victor inspects the room in the People’s History Museum devoted to the key moments of industrial action in the UK in the 1970s/80s. This kind of thing is why the Tory Party withdrew funding from this place virtually as soon as they were elected in 2010. Oh, hang on — there is a mistake in that last sentence. They didn’t win the election. They haven’t won one since 1992, in fact.
This morning I was invited to visit the workplace of my friend Simon, on the right here; he is the boss of the Slightly Foxed Brewing Company. I just had an interest in seeing the process of making the very nice beer his company come out with on a regular basis. We started early — the brewer, also called Simon, had started on the day’s batch at about 6.30am. Here, the two Simons inspect a brew that has been in these fermentation vats for a few days and should have been ready to go out, but it is still too cloudy.
Another familiar scene, but these are my habits. Special guest appearances by Mr Steve Grey (right) and a couple from Bradford, so they said.
You’ve seen plenty of photos of me in Moscow; for a change here is a Russian in Manchester, namely Olga, making her presentation at a sort-of conference I organised for them today. I like the way her hand has been caught in mid-gesture. They sure saw Manchester in a diversity of weather today, anyway — wild mood swings from foul to sun to foul again.
As pictured in The Railway. I didn’t ask to take this picture, it’s candid, but you know, sometimes you just gotta use them anyway. Also while I’m 95% certain this guy is called Ian, I can’t be completely sure, so I hope I’ve got it right…
Went to Doncaster Rovers v Brighton today — we won 3-1. A good day out. This picture was taken at half-time. The gentleman in focus (and there is only one) is Dick Knight, the man who became chairman of Brighton in 1997, rescuing the club from the wasteland of the Bill Archer regime. In other words, he basically saved them from oblivion, keeping them going until 2009 when he passed the torch on to current owner Tony Bloom. I think it’s brilliant that he still goes to games as an ordinary fan. I shook his hand today, just because I wanted to say thank you for what he did.
I have reached a nice round number on the blog – day 800. I have updated the Best of the Rest and Stats pages accordingly.
Ketso is the name of this mind-mapping tool, with the leaves and the felt, invented by a colleague of mine (Joanne Tippett) at the University of Manchester (see www.ketso.com). I am using it at the moment in a research project with my colleagues in Bergen, hence my flight there last night. Atle (left) and Cristoffer seem rather confused, which tends to happen with my research projects.
Second, and last, day here at the Högeskolan i Borås, and a very nice lunch at this Indian restaurant with three colleagues, including Ameera, the centrepiece of this picture. It’s been a nice stay here in Sweden, but too short: I hope to be back one day however.
Being 42 