I had managed to keep a low profile for the last week or so, by being in France, but there really was no avoiding it today. Welcome back to them all anyway — after all, they are why we here. (Yes, I do believe that still.)
We’re all working away in a hole one way or another. Question is, I guess, can we make the most of our time in there?
2,222 days is a good number. Here’s a shot featuring another good number, one I invoked right back on day one of this blog. As I’ve never changed the (domain) name, ‘Being 42’ this blog remains, despite its title being six years out of date. And to mark day 2,222 here’s the gravestone memorial to the man who publicised the notion that 42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything, the author Douglas Adams (died aged 49…), in Highgate cemetery. A very fine spot that I had not visited before; bringing to an end a fine 24 hours in London.
From France to London, for a birthday treat deferred four weeks but worth the wait — LCD Soundsystem at the Alexandra Palace. If you don’t know this band, you really should. However, this picture is taken pre-gig: by the time Mr Murphy and co. came on, I was dancing too much to get a decent shot of it.
Told you the sea came in…. the fort out there is the spot from where I took yesterday’s photo, at low tide. At high tide, and high winds…. wear waterproofs while walking along the sea front at St. Malo.
St Malo is on the northern coast of France, close to where the coast of Brittany takes a turn to the north and becomes Normandy. The old town is behind a complete ring of 17th century fortifications built to defend against the nasty English and Dutch. The tidal range here is extensive, some 45 feet between high tide and low; the broad beach you see here is completely covered by several feet of water twice a day.
All the travel hassle did eventually get me to the destination, namely the 2017 European Conference on Information Literacy (ECIL). In the past this has been responsible for the appearance of Dubrovnik, Tallinn and Prague on the blog; this year we are in St. Malo, France, a beautiful town, of which a picture will appear at some point I am sure. But for now, some work. I am the keynote speaker this year so I’d better show willing.
Thanks to the problems depicted yesterday, my connection in Guernsey could not be made, so I was here for the night and the morning after. But there are worse places to be stranded for a night I suppose.
Other small islands featured so far on the blog (that is, islands like Guernsey, and not islands like Great Britain, or Honshu): Kangaroo Island, Stradbroke Island (Australia); Stewart Island (New Zealand); Wayasewa and Wayalailai (Fiji); Kvaløy, Snilstveitøy, Tromsøya, Sotra (Norway); Æbelø, Fyn, Sjælland (Denmark).
I was supposed to be flying to St Malo in France today, for the ECIL conference (which in past years has been responsible for the appearance of Dubrovnik, Tallinn and Prague on the blog). However, what you see here is the aftermath of the reason why I have only thus far made it as far as Guernsey in the Channel Islands. There I was meant to change planes, but we ended up departing five hours late from Manchester as, when the first plane began pushing back away from gate 21, its wingtip managed to spear the catering van you see here in the centre. So off we passengers all toddled and returned to the terminal, while (count ’em) eighteen people, including a whole slew of hi-vis and two fully armed coppers stood around doing not very much that could be seen as productive. Nice to see so many people gainfully employed by such a cockup. So that’s me in France 24 hours later than scheduled then — just as well I wasn’t down to do my keynote speech on Monday morning.
Being 42 