Tags: interview, conference, friends, Aberdeen, barge
Date: 04 December 2008 22:10:30
HD and I went up to Aberdeen today. He had an interview and I came along for the ride really. We decided on the basis of the weather forecast to take the train, but when we left in the morning and it didn't seem particularly icy out I wondered if I'd been making a bit of a fuss. However, by the time the train was north of Stirling I was really really glad we weren't driving - there was a lot of snow to be seen, and a lot of fog, and the further north we got the colder it felt (oh.my.goodness it was so cold!), even while we were still in the train.
Once we had found where HD had to go we grabbed a drink (him) and sandwich (me) then I left him to do the hard work and I plonked myself down in the art gallery cafe and did some work (no, really - I rewrote next week's conference talk AND read some journal articles, so it was very productive). We won't know the outcome of the interview till next week - they are apparently interviewing a number of candidates this week, so although it is very selfish I think I shall pray that all the others are rubbish. I rather liked what I saw of Aberdeen (even though it was cold, grey and wet).
Now we're back I'm catching up on work and programming in pictures to magically appear every day on my other blogs as we're away this weekend. A friend is celebrating his 40th birthday by hiring some barges for the weekend, somewhere in Cheshire, so I shall be packing the thermals and spending the weekend on the ocean wave (or at least the canal wave). My worst ever holiday was a barge holiday, but I'm looking forward to this as it wasn't the barge bit that was the problem before but the particular combination of people. 8 people on one barge for a whole week - I think I was the only person out of all 8 of us who didn't have an argument with at least one other person; the atmosphere was permanently of the cut-with-a-knife variety. This time though it's only a weekend, and the plan is basically to start at a pub, pootle down the canal till we find another, and then pootle back again. I think I can cope with that :)