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Month: June 2008

Englandaganza, Stop 4: Oxford

By: | Post date: June 22, 2008 | Comments: No Comments
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View Larger Map Arrived 9:30 at Oxford, got free wireless at the station long enough to download just two junk mails, went to the wrong university building (A) an hour early, and broke the shoulder strap of my bag — all in twenty minutes. Fortunately my colleague Anthony went to the wrong building too, so […]

Englandaganza, Stop 3: Woking

By: | Post date: June 20, 2008 | Comments: 1 Comment
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Oh, Coventry station has a ladies’ lounge distinct from the passenger lounge. Not sure if this was progressive or quaint. Standing room only on the train in from Basingstoke; and none of the reservations made on the training from Coventry corresponded to conditions on the ground — might as well have not booked at all. […]

Englandaganza, Stop 2: Coventry

By: | Post date: June 19, 2008 | Comments: No Comments
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Got to bed at 1 am (now that’s more like it), got up at 6:45 (now that isn’t). Decided to make my way in a leisurely fashion to Gloucester Rd Tube station, and have a regal Burger King breakfast. (There, I did it; I won’t have to do it again for another year now.) Burger […]

Englandaganza, Stop 1: London

By: | Post date: June 18, 2008 | Comments: No Comments
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Hwæt! Ic eam in Engelonde gecuman! Landed in Manchester Or Something Airport (Heathrow Terminal 5), 8-ish. Caught up on email (eek, this is going to be difficult — deluge of stuff, little time to digest or respond). Discovered the Bible Translation into LolCat project; something I identify much too much with for reasons of Klingon. […]

Departing Brussels

By: | Post date: June 18, 2008 | Comments: 1 Comment
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Well, I’m not posting this from Brussels but on arriving in London, coz damned if I’m going to pay TWENTY MOTHERLOVING EURO for four hours’ internet at Zaventem Flemish Airport, to be consumed in an hour. I don’t care if work does pay for it. I’m so disgusted, I think I’ll fly across the English […]

Third Day in Brussels

By: | Post date: June 18, 2008 | Comments: No Comments
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This is written the following day, so it will be telescoped. Work today, at the workshop I was signed up to attend. Didn’t say much during the workshop, and Nigel (who was speaking) had to prod words out of me in public at the end. I am shy and retiring when I’m in an unfamiliar […]

Second day in Brussels

By: | Post date: June 16, 2008 | Comments: 4 Comments
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Euh, one of the results of growing old is that one gets bored of doing tourism fairly quickly; I ran out of steam soon after Grand Place. The highlights of the peremptory tour of Brussels were: The Lonely Planet guide got ignored fairly soon, as I got disoriented. Brussels is tatty and pleasant. A disordinate […]

First night in Brussels

By: | Post date: June 16, 2008 | Comments: 2 Comments
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Of course, the flight was delayed a further 1.5 hrs — by the time I got to the hotel, it was 10 pm. Crashed at 11, woke up at 3, crashed at 6 again, woke up at 9. Hope that’s not a promise of things to come. Massive noise outside my room around 11 pm; […]

Derailed by Dubya

By: | Post date: June 15, 2008 | Comments: No Comments
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Derailed by Dubya The flight over from Hong Kong was the usual zombie-generating hell, like any transoceanic flight really. There were bouts of sleep, wakefulness, and sojourns of drinking blood (there was a nice documentary on The Doors’ first album, which helped with the latter.) In between, I managed to catch up with some Australian […]

Opoudjis in acts of public diplomacy

By: | Post date: June 14, 2008 | Comments: No Comments
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Boarding the flight to London in Melbourne, I overhear the couple with baby in front of me discussing with airport staff their transit to Brussels. The following conversation ensues: ME: Oh, so you’re going on to Brussels too. GUY: Yah. ME: My commiserations. *blink* GUY: ˈæktʊəliː, ai hiːr ɪt ɪz ə ˈwʊndəɹfuːl destɪˈneːʃən. ME: Oh. […]