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zotzThis is your captain calling
with an urgent warning
We're above the Gulf of Arabia
our altitude is falling
Hmm. A song, i expect, that doesn't make it onto the in-flight entertainment very often. Not that there is any on Ryanair; no-frills about describes it. "Delayed both outwards and returning" describes it fairly accurately as well,
although not by a huge amount in either case. It was good, though. I've always liked flying. The first time I remember was when I was about four, on a trip to Canada. I don't remember the flight out, but I think I do remember coming back on (if I recall correctly) a VC10. This was just a short hop over to Dublin for the weekend, where I met my dad and a couple of his dubious associates for a conference on low-level radiation and health risks.
I flew out from Stansted on Friday and met my dad and his friends at Dublin airport. The bus into town and finding the hostel we were staying in (Mercer Court) were painless and pretty soon we were at DIT registering. This thing has been going for donkeys now and my dad seems to know everyone involved. There was an initial lecture from Steve Wing, who used to work with another epidemiologist called Alice Stewart, who cut her teeth on foetal Xray exposure. She showed that it causes leukaemia, and after many years of vilification, she was even believed. Following this, a bunch of us went out for a drink. Unfortunately, the main thing this proved was that Temple bar on a Friday night is probably an area to be avoided. I could have worked this out for myself, but as usual nobody asked me and it didn't occur to me to point it out until too late. My own stupid fault, I suppose. We did have a nice drink just round the corner from there on Westmoreland Street, but then we went in search of a different pub, and I actually gave up about an hour later before we found one. Not a great success, although the walk home was interesting in a way. I'm 33 now, and I've never felt so old in my life. 90% of Dublin seems to be younger than me, which is quite astonishing. If I go back, I'll take a zimmer frame with me.
Saturday was mainly business, and quite interesting business too. As you'll see if you look at the program, the speakers came from quite interesting organisations. Some of them pitched things a bit wrong - a speaker from COGEMA got very defensive and tried to justify the French nuclear power program, whch took him hopelessly away from the point he was originally trying to make. Others were quite fascinating, and I now think I know what people mean when they talk about genomic instability and bystander effects. In particular, I would like to draw your attention to the case of Professor Yury Bandazhevsky, who has been jailed for eight years in Belarus by a military court. In theory this is for corruption, but most commentators believe that it's really because of his work on the remaining radioactive comtamination following the Chernobyl accident and his criticism of the authorities. There is concern over his health, and he conditions he's being held in. Amnesty considers him a prisoner of conscience.
Anyway, following the business there was a reception with the Lord Mayor in the Manor House. Inevitably, he too seems to be younger than me, which still came as quite a surprise. I was quite taken with his speech, both because it was brief (isn't it nice to find a public official who's not in love with his own voice?) and because it was actually interesting. I was impressed. Then we had a meal next door, at a restaurant called the Fado. Actually, I was a little disappointed in the main course, but the starter and sweet were excellent, as was the wine. And the service. And the building's gorgeous. I was sitting next to my dad's frinds on one side and a woman I didn't know on the other. It turned out she directs (among other things) Horizon documentaries, and has done for years. In fact, I'm partially a biologist, I guess, through watching some of the ones she helped make in the early eighties. She made one a few years ago about Chernobyl. She had a polaroid with her of her standing in front of the sarcophagus. She's far too interesting, and the evening flew by. At the end of it, I went with my dad and one of his frinds from Ayrshire to a pub round the corner from the hostel for a quick pint. The place was full of teenage women when we arrived. The extreme youth of the place is just staggering.
Sunday involved more sessions of the conference, including some talk about the Argus project by another Graham that my dad knows. There was a summing up at the end that raised a few eyebrows (not positive enough about the proceedings for some people's tastes - personally I don't have a problem with grounds for improvement being pointed out, though) and then we all wandered off. the trip back was fairly uneventful. I saw the Ayrshire mob off and then had a quick bite before leaving myself. I decided that Dublin airport reminds me a bit of Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, which was a bit odd. Our flight was delyaed a bit because two people had been supposed to be on the previous one instead. This may have been a mixup in the paperwork, but regardelss of the cause we were about twentyfive minutes late. The flight was quite interesting. We waited just off the runway for an incoming flight to land, and I swear that we started moving forward onto the runway before the other plane had touched down. On landing, we started turning off the runway while still moving at quite a rate - I thought we'd be down to taxiing speed before that happened. Not that planes don't taxi at a fair clip these days. Being after dark, as well, it was easy to spot settlements from the air. I'm sure I could see Cambridge on final approach. I'll have to ask Sarah the Pilot about both of these.
Sign of the times : the little railway they have at Stansted plays a little jingle advertising Go as you get on. A bizarre and incongruous jingle, too. Also, Stansted late on Sunday is surprisingly busy. I was thinking that I should have caught the train down instead of driving, but if I'd been delayed any further I could easily have missed the last train. I didn't get home until one as it was.
Finally, I found out that the accused NTL engineers had visited and decided against moving my cabling on Saturday. They'll apparently be back on the 11th to do it. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
god_dot_com obviously hates me because I'm a bad person. I think that by then it'll be about three months since I had to shift from my room. If I get caught running amok with an axe through Cambridge town centre, you'll know why. Not a good finish to the weekend.
All hands on deck - this bird is sinking
Work today was productive, though.
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no subject
Date: 2002-06-25 05:12 am (UTC)I found
no subject
Date: 2002-06-25 05:36 am (UTC)Long spoons
Date: 2002-06-25 05:53 am (UTC)Maybe I'm being dense but what does that have to do with Old Nick?
note to self: preview comments with html in them before sending...
Re: Long spoons
Date: 2002-06-25 05:59 am (UTC)Re: Long spoons
Date: 2002-06-25 06:09 am (UTC)Are you going to elaborate on this suppin' wi' the de'il thing? Are you planning on selling your soul or summat?
"ahhhhh, my favorite brain soup: cream of nowhere..."
Re: Long spoons
Date: 2002-06-25 07:07 am (UTC)7 or 8 inches maybe?
It'd be a start.
Are you planning on selling your soul or summat?
If it'll get the building finished faster, then very possibly. There's one problem, though - some years ago I bet it on a post-binge non-vomiting competition, and I can't remember who won. I may not still have it to sell.
Re: Long spoons
Date: 2002-06-25 02:03 pm (UTC)"If you sup with the devil be sure to use a long spoon"
Re: Long spoons
Date: 2002-06-26 03:10 am (UTC)