Friday 10 July 2009

No wireless in the airport at Dubai

Ok, so here I am in Winchester. The first day of the conference was yesterday and it was very good. Chawton House is amazingly lovely although I am having difficulty mentally separating it from Grand Designs when I look at the stonework, flagstones etc (it was recently restored.) The papers yesterday were good and it's a very friendly meeting, plus whenever the attention wanders (as its its wont when sessions start at 9am and finish at 6.30pm. Today goes to 10.30pm.) you can look around the dark oak panelled room you're sitting in and think that Jane Austen used to have dinner in here or whatever. I even enjoyed tripping over the uneven stairs yesterday because the Austens would have tripped over them before me. Dorian and I have swapped phones temporarily (he's gone to a jazz festival in Lyon) so I'm taking pictures with his phone and I don't know how to get them onto this computer. But there will be photos soon. Also, I have finished my paper, you will be pleased to learn. It's on tomorrow morning, the last day, which is a bit sad because I'd much rather get it over and done with.

It's Friday now and we got to England on Tuesday afternoon. Being dutiful Australians we headed straight to Earls Court, spent a night in a hotel there, and sorted out the rest of our train tickets and suchlike. The next day we wandered around looking at english things, Trafalgarsquarenelsonscolumnhydeparkwestminsterabbeycoventgardenstjamessparkbuckinghampalace etc etc etc, then went our separate ways for more good long doses of public transportation. By the time I arrived here at the halls of residence where I'm staying I couldn't do more than dump my bags and stumble across the road to the pub for a "meal" and a read of The News of the World, which was still all about Michael Jackson. (I appear to have missed MJ's funeral, was it good?)

Dorian is coming to get me on Sunday and were going to some other English places. I shall blog again soon. Flying business class is the best thing ever.

7 comments:

Mark Lawrence said...

Sounds very nice. good luck with the paper. And I hope you work out how to upload the photos from that phone soon!

Melusade said...

Great to hear from you. We're on holidays tonight.

Rob said...

Umm Laura? Flying First Class is the best! I scored Melbourne to Boston and back first class back in 1996, paid for by Australia Post - it was wonderful!

I still don't understand just why it was that we contractors were treated to first class on AP but I wasn't going to argue! :-)

Ampersand Duck said...

MJ funeral highly secret, but the memorial service was 30 seconds of heartache watching his daughter publicly weep and the rest a complete schmaltz-fest that MJ would have adored. In other words, you didn't miss much. Say hello to Peter Pan for him (and me).

lucy tartan said...

Fair enough Rob. I cold see first class and it looked better inasmuch as you had a proper bed. But still, it was very very welcome.

Any other airline interested in upgrading me is welcome to do so.

Rob said...

I'm sorry Laura - that did come across as rather churlish. For what it's worth, back in 1996 first class didn't include anything resembling a proper bed - it was just wider seats, more leg room and better food.

lucy tartan said...

Oh no rob, don't apologise! Nothing churlish at all about your comment.

The being able to lie down and actually sleep in business class was really good, but the food was also a heap better than economy class.

The chairs reclined into hood things, but they also had "massage" points like those weird chairs in shopping centres that you are meant to put $2 into. I will never make fun of those chairs again.