Mood:
happyWho are blogs for?
Most blogs are written by young people. Such as my inspiration Casino Avenue . I was 57 on 11 January 2004. Nevertheless, I thought I would have a go, although whether I can make it interesting to anyone is another matter.
Sunday: my birthday
A big family meal at home. The grandchildren came. 'Grandad, there's a monster upstairs.' We go upstairs and by then the monster has gone downstairs. A lot of 'This is how we do it in *my* nursery. By the time they had gone, I was pretty exhausted. But it was a nice day.
Monday: Management Group
Drove over to Leicester, took about an hour, longer than usual because of heavy traffic. A meeting of the Management Group of the Political Studies Assn. which I chair. We had our publishers, Blackwells, in for a discussion of our journals which are the mainstay of our income. The market is very uncertain right now with no one quite sure of the implications of electronic publishing and libraries at state universities in the US, our main market, cutting back. But a constructive discussion. Indeed, the whole day was very fruitful, although by the time we finished at 5 I was quite tired.
Tuesday: working at home
My study leave continues and today I was working on the course booklet for the MPA module on the European Union that I teach in Brussels. Weather not bad so we took Hooch the Pooch, Sophie's dog, for a run in the fields at Old Milverton at midday.
Wednesday: Portsmouth
By train from Leamington. The train is delayed by 'a points failure at Stourbridge Junction', but good connections at the underground allow me to make the 11.08 from Waterloo. When I get there my mobile goes and I do an interview for Reuters on the prospects for Tony Blair. (I don't buy the speculation that he is on his way: he wants it too much and he is too smart a politician). On the way I read Food for Thought , translated from the French, giving a Confederation Paysanne critique of modern agriculture. Interesting, but spoils a good case by overstatement. I then switch to a book on free trade which is really a standard economics case in its favour. When I get to Portsmouth we go for lunch in the Guildhall, an attractive building. A Salvation Army Christmas lunch is bizarrely under way in the restaurant. Portsmouth University seems to be doing well: 17,000 or so FTEs and an intelligent use of old buildings and construction of new ones. I give my talk on the CAP which seems to go down well and then we go to a building converted from a Napoleonic barracks/married quarters to discuss the book I writing a chapter for. Return from Portsmouth Harbour: see people streaming on to the Gosport ferry and recall a news item suggesting this might be replaced by an underground light rail!
Electric southern trains are fast but they jump about all over the place. 20 mins. delay into Waterloo, so I miss my connection and get a slower train to Leam, finally reaching home at 10.20 p.m.
Posted by wyngrant
at 6:50 PM GMT
