######################## TRISKAIDEKAPHOBIA ANYONE? ########################

This is update email number thirteen. The next one will come in about
3 months time. I'm a bit haphazard in who I send this to so if you
want it and don't get it or get it and don't want it then complain
etc. Since the last one there's been a term, an internship and a bike
trip around Holland, via Cambridge and some other places. The latter
was absolutely beyond belief, like the Cinque Terre only so much
better on so many levels! More on that soon, but I'm going to do this
in order...

"A term" means some progress in my research, or at least some lively
bouncing from crisis to crisis. At one point, Windows committed
suicide, and I owe an enormous debt to friends in NZ who taught me to
image my disks and use version control. Thanks to that I was back up
and running in less than an hour. I use the linux now, so fingers
crossed it won't happen again. In other news, I have a paper at a
conference in December and I'm sketching (inventing?) a map to the
final thesis. It feels like things are on track, but that the track is
running along the top of a very big cliff. The main problem is that I
am sick of being a student.

I am not, however, sick of being a student in Oxford! Still so much to
do and see and experience! I took up jitsu at the beginning of last
term and did my first grading a week before the internship. One belt
down, nine to go. Is that a useful attitude to have? I'm not sure.
Dance-wise I used to love ballroom above all else, but salsa has
seduced me. How typically latin, but it is just so much fun! Relaxing
and happy and easy and energetic and a gloriously chilled out vibe.
What more could you want?

As always, an amazing collection of speakers came to Oxford. I got to
some (Donald Knuth, David Attenborough) and missed others (John
Howard). Attenborough actually spoke at Exeter College after dinner
one evening, and took questions too. That was pretty cool. His opinion
on climate change? We're doing too little, and doing it too late.
Hmmmm.

The BCG internship was a lot of fun, very intense, and an awesome
learning experience. Not so much in at the deep end as in at the
Mariana Trench. Lots of very sharp people, great environment,
fascinating work. I was responsible for covering the steel industry.
Not something I knew much about, but, like I said, Mariana Trench. I
loved living in London too - parks, shops, theatre, galleries, clubs -
although I didn't have the time to see as much of it as I'd like. I
also helped set a Guiness World Record - "Most entries in a two-person
pantomime animal race". Somewhat obscure, but our horse finished
second of 33 so I'm pretty happy. Anyway, enough preamble - onwards to
Amsterdam!

I don't know anymore if the idea of cycling from Oxford to Amsterdam
and all round Holland sounds crazy or not. It didn't feel crazy doing
it, and it was an absolutely amazing experience, way too much fun!
There is something incredibly satisfying about long distance cycling.
You feel like you've earned the right to be somewhere else, every hill
is a victory, and you're never bored because you always have something
to do and something new to see.

More than that, you really see where you're going, the little changes.
You don't just hop from a one urban centre to another, but see the
progression and flow across the whole countryside. From Oxford to
Cambridge, our first day, you can't help but notice the small farms of
Oxfordshire give way to the increasingly large manor houses of
Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, and the even larger farms of
Cambridgeshire. Then on to Harwich and an ever grimmer succession of
boarded up old fishing villages. Cycling in Holland itself was
fantastic. The same smooth scenic transitions, but no hills, and the
freedom to pick and choose the route and departure times to suit our
interests and inclinations - amazing! No trains to miss, we could go
to any random village and down any path we liked, and it was never a
problem if we slept in or felt like a long lunch. I'm a convert.

We had one night in a hostel in The Hague, but we couch surfed the
rest of it, which was so much better than staying in a hostel. In a
hostel you are surrounded by other travellers. Not a disaster, but I
didn't go to Holland to hang out with Kiwis or Canadians. Couch
surfing is exactly what it sounds like - you're sleeping on the
couches of a local who's happy to host. You can take their advice,
share the cooking (cleaning, preparation) and eat local foods, go out
for a drink with them, meet other friends, and the experience is so
much more vivid! Suffice to say Alex and I both had a great time, are
keen to surf and host some more, and are planning more bike trips,
both big (SE Asia?) and small (Wales?). You should come with us.
Expect some evangelism!

FINIS

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