I left Oxford at 6am to drive via the Vale of the White Horse, and by 7.30 I was clambering over the grassy slopes of the mountain below the horse, past some really, really black sheep minding the hills. My shoes got soaking wet, and the wind whipped around, but it was worth it for the view above and below. There was beautiful scenery across the patchwork of the Thames Valley, and lots more lovely hedgerowed lanes to meander through. Fortunately this detour brought me onto the M4 which is the easiest access to Heathrow, and did not require any hair-raising zipping on and off interchages to the M25.
Arriving at Heathrow, I discovered the city was shutting down because of the Tiger Tiger nightclub car bomb scare. Luckily Heathrow was not affected, so we flew out on time, to the unfolding story as we arrived in Germany, of the next car towed to the impounded zone for illegal parking. The next day of course came the Glasgow airport car bomb, so luckily Bochum is not on any terrorist´s radar, I would imagine. Hopefully my flight to Dublin tomorrow is not affected.
The conference is now in its second day, my presentation is over, and I´m sure no-one wants details of the latest genre analysis or cognitive theory approach to writing, so I will leave that out. The university is so far out of the city there is no possibility or temptation to slip away for some shopping, so I may break my routine of always buying some interesting clothes as a memento of a conference!! Bochum is "post-industrial Ruhr" which is very solid and serious, although the beer halls last night were full of large German drinkers, plus several groups of young women doing their version of a hen night.
So tomorrow night is off to Dublin, then meeting up with Julia and Shaun on Wednesday.
Arriving at Heathrow, I discovered the city was shutting down because of the Tiger Tiger nightclub car bomb scare. Luckily Heathrow was not affected, so we flew out on time, to the unfolding story as we arrived in Germany, of the next car towed to the impounded zone for illegal parking. The next day of course came the Glasgow airport car bomb, so luckily Bochum is not on any terrorist´s radar, I would imagine. Hopefully my flight to Dublin tomorrow is not affected.
The conference is now in its second day, my presentation is over, and I´m sure no-one wants details of the latest genre analysis or cognitive theory approach to writing, so I will leave that out. The university is so far out of the city there is no possibility or temptation to slip away for some shopping, so I may break my routine of always buying some interesting clothes as a memento of a conference!! Bochum is "post-industrial Ruhr" which is very solid and serious, although the beer halls last night were full of large German drinkers, plus several groups of young women doing their version of a hen night.
So tomorrow night is off to Dublin, then meeting up with Julia and Shaun on Wednesday.
1 comment:
Great that you avoided all the bombs -we read about them in todays paper. I would love to hear more about the conference and your impressions of communication theory etc in europe. Will be interested in Dublin as we will head to Ireland in Sept. Keep up the travel comments xx Lydia
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