I got back a few days ago from a conference in England. Leading up to the trip I was rather nervous about it, as I had not done any travel that strenuous since my diagnosis. My last trip to Europe, a few months before my diagnosis, went very badly. (I ended up in the emergency room in Liechtenstein. I recommend the little hospital there, but it was not how I wanted so spend my summer vacation.) Anand and I decided that he would come with me to handle logistics and be on hand in case anything went wrong. As it turned out, nothing did go wrong, but I was glad for his help.
The conference was Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, held in the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. It was brutally hot the first day, so they gave out fans along with our name tags. After the first day they moved us to air conditioned rooms in another building, much to our relief.
I gave my keynote address on the third and last day. I was a bit unsure about it beforehand, not being confident that I had the energy to give a good talk. In the moment I did find energy and focus, and I think the talk was well received. Meanwhile, I was very pleased to reconnect with some colleagues and to meet some new ones.
From Reading we went on to Headington, outside Oxford, to visit some friends who have recently moved there. Headington is known for being the home of C.S. Lewis and also for an unusual sculpture (pictured).
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| A Headington landmark |
We managed to see a bit of Oxford (pictured) and to take a short walk on the Ridgeway, an ancient trackway going back to neolithic times (pictured).
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| The Radcliffe Camera at Oxford |
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| Walking on the Ridgeway |
I also did a lot of resting. That's obligatory for me these days.
