Wow! I won first prize and a bottle of champagne at last night's Comedy and Curry party at Ealing Lawn Tennis Club in a conpetition to name a slogan for either a party or leader in the coming election. My entry was "Vote Clegg for a well hung Parliament!"
The Party is welcome to use this slogan in promotional materials as my modest contribution to the cause!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Best laid plans
Darmstadt is a small, well ordered German city about 30 minutes south of Frankfurt. It has a university population of about 30,000 students and I have been lecturing on a postgraduate housing course there for a week (12-16 April). The students are from all parts of the world; Asia, Africa, eastern Europe and both north and south America. They all did extremely well in a two day planning and design exercise and the week ended with me having to mark them and, interestingly, them assessing me. The fact that my contribution to the course was well received had nothing to do with the fact that, having treated them throughout as professionals, I had invited them to mark themselves. Being accomplished professionals, they naturally awarded themselves high grades!
My flight home was due to leave Frankfurt at 6pm on the Friday afternoon, but by Thursday morning, news of a massive volcanic eruption in Iceland had closed all UK airspace, threatening my return home. The websites all confirmed this on Friday morning and with German airspace also closed for the foreseeable future, the flight was duly cancelled.
Frustration was put into perspective when my host (I was staying with a South African staff member at the university and her parents) had to take her father into hospital and was later informed that he was seriously ill and the prognosis was not good. At least I could hope for a positive outcome in the near future, whereas for my hosts, things looked much less benign.
When classes ended on the Friday, the students kindly invited me to join them for a beer in the park and, having given up on travel, I met up and we had a pleasant evening ending at a new pizza restaurant where I returned the compliment by buying a bottle of wine to share. It’s encouraging to see students from all parts of the world getting on well and learning about each other’s interests, cultures and ambitions.
Saturday morning was spent checking websites, exchanging emails and nursing my dying mobile phone battery. About noon, I set off for Frankfurt airport hoping to find out about options. A very helpful woman in the information desk told me there might be a bus leaving the same evening for London Heathrow and even phoned the company to enable me to confirm a seat!
Waiting for the bus and typing this at the departures terminal, I am struck by how people respond to the unexpected. There was an atmosphere of calm throughout the airport. Nobody was in a rush – there was nothing to rush for. Groups were chatting and laughing, while others ate or took photos of the empty airport (where were all the planes?) and the departures board (all cancelled!). The airport authorities have apparently provided beds and food for those stranded in the transfer section. Kids were entertained with balloons and a TV crew were wandering around looking for stories. They filmed me and came across to ask on camera what I was waiting for. When I said to go to London, they expressed sympathy and asked how I was coping. When I said all was well and I was leaving by bus the same evening, they immediately lost interest. Clearly, good news was not what they were after, yet what impressed me was how well everyone reacted. Maybe it was nature’s way of bringing us all down to earth (sorry!) or, as John Lennon said, life is what happens when we’re busy making plans.
My flight home was due to leave Frankfurt at 6pm on the Friday afternoon, but by Thursday morning, news of a massive volcanic eruption in Iceland had closed all UK airspace, threatening my return home. The websites all confirmed this on Friday morning and with German airspace also closed for the foreseeable future, the flight was duly cancelled.
Frustration was put into perspective when my host (I was staying with a South African staff member at the university and her parents) had to take her father into hospital and was later informed that he was seriously ill and the prognosis was not good. At least I could hope for a positive outcome in the near future, whereas for my hosts, things looked much less benign.
When classes ended on the Friday, the students kindly invited me to join them for a beer in the park and, having given up on travel, I met up and we had a pleasant evening ending at a new pizza restaurant where I returned the compliment by buying a bottle of wine to share. It’s encouraging to see students from all parts of the world getting on well and learning about each other’s interests, cultures and ambitions.
Saturday morning was spent checking websites, exchanging emails and nursing my dying mobile phone battery. About noon, I set off for Frankfurt airport hoping to find out about options. A very helpful woman in the information desk told me there might be a bus leaving the same evening for London Heathrow and even phoned the company to enable me to confirm a seat!
Waiting for the bus and typing this at the departures terminal, I am struck by how people respond to the unexpected. There was an atmosphere of calm throughout the airport. Nobody was in a rush – there was nothing to rush for. Groups were chatting and laughing, while others ate or took photos of the empty airport (where were all the planes?) and the departures board (all cancelled!). The airport authorities have apparently provided beds and food for those stranded in the transfer section. Kids were entertained with balloons and a TV crew were wandering around looking for stories. They filmed me and came across to ask on camera what I was waiting for. When I said to go to London, they expressed sympathy and asked how I was coping. When I said all was well and I was leaving by bus the same evening, they immediately lost interest. Clearly, good news was not what they were after, yet what impressed me was how well everyone reacted. Maybe it was nature’s way of bringing us all down to earth (sorry!) or, as John Lennon said, life is what happens when we’re busy making plans.
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