Journey to the Edge of the Fringe

Monday

This week’s going to be a little truncated.  Actually it was looking like it was going to be even more truncated than I expected, but an emergency family trip for today has been called off at the last moment.  Actually a little glad as I’ve got a lot of little things to sort out today.  I need to polish my conference presentation for later in the week, check my travel itinerary, finish reading an ILL book and do a bit more transcription too.  I also need to drive into uni tomorrow to use their copy of powerpoint to finish off the presentation.  Shouldn’t take that long, but it’s a bit of a drag.  That said just glancing at the programme can’t actually spot whereabouts on it my talk actually is.  Ah well, it’ll all come out in the wash, and if for some bizarro reason my talk gets spiked – no big tears, as it’s been a useful exercise once again rewriting and thinking about what I’m actually doing.  I’ll also be contributing to the conference blog with a post or two, so feel free to have a read.

Had some time last Friday for family reasons to spend around 6hrs driving, which gave me plenty of time to think about things (and shout at caravan drivers on the A1 naturally), that coupled with a long walk yesterday has certainly helped put some things back into appropriate perspective.

Tuesday

A day of variety, during which aside from a bit of transcription, some hard reading and sorting out travel details for the next few days involved me having to go into uni.  I went there once again to use powerpoint to finish some slides off.  Thankfully my cunning technique of having written all the content at home in LibreOffice resulted in it only taking an hour or so.  Since I was there I availed myself of the photocopier as well before handing one of my ILL books back in.  Saves me another trip on Monday when I suspect I’ll be somewhat shattered.

Frankly I’m pretty wasted today before three days of travelling and conferences, so hope my steam can last.

Wednesday

7hrs of travel via public transport to the Repository Fringe 2013 today.  Loved the fact that due to time tables my first train missed a connection by one minute, and then I had to wait 59 minutes for the next train.  To rub salt into the wound the connecting train was at Loughborough for a whole 20 seconds after my train arrived.  Swear I could hear the driver laughing as it pulled away as I stepped out onto the platform.

Other than that, and 90 minutes sat on the floor of an overcrowded train outta Derby the trip was okay, and seemed to take slightly less time than I expected.  But no, it had been 7hrs since I left home.  Home, where the lunch and water I’d prepared to bring with me still are.  Hence as I write this waiting for my host for the conference to appear, I’m more than a little thirsty and hungry.

Sure the conference will be worth it all tho.

Oh, Edinburgh at Fringe time seems like the worst bits of London transplanted north of the border!  Give me Glasgow over Edinburgh anytime!!!!