The 100th post

Saturday 14 Nov

Yep, this is the 100th post, apparently. So, what to do to celebrate?

1. Sleep in. No.
2. Go to a day conference of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics in Loughborough (about 1.5 hours north) and give a talk, attend sessions, and catch up with some people I’ve met at other conferences. Yes.
3. Find a cache in absolutely wet, wild, and windy miserable conditions in the lunch-break. No. (You were sure it would be yes, weren’t you! I thought about it, though!)
4. Have conversations about maths problems in the car on the way back, which turned into considering simpler cases, which led to me singing a silly throw away snatch of “one is one and all alone”, which suddenly led to the three of us singing all twelve verses of “Green Grow the Rushes-o” (with harmonies)* … which then led to further conversation about the folk origins of such songs and how come the version I learned in the family car as a kid in Tasmania matched the version that Anne and John knew even though it’s old, there’s half a planet between here and there, and there are many variations. Yes.
5. Have a really nice dinner at a nice pub just out of Oxford (the Bear and Ragged Staff, which, as John said, doesn’t describe the personnel ( 🙂 )). Yes.
6. Finally get around to finding the Pole Star by seeing the Big Dipper. Yes.
7. Come home to find a paper has been accepted. No. (Rejected. Bummer.)
8. Decide to not think about 7 just now, because it’s late and I’ve had too good a day. Yes.

* I don’t know what it is about singing in the car that appeals to me, but it somehow seems associated with camaraderie, with friends sharing a long journey in a small space—often in the dark, with the extra atmosphere that that adds—where somehow the car manages to make the singing sound not too bad at all … or maybe it’s just the company, the friendliness and fun that inures you to any discords. Who knows; I just like it.