Day 25

Not exactly a day of rest, but was good to be out and about. I ran the children’s programme this morning, but nothing was organised or arranged, so a somewhat impromptu discussion for some lively children. Still, I think I got the message home. Not too bad thinking on my feet.

There’s lots I’d like to discuss about today and some of the people we met. Suffice to say that one individual had decided to head back home after several years in Kazakhstan and was going to go with a bang, but actually came very close to doing time. They reckon their age saved them. In the UK we have a lot more freedom than you might think. So being careful is not second nature, albeit possibly a part of growing up in the UK society where we fall into the preset rut of rules, but has to be practised here. The problem is this question of “how much is too much” for an open forum. It was refreshing to interact with likeminded individuals. We went over to another Doug’s for the afternoon meet and I remembered that this was the place I visited last year.

On the note of “how much is too much”, we were at Café Rafe in between meetings and noticed that most eating establishments have TVs. Whilst the children were making pizza, we saw on the Discovery Channel highly suggestive or extreme horror adverts. We remarked on how silly it is on one hand to take such prodigious care of children for their physical safety and on the other hand show really inappropriate material in a family orientated restaurant. I will have to enquire why they do this and how rude it will be if I ask them to turn it off.

Extensive lectures, tutorials and labs tomorrow and Tuesday. Mostly prepared. Once done, I can start focussing on the other fun stuff. Research strategy and Advanced Material PhD programme.

Ray