I finally uploaded some of my better photos from the last few months to Flickr. There aren’t all that many, but I hope you enjoy them. Here are two samples:

My most recent (non-spam) comment was fairly accurate: the author couldn’t see the point of my blog/post. I hope to rectify that with more constructive blog posts, but my limited/non-existent access to the internet is making this rather difficult. If all goes according to plan, I should have more regular internet access as of this week. At that stage more shall be coming on this blog, including a possible design change if I find the time to play with (and perfect) some ideas I have.

For now, though, I can’t even leave you with one of my nicer recent photos. Those live on my internet-less machine at home. I plan to upload a number of photos from trips that took place more than three years ago and got temporarily lost in between hard drive failures. So there is more to look forward to, especially seeing as I *still* haven’t pushed out my thoughts from my trip to Germany last month, or any of my more recent thoughts. (Thankfully, I *did* call my blog Slow Thoughts, but even I didn’t see them becoming this slow.)

So, um, once again, please do watch this space.

Apologies – I have no internet at home, so I am behind on almost all my correspondence. This situation looks like it should be resolved in the next two weeks, but for the time being my sparse posting is likely to continue.

More soon. (Hopefully.)

One of the oddest things that I noticed about Germany was the number of doors I had to fight my way through to get to a toilet. Every (semi-)public toilet that I visited had at least two doors between me and a urinal, and three for a real toilet, irrespective of how inaccessible the bathroom was. In most places I’ve visited, the gents tends to have one door on the outside and some well-placed walls or corners to guard the sanctity of its urinals. It struck me as somewhat odd when I noticed it in the first German bathroom I visited, but every subsequent urinal I found had this same sequence of doors protecting it from the world. Is there a reason for the large number of doors in Germany? Is this common in other places? Please do share.

I’ve just spent a good amount of time travelling all over the show. Just before leaving the US, I went on a two day trip to Amherst, MA to attend a mini-reunion, which was followed by a work trip to Darmstadt in Germany (with a small interruption to throw all my belongings into bags before leaving the US), and finally a much shorter trip to Eton in the UK. My travels in Darmstadt and Eton have both been full of rather interesting occurrences and observations, which will be coming in separate posts as and when I get all my thoughts vaguely organised and my photos off my camera. Be warned, however: you may not be as impressed or struck as I was when these observations first came to me.

It may not be knowledge to everyone in the world, but Massachusetts (and New England in general) is known for its changeable weather. That description accurately captures the drastic differences between seasons (with summer getting to a very humid 30+ degrees Celsius/90+ Fahrenheit, and winter -20C/-10F and colder), but doesn’t prepare anyone for the rapid changes in weather that happen here all too frequently. Unfortunately, most of the changes involve precipitation of some form, with numerous distinctions drawn between different kinds of snow/hail/sleet/”wintry mix”/etc.

Anyway – don’t move to Massachusetts for the weather: whether you prefer hot or cold, you’ll get both. It does allow for very different pictures, though. Look at the following two photos taken from my window:

I just realised that I have three weeks left in the US before I leave for the UK.

This is a rather daunting prospect, because I have obviously done very little in terms of organising my departure, moving, etc. So far, all I have organised are my flights and somewhere to stay in the UK for three weeks. So I have a huge mound of vaguely defined things to do in the next few weeks, on top of all the goodbyes that I want to squeeze into that time…

Wish me luck.

I suppose I should blame myself, but I am definitely being sucked into work too much. It’s what I get for choosing to do an interesting job, I suppose, but I am not convinced I should allow myself to be drawn in too much. Um… end self-absorption.

The point here is that I consider it unhealthy to be too involved in one’s work, and I think I have crossed the border that lies somewhere beyond my definition of “health”. The question at hand is whether I need to shift my definition or adjust my relationship to work? I tend to lean towards the latter, but I am as yet undecided. What think you?

I am off to Orlando on Friday for almost a week on another work trip. The last little while really has been incredibly busy – I can only hope things quiet down once I get to the UK in six weeks’ time. I know for a fact that the next five weeks are going to be chock a block with goodbyes and events, so I am trying to squeeze everyone in before I leave.

This means that if you’d like to see me, please don’t allow me to forget you.

To all my most sincere apologies: I’ve been increasingly caught up in work and my upcoming move to the UK. I’ve struggled to maintain any energy to read many blogs, never mind post to my own. In the last month or so, I’ve done far more travelling than I am used to and have found myself with increasingly less spare time as a result. I’ve managed to squeeze a five-day trip to Florida, eight full days of visits from my girlfriend, a day trip to New York and a six-day trip to the UK into the last four weeks, and definitely feel the need to slow down. Unfortunately, that’s looking unlikely, given that I have a business trip to Florida looming next week. Sigh…

I do have a less whiny personal update, however: I will officially be leaving the US in the first few days of May, so please do get in touch with me if you’d like to see me before I move across the Atlantic. (For those of you already in the UK, I will only be moving properly a week or so later, when I get back from Germany – the travelling won’t quite be finished.)

At some point soon, I will be officially reviving my feeble posting rate. [Please hold me to this.] So please do keep me somewhere near your radar.