I seem to ahve been travelling all the time and not having good internet access he3nce the delay in posting.
After the arrival in London it was a matter of getting oput of Terminal 5 - with very few delays despite the awful press that airport and terminal have been getting and then on the tube to London and the flat where my sister Soo and her husband live. The apartment is located very close to the London Eye and so on Saturday my brother in law Mike and I went for a walk along the river and saw this DUKW taking to the river with a load of tourists aboard.
Then Sunday it was off to the airport again and a short flight to Glasgow. The London weather had been Ok but Glasgow was wet and grey and windy and very cold. I met a few old chums at the baggage carousel as we were all in town for the quadriennial congress on Radiation Protection. The buses had all departed whe my bag arrived so after a short queue in the rain it was off to the hotel by taxi. The hotel was on the edge of central Glasgow in an area that was old wharehouses and shipyards etc and is being renewed. The hotel desk person said it was olya short walk to the convention centre. But it turned out to be 15 minutes plus in squally rain and wind to the Scottish Exhibition and Convention Centre (SECC) and register for the event. As a memeber of the programme committee I was quickly processed but the organisation was good and nobody seemed to be waiting long. In view of the bad weather nobody wanted to go back to the hotels so we all sat around and chatted for a while until it was time to walk putside and make the trek of a few hundred metres to the science centre where the opening social drinks do was held. Thye venue was greta witha few of the science staff who normally entertain school children stayng on to entertain us with some games and demonstartions of physics in everyday life - great fun.
But it was an early night after that with the wind and the rain still blowing hard; part of the conference package was a week long public transport pass and that was useful as my hotel was only two stations away and that reduced the exposure to the elements .
The area is being renewed but already there are some new buidlings and offices as well as the SECC itself . That is a Norman Foster design but it does evoke memories of the Sydney Opera House.
The meeting was big with about 1500 persons attending so we had multiple sessions and there seemed to be talks all the time . I was a session chair and rapporteur so I was kept busy. There were a lot of interesting talks as well as many chances to meet and discuss issues with old chums and new and former colleagues from all over the world. The main topics were communication with stakeholders and the aftermath of the disaster at Fukushima.
Although the days were full one aftenoon was devoted to medical issues and so of no interest to me. I went off on a tour of the city on a open top bus - but taking care to sit in the shelter of the front upstairs roof rather than wholly out in the open.
All too soon the week was over and I was off to the sirprt again on Friday night and a frlight to gatwick before a night at ahotel there. Saturday saw me on the drive down to Sussex to look after my father for a couple of days so my other sister and her husband could take a break. Daddy has not been very well and is very frail now but at nearly 98 years old that is not too surprising. We watched the test match cricket and the soccer which saw Chelsea win the European title. Those who have read this blog before will kow that there are a few "wild" birds that come to my sister's front door each day to be fed. The Splendid male pheasant had three female associates as before but now they have been joined by a beautiful pair of partridges as you can see - there are also a few other birds that hang around for free feed including pigeons, sparrows, robins, doves and starlings, thrusshes and blackbirds.
The weekend went and then it was time to be on the road again. Take the car back to gatwick and then the train back to Soo and Mike's in London. They hosted a dinner party for a couple of old school friends and then it was an early night for the enxt day's travel.
0600 Tuesday and I was off to Heathrow again for an early flight to Vienna. The tube from Westminster to Hammersmith was pretty quiet but the Picadilly Line train on to the airport was packed! The check in went OK as it was at Terminal 3 which is a lot easier than 5. Then breakfast in the lounge before a 2 hour flight to Vienna where it was raining when I landed.
The journey to town was easy as always and then the hitel was Ok and before too long I was on my way out to check out the city and meet up with my old golf partner Roger at my old favourite restaurant - the Gulaschmuseum. Dinner was great and the staff were happy to see me back. It was good to catch up with Roger.
The next two days were spent at the old office at IAEA closing my ank account and sorting out work issues with some of my old colleagues and an old friend who is now doing my old job1 We will be having a training course in Darwin in August and we wanted to sort out some of the details; also we got together to plan a meeting in October that will probably be in the Czech Republic to help train some more new regulators for the new uranium mines that are being developed in the world .
Wednesday evening was a very pleasant dinner at a riverside place outside town with friends Russell and Karen from USA who will be visiting Darwin in June for a long overdue visist to Australia. I have been to their place in New Mexico a few times Sadly I did not ge ta picture of the locale..
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