England!

Well that was one crazy trip to England. It started by ending up in Customs behind Mike and Amy, friends from Murray's lab in Philadelphia who were attending the same workshop. What a nice coincidence! We had breakfast and coffee together and then we went our respective ways.

one night in Oxford...

I took the bus from Heathrow to Oxford and walked to meet my friend Tim at the university. I had a little bit of a tour, talked to some folks, we t touch at Oriel College, and then went back to Tim's place where I saw his wife Heather and their two girls Zoī and Magali. Two highlights of the evening included Tim's shepherd's pie, and an outing to The Bear (Tim's favorite pub).

The next day I gave a talk to a small-but-interested audience and had lunch with a colleague (Kate Watkins) before rushing off to Tim's house and then the train station to go to London.

one night in London...

Paddington Station

I arrived in London and took the tube up to Highbury where I had booked an airbnb. After a 20 minute break to check my email I headed off to the Snooty Fox for dinner and ales with some London friends, and Mike and Amy. We had a good time and even talked a little bit of science, too.

one night in Sussex...

Saturday morning I had breakfast at my airbnb (traditional British fare, including plenty of toast) and then met Mike and Amy for second breakfast/brunch before catching the train down to Uckfield. Our good friends the Farrants picked me up and took me straight to a delicious tea shop. We got home and took the dogs for a walk (and Kathryn rode her new bike). That evening I was treated to a delicious roast dinner and played some games.

three nights in Cambridge...

Sunday morning I hopped back on the train and headed to Cambridge. I met Mike and Amy on the train and we checked into the airbnb we were sharing, and then headed to The Esgle for lunch (and ale). We did some shopping and then headed to the Pickerel for dinner and to meet some of my remaining Cambridge friends. Oh also they had some ale.

The workshop was good! Very busy but I learned a lot. And it was really fun to show Mike and Amy around Cambridge.

A final night in London...

No photos for this, but I had a full cay of meetings at University College London followed by dinner and a final pub outing.

and back home

Home now and still recovering a little. Glad to be back with my Jill!

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Written by Jonathan On In

Washington DC

I'm in Washington DC for the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. My talk is not done yet (eep!) but I think the end is in sight. I'm planning on working on it tonight and much of tomorrow.

Jill is flying in later tonight. This is the first time she's joined me for a conference. I'm really glad she's here but it will also be a bit of an adjustment—I already have "business" meetings schedule for almost every meal. Luckily Jill knows a lot of these folks and so can come along and hopefully not be toooooo bored. :)

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San Francisco

Back in August we had a very nice few days in San Francisco with my parents. We were visiting Jerri, who went to summer music camp with my mom back in the day (~50 years ago!). Jill and I stayed at an Airbnb place near to Golden Gate Park and got a couple of morning runs in. We all took some outings around town, including the art museum and getting to the ocean. It was a nice trip!

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Written by Jonathan On In

Amsterdam (finally)

After a couple of cancelled flights, I did make it to Amsterdam in the end. I used airbnb to book a place—I stayed in Martijn's apartment (he wasn't there, so I had the whole place to myself). It was a lovely building from ~1644: low ceilings, wood floors, some exposed brick, and right on one of the canals.

Martijn was at the beach surfing (!) when I arrived, so he arranged for me to pick up the keys from a coffee shop down the street. I felt a little bit like an international spy: walk off the plane in a new country, walk into a coffee bar, and say "Excuse me, I believe Martijn left some keys for me." I was worried there might be a password but luckily it wasn't needed.

The conference is one of the smaller that I know about, with around 35-40 attendees each year. This is a very different feel than most conferences, which have at least a couple of hundred people, up through nearly 30,000 at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting. The small size means that we can meet in interesting buildings: two days of our conference were spent in the Cafe Sluyswacht (we set up chairs on the second floor; when it's not rented to groups, it just becomes part of the cafe). From 1695 the cafe had a charming lean, uncomfortable wooden chairs, but ample coffee (and beer).

We had a full day outing, which included a tour or a church. My favorite part were the amazing staircases (all wood) that took you from the floor up to the ceiling.

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My last day I went to the Rijksmuseum, which houses an amazing collection of Dutch art. It was very cool to see Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and others in real life. A wonderful collection.

Epilogue: On my way back through Chicago (ORD) I had 2 flights cancelled due to bad weather, and my ticket on a third was cancelled by the airline (they thought I had gotten on a plane flying standby...but I hadn't). I stayed over at a hotel and took a train the next day. What a pain! I was not enamored with United. The weather is out of their control, of course, but customer service is not.

Good ol' United

Good ol' United

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Written by Jonathan On In