Who is it?

I'm not sure what happened this evening... I have been solely on youtube for the last 8 hours watching Michael Jackson music videos.

I went to get something to eat, which involved me walking past some sit-down dinner in my pyjamas. I see no reason for me to change just for a 3 minute dash to a convenience store in the same building- regardless of whether or not the most efficient route goes via a dining hall.

There was only one talk today. I didn't understand any of it. So I stopped listening and thought about something else. I am more hopeful for tomorrow's talks though. And if not.. I know where my "off" switch is...


I really like the video to "Who is it?" http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oPZ_Ssop2Jg&feature=related Everyone should watch it and appreciate just how beautiful Michael is.

Pregnant Belly

I have arrived in Edmonton. I have to say that I am impressed with my travelling ability. It seems I am much more competant than I gave myself credit for.. I haven't died once on this trip!

It was quite sad to leave Banff; it really is a beautiful place and I can honestly say I had a fantastic time there. The plane I flew from Calgary to Edmonton was tiny and there was alot of turbulance- but I actually found that really fun. I am not sure what is protocol outside of England but a pregnant lady told me to touch her pregnant belly on the flight:

Lady: "Do you want to feel?"
Me: "Erm.. no.. thanks"
Lady: "Go on!"
Me: "Ok.. yes... very nice."

I only touched it with one finger and I think she thought that was weird. Mercifully that ended the conversation for the flight. Honestly that kind of behaviour just shouldn't be allowed. It wouldn't have happened on a domestic flight in the UK. British people understand what is acceptable travel conversation and that almost never involves touching stomachs. .. or actually speaking for that matter. I'm not sure what my response was supposed to be? "Gosh yes, that feels like a mighty healthy foetus you have there" or "Well done, you're pregnant and are far as I can see... no sign of a husband!" Actually, maybe she shouldn't have been flying if she were very pregnant, but I suppose she was just a bit fat as well.

My room here is great. I have a map of Edmonton and so I may venture out of my own accord in a bit. Afterall, I am an adult.

Oh Canada

I arrived in Banff, after some horrific travelling (I missed a connection in Denver due to a delayed flight and so didn't make it to Banff until well after 1am). Although, so far it has been completely worth it. The conference is very exciting. I actually got to see Claire Voison speak! This morning Claude Sahhah spoke and I was completely enthralled by him. He finished on the most interesting thing I have heard all week:

Theorem: Let (H,F*, Del, S) be a variation of polarised Hodge structures of weight w on A^{1}\{p1,..pr} then the Fourier Laplace transform is a variation of polarised wild Hodge structures of weight w on A^{1}\{0} which is irregular singular at infinity.

Wow. This afternoon was the free afternoon and I went with some of the postdocs and younger lecturers to go on the Banff Gondola. The views were spectacular! Then we rented historical bathing costumes (they were very amusing, but covered all manner of bad areas of ones body that reveal you do not go to the gym) and went into the hot springs. It was so paradoxical to be sitting in a hot spring semi-naked at the foot of a snowy mountain. Beautiful. (Although on the negative side it was a place where one can easily develop a cold). We then walked down to moutain back to the Banff centre... the one day where we actually earned our meal!

On Friday I fly from Calgary to Edmonton for the second conference of my stay in Canada. The talks look very exciting and I am thrilled to be asked to go.

Bear Attack

I am at home now. I have been since Saturday. I have to leave for Canada on Sunday and I do not think I am competant enough to navigate transfers and things. Oh god.. I am going to be lost somewhere in Colorado when I miss my connecting flight...

I booked a flight between Calgary and Edmonton today and I didn't see fit to write down any of the flight details.. I also have not received a confirmation email. I wonder if I have actually booked anything .. or maybe I just dreamt it. I will have to work out some way of dealing with this... maybe I'll just leave it. I always like that option.. although the guilt disrupts my sleep. Last night I woke up because I dreamt that supervisor #1 told me my dissertation was awful and he was very disappointed. I imagine he is... and he will tell me when I meet him at Banff and I will be unable to escape for 12 days from the wall of disappointment. I have my contingency plan of taking Poirot with me.. then if things get too bad I will look myself in my room and watch the same episodes over and over and over again... Interestingly this is exactly what I am doing with my time at home.

I probably need to do some revision. However this is not an option as I haven't even brought my notes home with me. Anyway if they were here they would just be sitting in a corner and I wouldn't touch them... at least this way I have more floor space.

I hope I see a bear in Canada. Not from a dangerous vantage though. I saw one when I camped in the Smoky mountains. That was very exciting. I actually saw a family of them in a tree. The bears were very high up.. I can't believe they could climb so high. I always thought that if a bear tried to attack me I would climb a tree.. but it seems that that plan wouldn't work so well. I'm not sure what I would do if a bear attacked me. Actually, I'd probably just be killed. I am just the sort of person to be killed in a bear attack. It's like if I were in a film, I would definitely be an extra or one of those people that the serial killer murders in the first few frames. I don't think I'm much of a survivor. I hope I don't see a bear in Canada.

um

I am generally feeling low. I noticed an "Oxfam Boutique" has opened in the city centre. I am intimidated by it. I am too shabby to go in.

Hm

They have swapped Softmints for Extra Strong mints in the vending machine. I am not very happy about this.

Algebraic Topology

Today (and yesterday) John and I have spent many hours desperately slogging our way through the Algebraic Topology homework, which consisted of many proofs about degree theory. Some proofs were easy and some were... well.. didn't fall out so nicely. The one we seemed to get very dirty with was showing that the degree of a reflection in a hyperplane was -1. In the end we "did it" using a suspension of the reflection map. I believe it...

And now it is back to MAPLE. I hate the collect function in MAPLE. It won't do what I want it to namely collect together products of variables. This is most infuriating and I have had to completely rethink my plan of attack.

I really want to see a guinea pig sneeze. Wouldn't that be adorable?!

In fact, I just searched for it on YouTube. And unsurprisingly there are videos of Guinea Pigs sneezing.. I suppose this will be the activity for the rest of the evening.. to systematically work my way through them!