Back again

I've been away for a few days on a course in Estonia, on management and supervision of academic research. This has spawned a few random thoughts:

1. If you take your laptop, remember the power cord. It's more important than the mouse.
2. As I might have expected, some of what we were told I had already worked out, but some I hadn't. It's nice to know which is which. There were also a few ideas that I hadn't thought about.
3. Sharing a room with someone who snores is not a good idea. And going down with 'flu isn't sufficient for revenge.
4. Management theory can actually be useful - obviously there is a lot that is common sense, but having it organised does help. In particular, there was a discussion about project management. In classical project management, one sets out the stages that are needed to complete the task (say, build a bridge), and set out the schedule by working backwards from completion, to decide when each task should be scheduled. I guess this is used all over the place, and is one of the reasons western society works (shocking, isn't it?). Working out how to take an organised approach to this sort of task, and then how to teach this to managers is actually a good thing. IOW, MBAs are not necessarily useless.
5. Thanks to one of the speakers, I'm now reading text with a Welsh/Swedish accent. Should I seek medical help?
6. I hope my students don't mind doing a lot of writing.
7. If you find yourself on the M/S Star between Helsinki and Tallinn, don't try the pizza from the fast food place. It's awful (and remember, I'm English, so I know bad food) - a slab of congealed artificial cheese with chicken and battery-farmed pineapple. It was called Hawaij, presumably because they feared a law suite for defamation from the good people of Hawaii. The people of Four Seasons do not seem to have as much of a reputation for litigation.
8. I don't know what happened in the rugby World Cup on Saturday. I think the media must be lying to us. Ah well, an England-France semifinal, just like last time.

Remind me, who were in the other semifinal in 2003?
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In Spain, and bulls

Well, I arrived in Spain OK, via various queues. The wireless in the hotel is working, sort of. Hopefully the university will be better tomorrow.

I flicked through the channels on the TV in the hotel, and came across some bull fighting. Now, being English, and therefore Fond of Animals, this is not something I've ever been greatly enamoured of. But I thought it was worth watching, just so that I knew what was going on. Overall, I can't see it taking off in Britain, although there would be some amusement to be had from them trying it at Headingley, as anyone who's sat in the Western Terrace could appreciate.

I think part of the problem (apart from the sock-down-the-trousers posturing) is that the poor bull reminded me of Jack, the cat. One way of keeping Jack entertained is to wave things around at him, and let him pounce on them, bat them away, chew them etc. The various bull-fighters do something similar to the bull - the main difference being that I have absolutely no intention of sticking any sharp objects into Jack (alas, he doesn't always reciprocate in this). By the end, I felt like I wanted to go up to the bull, put my arms round its neck and give it a big hug. Poor thing. Poor me if I ever try it. The social embarrassment alone would be enough for the bull.

The rest of Spain is better, though. Good food and wine already. I just have to work for it for the rest of the week. I'll try and post some photos of Asturians pouring cider later in the week. Read more!