Just a spoon full of sugar...

So i've been doing a rather good mary poppins impersonation lately as its been raining everyday here in london! But the wintery weather has provided perfect oppertunities to spend the entire day hiding in the galleries and museums without feeling too guilty! Of course then the huge number of people also flooding the galleries start to drive me nuts and in effort to escape them i end up exploring the depths of the galleries looking at bizarre exhibitions and artifacts. But its been so wonderful to absorb so much art and culture.

Am leaving london for copenhagen tomorrow (sat). I'm really looking forward to it as will attending the icmc conference!!! woohoo!!! Whew their is a massive list of papers and gigs! I can see i'm going to be freaking out at the thought of having to decided which of the dual presentations i can attend!

Barbara who was at marcs at the start of the year (and also at montreal) is one of the keynoters, so it will be great to see her presentation! Plus it'll be great to catch up with the usual folk! Whew, i think its going to be a big week of partying, Oops i mean work.

OzzFest

Ahh a return to the devil of metal's mecca that is birmingham. Thats right the dark lord Ozzy Osbourne (well LOTR sauron as well) is a born and bread brummy. Actually one of his sons still lives in b'ham and was doing dj gigs when i was last there, but i didnt see any advertised gigs this time round. It was so nice to be back in b'ham, even though it was only a few days - although i had forgotten how much of a hard core city it is! I went and checked out my old house and the uni! Nothings changed!

I'm now bouncing around london, spending my days in galleries and cafes, catching up with a few folk, nick tomorrow, roger (who is working in london for 2 months - quite looking forward to our masters meetings in funky cafes), then when im back in london after copenhagen, will be catching up with rick and carole, and lastly kelly, lianne and jason before im deported :OS ho hum!

Hey hey back in the UK!

I’ve stepped out of the tardis into 21st century Coventry and Lady Godiva is still roaming the streets almost 1k later.

It’s been a relaxing part of my trip and great being able to chill out with my mates Jas, Kelly + Lianne doing quite a bit of site-seeing, going up to monkey world (!), tobogganing and seeing some great live comedy.

About to head up to Birmingham for a couple of days where I will check out the uni and old stomping grounds before heading back to London for a week.

Where the bloody hell am i ?

Ok so quickly posting now as the next few days are going to be quite busy.

The last few days have been fantastic. I was lucky enough to have opportunity to meet and discuss stream segregation with Prof Bregman as part of my mentorship, although due to unforeseen circumstances we did not get to spend as much time in discussions as planned. But its not too bad as we are going to continue our meetings using skype :o)

Also got to party down with the marmuts (v cute beasties) at Piknic Electronik on Parc Jean Depard Sunday, and just generally immersing in the plentiful art and culture Montreal offers! But unfortunately I have to bid Montreal au revoir for now. I'm rather sad as its such a beautiful city. Hopefully it wont take me so many years to return next time.

So tomorrow I’ll be catching the Adirondack back to NY to catch my flight to the UK. I’m pretty nervous about going back through customs but fingers crossed my next words will be from somewhere in the UK and not Aus!. I’m due to arrive in NY 10pm-ish, then catch thurs 8.45am flight to Heathrow. Since their are only a few hours between the two trips, I’m not planning on booking into a hotel (I don’t do mornings well and would definitely have trouble waking up and getting to the airport in time!) so I’ll be looking for some luggage storage, then hit downtown for the night! Most likely head back to the village!.

Once I'm aboard my flight to the UK, I arrive at heathrow 8.30pm and will book in for the night, before heading up to Coventry on Friday to stay with my mate Jason and fam :o)

So the next few days will be rather dizzy….

Lemon Sorbet Haze...

Ah Montreal. Its such a beautiful city!
The appreciation of culture in this city is just so inspiring. We went to see the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal perform wednesday night and the sound was amazing. Then last night I hit some nightclubs down st laurent with a few Quebecois natives, and of course the huge francofolies festival which has been running everynight, then theirs the electronicia on the island every sunday which we are bouncing over to. Their is just so much to see, hear and taste!! And I've become addicted to sorbet.

Amidst my ice-y sweet binge today I wandered around looking at architecture, and found some great spaces that were screaming out in silence for sound installations. Perhaps an excuse to return!!
It was also the last day of the SMPC conference. It's been running since monday and was one of the work segments of my trip. It was quite a good conference. Good papers (although i have to say im totally pitched out and my head will implode if i hear another paper on why the min 3rd is 'sad') and quite a few head honchos were present but i didnt bother to schmooze.

I did get to have a quick chat with prof. bregman though, which was great to catch him in person as its only been emails for a few months now. He is such a nice chap and i'm really looking forward to my mentorship with him on monday.

I also had to present my paper on thurs, which was the price i had to pay in selling my soul for a holiday! But the MARCSist party were happy with it, so life is sweet.

Their will be another gathering of MARCSists spreading the word in copenhagen in a few weeks, so that will be great. My presentation happens to be placed straight after robert's, and of course roger will be their. And Barbara who was a great help at the start of the year when i first moved to UWS also happens to be one of the keynotes, so it will be great to see everyone. Also recentely received news from the folks at icmc that they liked my paper and would like to include it in the Springer-Verlag LNCS series :o) Whats better is they are giving me the oppertunity to rewrite it with a limit of 30pgs (icmc was 4pgs!) and its not due till mid nov so hopefully should be able include some new experiments, analysis and discussion!.

Bonsoir!