View from my hotel room last night / this morning:
Answers on a postcard in the comments, please!
By the way, if a colleague tells you that a PI is cursed when it comes to travel, do NOT book yourself onto the same flight as him. Yes, he’s famous for missing connecting flights on two separate work trips, even when everyone else travelling with him managed to make it; yes, the colleague who once switched seats with him on a third trip was the person randomly selected to get booted off an over-booked plane; yes, if your meeting finishes early and you manage to switch to a flight that leaves two and a half hours earlier than the one you were supposed to be on, there will be a massive thunderstorm and then a technical malfunction with the plane door and you will endure a flight sitting in front of a screaming toddler who constantly kicks the back of your seat and you will only get home 20 minutes earlier than originally scheduled. Oh, and your other colleague will kick your ass at Monopoly on your own iPhone, even though it’s the first time she’s played since she was eight.
Oh well, it was a very interesting meeting, and great to meet some of the main collaborators for “my” project’s next five years. Did I mention that my new job is awesome?
Sorry, should have warned you about that. Remind me to go over the buddy system for travel we’ve used to effectively get a gang of people to a conference and back without losing anyone (except for that PI – he goes his own way).
I understand that this PI’s last buddy also failed to make their connecting flight…
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Sorry, but that made me chuckle this morning. I also should have warned you about the travel karma king. Hope it was a great trip anyway!
(Skites) Well…, my view currently — that is, as I write — is from is from a river boat looking across at old town with abbey and cathedral, etc 🙂
Hope you had a good trip.
🙂 sounds like an interesting flight/travel companion…. I’ll draw analogies to travelling with a teen 😉
As for the photo; I guess Quebec City?
Mermaid, it really does sound like I got off lightly compared to others on past trips!
Grant, that sounds lovely! (I had to look up “skites” btw).
Chall, there were a big group of excitable teens behind us on the flight out, but they were pretty well behaved apart from a couple of kicks to the back of my seat as they tried to fit 5 people into 3 seats for some reason.
Oh, and Quebec City is the wrong answer. I don’t know how famous that building actually is, I just know it was the only really interesting-looking building I managed to get a photo of! It was an airport-taxi-hotel-group dinner-sleep-meeting-taxi-airport kind of trip. If my parents hadn’t been staying with us I’d have flown out on Saturday and spent the whole long weekend there on my own dime before the meeting, but sadly it was not to be. Hopefully I’ll get a second chance in a couple of years – the annual meeting for this consortium is going to alternate between Vancouver and the other team’s home city, but I’m not 100% sure I’ll be going to all meetings. We shall see!
well, if it ain’t Quebec city then I guess Montreal… since it looks like an old church and Quebec province has the most (?) old churches that I know of anyways 🙂 And if it is “old church in Montreal” it might be very known to people a)interested in weddings b)interested in historical/religious buildings c)interested in anything built when Quebec was a true French colony ^^
then again, I’m only guessing wildly in the morning before coffee (first day day at work after vacation/long weekend)
Yep, Montreal. Where it was very hot and humid, but also very very pretty. I spent a few days there about 12 years ago and loved it – it was such a shame that the timing of the meeting prevented me from spending more time there. Fingers crossed for 2014!
Oh, so it’s not Cromer.
Anyway, greetings from Norway (about 5km north of Utøya). Been conferencing all week, in a place where a beer costs about the same as a mortage for a small flat.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!
If that PI is who I’m thinking of, ask about the year there was a blizzard in the midwest right when everyone was heading to AGBT in Florida. There are some good stories about cross-Florida driving from Tampa, rental car breakdowns, and the like. 😀
I have moved this conversation to Twitter DM land 🙂
hey Cath, is this the famous red path?or royal vic? would have loved to meet with you 🙂
sorry, no idea…
Hopefully my next trip will be at a better time so I can spend some quality non-work time in Montreal!