A week up in the north

After the weekend in Essex, it was time for me to travel up to the north of England, the furthest north I have been so far in the country (and indeed the furthest in the Europe or even in the world!) but this trip was no holiday; I was attending the Simulia UK RUM 2010, or, in layman's terms, a conference...

One thing to immediately comment about: the English love their acronyms! Everything is abbreviated (even the name of their country is reduced to UK). During my first weeks at uni, I was confused by all the jargon involving 2 or 3 letter "words" all over the campus: SCR, JCR, SAF, ICT and all the others related to my work: MOD, DSTL, UD, PUR and what not. Oh, by the way, the RUM signifies "Regional Users' Meeting"; the conference was really a gathering of users from all over the UK of a particular piece of software (ABAQUS, but this is not an abbreviation, as far as I know!)

I was not quite aware of such meetings, until a few weeks back my co-supervisor sent me an email and suggested that I should attend to this 3 day conference. I gladly accepted and, after recovering from a 2 day cold last week, on Monday night, I headed off to the north, precisely to a town called Crewe up in Chesire. I was totally not familiar with the place (except for my knowing of the existence of a Chesire cat, albeit I saw no cats during my stay there) but upon arrival after a 3 hour train journey and reading almost half a novel (which I found quite pleasant - more later), I took a taxi and this took me promptly to my destination: Crewe Hall just outside the town.

Now this conference was being held at the hotel forming part of Crewe Hall and I thought it best to stay at the venue to save on daily commuting time and money. This was probably the best choice made during this week, for the place was simply wonderful. I felt like I was in a set of a Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings movie: an ancient, wonderfully-kept mansion with sculpture, wooden panelling and ceilings, elaborate staircases, low lighting and, of course, excellent hospitality. And the "small single bedroom" I had reserved was absolutely gorgeous: huge, warm, brand new fittings and of modern design. I indulged into the bath and slept like a baby, ready for a week's worth of listening and lobbying and talk.

The next morning, after a power shower, I headed down to the brasserie, where a massive buffet breakfast awaited. And what a breakfast that was! The conference kicked off, with intermittent coffee/tea breaks and lunch, till the evening when the whole group headed off to the main hall for a banquet. The hall was accessed from a labyrinth of high corridors, typical medieval construction, but with elaborate Victorian décor. The hall itself reminded me of that in Windsor (but on a much smaller scale, of course). The food and service were excellent and fruity, Spanish wine was flowing. A good dessert and coffee brought the first day to an end. After dinner, I wandered around the Crewe Hall and took a few shots of the lit façades and the interiors and then headed off to my room for another relaxing bath and a good sleep.

The second day was very much like the first, except that the sessions ended at 4.30pm, which gave me a good afternoon's worth of reading, during which I finished the novel I mentioned earlier. The Botticelli Secret went down quite well, especially since I like historical novels and especially when they overlap fact with fiction in a seamless fashion. After finishing Dan Brown's The lost symbol a few weeks ago, this next book I read was very fitting. In the evening, I headed down to the main restaurant and had a wonderful dinner - warm soup and grilled salmon and vegetables cooked in the most tasty way. I finished the day in the same way as before, but my new read was my revisiting of Huxley's classic Brave new world (though I only managed a few chapters, I must say that the first 1 or 2 are my absolute favourite).

The third day was a day-long seminar which included good lecturing and very practical hands-on sessions. The day came to an end around 5pm (and, by the way, in addition to the buffet breakfast, also had a buffet lunch!) and then I started my long journey back to London. During the trip, I completed Brave new world, which I found, even after having read it again, totally dramatic and was keeping me off my seat with adrenalin. My reflective moods were triggered by Huxley's fictional vision into the future (well, his future is really our present) and this made me start writing down a few ideas of my own. Nothing socio-political, for that is not my cup of tea, but more on these writings will come up in this blog for sure in the future...

Back to London, I was almost shocked to find that in a few days, my "home" city had turned into a wintry scene: all the trees in Lexham Gardens were naked and all the streets were covered in a crunching carpet of autumn colours: gold and yellow leaves all over the place. The light drizzle and quite strong wind helped, but I must say that is far "warmer" here that it was up in Crewe! I was back in the office on Friday and (almost) concluded my transfer report, which will be the official stepping up from 1st year to 2nd year of my Ph.D., which I hope to do before Christmas...

The land of the East Saxons

I never understood why there are areas in England called Wessex, Sussex, Essex and Middlesex. Not to mention failing to understand why there is no Northsex? Ever since I was a child, whenever we sent Christmas card to my uncle who lives in Middlesex, I was mystified by the notion of combining terms for geographical bearings with the 3 letter word at their ends. The meaning was undisclosed upon my arrival to the UK a few years ago (the names are remnants of the old English names for the various kingdoms of the Anglo Saxons). Last weekend, my wife and I headed off for the eastern part of the country - Essex - and this trip included "firsts" on many levels.

It was the first time out of London for October. It is always welcome to flee from the capital and its busy life and spend a few days away from the laptop and not think about work and Uni work.

It was the first time I was on a "HOST" visit. By some serendipitous accident, I found out about this scheme a few months ago, whereby one can apply to go and spend a weekend with a host family, whom the organisation locates for you according to your likings and travel limitations. Once there, the hosts will show around the local area and be introduced to English customs and food. So after the application, all arrangements were done and off we were to Chelmsford, the main town of Essex.

Upon arrival, we were picked up by our hostess (her husband was still at work). We drove to their cosy home outside Chelmsford in Bicknacre and started chatting about our studies and work, Malta, their travels across all over the world and plans for the weekend. The husband arrived soon after and then we had a lovely cottage pie for dinner and after a warm shower headed off to sleep to recharge for a day out tomorrow.

On the Saturday, the weather was absolutely wonderful. Sunny and crisply fresh. We got into the car and headed off to Thaxted in the north of Essex. We walked around the quiet village, its church (more of a cathedral, really) and up to the windmill, which reminded me of the windmill in the cartoon adaptation of Orwell's Animal Farm. Back on the motorway, we headed to another tiny village, Finchingfield, where another first occurred: having English cream tea. A very tasty and anything but low calorie meal of fruit scones, Tiptree jam and clotted cream, all washed down with English tea (or coffee). It was really wonderful but the cholesterol intake made me feel guilty for the rest of the day! A "quick" stop at a massive shopping village forced us to buy a new pair of shoes each and a jacket for me too at great prices, and the day's travels were concluded by a visit to Maldon along the River Blackwater, where we saw a number of barges, which looked very pretty under the setting sun. A drive back home and we had a lovely dinner of chicken and another first (eating swede), accompanied by endless talk and a glass of good red wine. The day was finished off by a good sleep, including an extra hour due to the end of summer time!

The weather on Sunday was less attractive; it was drizzling in the morning. After breakfast, we went off to church and then drove down to Southend-on-sea. Except for the varying tide (which I always find very fascinating and beautiful to photograph), this seaside town reminded me of home but had a particular characteristic: it has the longest pier in the world! A mile and a third to be precise (2158 m if you happen to decipher metric measurements more easily, like me). We walked down the pier, had a quick lunch at the cafe at the end, walked back the pier (in the hope of burning off some of the previous day's cream tea!) and then visited the many amusement outlets along the promenade. It was a pleasant visit indeed! Back home, we had a great Sunday roast cooked nothing short of perfection: pork, crackling (mmm), stuffing, potatoes, parsnips (mmm!!), courgettes and gravy, followed by rhubarb crumble (another first) and coffee.

It was time to head back to London and so our kind hosts drove us to Chelmsford station and after bidding goodbye, started our journey back to London. It was a welcome break amidst the scholastic year and I am sure that "HOST" will be getting another application from us for sure!