Posted by Northern_Phoenix on Thu 1 Nov 07, 3:27 PM to Northern_Phoenix's blog.
Just touching a little on the last few days...
The trip home at the weekend was nice, but odd. It felt really strange going back knowing that it was just a temporary little break and that 'home' lay elsewhere, rather than the other way around. While the next three years of my life are obviously going to be based in one of those elsewheres, I think I'm realising even after this short time away that my long-term future will almost certainly lay elsewhere too. Quite where there's no real way to know, but that's stuff for the future anyway.
London was lovely 
Really tricky to pick out anything as an individual highlight, since it was one of those trips that was just good from start to finish... But of course I'm gonna waffle about things anyway, in something of a sequential order. 
Firstly, time spent with someone I have a good deal of time for that wasn't just a quick stolen coffee or chat at a munch. Good company is always a pleasure to have, especially with common grounds there. A little glimpse into the world of MA study was a nice one to have too
Next, the wonderful Judy! Academic celebrity is a slightly strange thing to me but the quality of the talk she gave, both content and delivery, added to the general appreciation of her brilliance. I won't pretend I understood all of it, but I think I grasped fairly well the thoughts she was aiming to provoke (as is her style really, rather than explicit point making).
The general social parts of tuesday night were nice too; vibrant, friendly company who were very engaging. Naturally I slipped into my 'quiet man in a crowd' thing, which is typical but annoying, but that didn't take away from the night at all
Coffee on wednesday morning with someone for the first time was a nice happening too. Long memos seemed to transition well into good conversation (rather than the slightly worse alternative of leaving us both with nothing to say!). The morning seemed to fly by until it was train time.
Finally, there were two very nice compliments sent my way over the course of it all; one about BDSM me and my postings here/attitude, and one about academic me. Especially with the regard I hold the people that gave them in they were immensely flattering things to hear. I'm not self-sycophantic enough to actually mention what they were, but I don't want my gratitude at them to go unmentioned.
Back to normality now though, with an essay to finish bashing out and lots of lovely interesting things to read up on
Phoenix
