Long time, no say.

Since I've hardly posted anything here since before the summer holiday, I'll give a summary of some of the stuff I got up to.

First, I went with some fellow category theorists to Calais, for a conference. This was a really great experience. I was pleased to find that I could (with a little effort) follow most of the talks, and reconstruct those that I hadn't followed at the time. The range of topics was extraordinary, and all were extremely interesting. The main problem I had was with seeing the motivation of some of the talks; the speakers were addressing problems which had arisen slightly before I got involved and which I hadn't come across.

The other great thing about this conference was the opportunity to get to know some of the other students in the category theory community. Some were friends with whom I'd lost touch, others were completely new. It was good to spend time with people who care about the same mathematical issues. I can't wait until this conference rolls around again. Excitingly, there will also be a major category theory conference in Cambridge next year, in honour of Peter Johnstone and Martin Hyland.

Shortly after this, I visited Wales with some friends. We stayed in a youth hostel, and went on several enjoyable walks. The scenery was beautiful, and the weather mostly stayed fine, though we did get lost in the mist at one point, where the path disappeared. Thankfully, the land was sufficiently bumpy that we were able to find our way by navigating by the contours.

From there I went on to join the trinity lake hunt. This is a glorified game of tag over an area of a few square miles in the heart of the lake district. A few runners, designated 'hares', are given hunting horns and a half-hour head start. They have to blow the horns every couple of minutes and try to avoid getting caught by the 'hounds', that is, everyone else. Since I was only able to be there for a couple of days, I was made a hare: An exhilerating experience.

Finally, after a little time at home, my family and I spent 2 weeks in Scotland (my brother was only able to make the second week). We spent our time on gentle walks through the beautiful and diverse landscape, with some pauses to admire the birdlife and other wildlife. We saw a glut of eagles on Mull and were particularly thrilled by a close-up sighting of red-throated divers fishing in the sea.

Since then I've been in Cambridge, working on my PhD and amusing myself in between times with various other activities, which I'll discuss in the next couple of posts.