Tomorrow I fly south to Provence. I’m meeting a few friends from The Vintage Club1 to hit the vineyards of Côtes de Provence, Cassis and Bandol, with hopefully a blast up to Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The plan is thus: Swim, drink, eat, drink, swim, drink, eat, repeat.
After seven days, and with a thoroughly marinaded liver, I then blast up to Paris on the TGV for a few days staying with an old friend, and celebrating the recent engagement of another.
This is probably the last guilt free holiday for a few years as I prepare to start my PhD proper (as opposed to the lab rotations of the last academic year) at the end of the month. I truly plan to disconnect, kickback and unwind. I cant wait!
Alumni of The University of Bath Wine Society, aka serious drinkers. ↩
A ship in the harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
I just love this wonderful, hand-illustrated card that Emily made for my birthday last week, bringing back memories of the indescribable Roche Continents.
“Science is what you can get away with.” — Zen Faulkes
“You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe.” —
Carl Sagan. The title of today’s but does if float. Whilst I concur with the second half of the quotation, I feel very uneasy about the first statement.
berezina replies:
“Scientists have faith that the material world can be explained through observation and logic. So do religious people - at least up to the occurrence of miracles - but also have faith in something beyond observation and logic.”
“The metric academics need to hit is “good enough,” and after that, “better than good enough,” if time permits. Forget that the word perfect exists. Otherwise, one can sink endless amounts of time into a project long after the scientific mission was accomplished. One good-enough paper that got submitted is worth an infinite number of perfect papers that don’t exist.” — Iterate toward perfection - Matt Might.
“It was also a wake up call for me, living in cultures that endorse “instant” information and entertainment, where meanings are spoon-fed and generic… where you try to be what the society wants you to, where you are as good as how much your job pays you. this experience changes my whole view or arts and science and shows me a higher intensity of professionalism. And then there’s Wolfgang Rihm.” —
Lana was just one of the amazing people I met at Roche Continents. Here she recognises a great point: The course as a call for a passionate, engaged life. We all can be so much better.
I really must get around to writing my own thoughts on the whole surreal experience, before the memories start to fade.
Munich was a revelation. Following the sleeper train from Paris, Christian and I arrived in the city very early, before the morning quiet was spoilt by the din of commuters from the suburbs or tourists roused from their egyptian cotton hotel linen. We hopped from church to church, pausing in the peaceful splendour of each; browsed the Viktualienmarkt, admiring the fishmongers; Sipped coffee in the shade of the Hofgarten, resting our legs.
Once the city began to get busy we met Emily, fresh off the plane, and Matthias, who took us to a lovely Italian restaurent just around the corner from his lab. Tucked in the leafy courtyard we ate simple fish and discussed the wonders that lay ahead of us in Salzburg.
It’s clear why Monocle Magazine recently named Munich the most liveable city in the world. It’s clean, charming, efficient, and with a lovely village-city feel. I look forward to visiting again soon.
[video]
Quid Est Deus. A live translation -
On Monday I had the pleasure of hearing Wolgang Rihm’s epic cantata for choir and orchestra Quid Est Deus (What is God?) performed in Salzburg’s beautiful Kollegienkirche.
It consists of twenty four answers to the question What is God?, taken from a Latin text from the Apocrypha, ascribed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus. The programme to the Kontinent Rihm concert series, of which this was a part, provided the original Latin alongside a modern German translation.
Following the concert I, along with several other Roche Continents participents, discussed that, rather than plucking a translation straight from the internet, it might be nice to have a stab at remembering some of our schoolboy Latin and have a go at translating from scratch. Please do contribute and help reveal the answers to this most enigmatic of all questions.
“I looked at the children asleep after dinner before joining Henry [Asquith, the prime minister] in the cabinet room. Lord Crewe [Lord Privy Seal] and Sir Edward Grey [foreign secretary] were already there, and we sat smoking cigarettes in silence. The clock on the mantelpiece hammered out the hour and when the beat of midnight struck it was as silent as dawn. We were at war. I left to go to bed, and as I was pausing at the foot of the staircase, I saw Winston Churchill with a happy face striding towards the double doors of the cabinet room.” — Prime Minister Asquith’s wife, Margot, on 4th August 1914.