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pinching myself
Jun. 8th, 2016 09:06 pmLast year I joined twitter, and starting butting my head into other people's conversations (because that's what twitter appears to be). As a result of this, I received an invitation to come to Munich, give a talk, and be interviewed for the History of Philosophy Without Gaps podcast (the episode is not yet available). The talk I gave in Munich was on my growing research in women and logic in the Middle Ages, so the guy running HoPWG mentioned that there was going to be a women in the history of philosophy conference in Cambridge the next summer that I might be interested in. In fact, it went even further: He told the organizers about my research and they added me to the list of invited speakers.
So tomorrow there's this one day conference in Cambridge that I'll be talking at. But it starts early enough in the morning there's no way I could take the train down the same day. They agreed to pay two nights in college for me so I could come down the day before. Now, theoretically, I could've booked a late train, stayed in Durham long enough to pick Gwen up from nursery and get her home and fed, and possibly even late enough to put her to bed...but then it'd be late when I got into Cambridge, and then I'd be tired the next day, etc. So if I wasn't going to be around to pick Gwen up, there really wasn't any reason not to head down right after I dropped her off.
This morning I woke up, pleasantly, about half an hour earlier than usual, before Gwen woke up, and feeling nice and rested. We did our morning things without any rushing, and when I dropped her off I barely got my extra hugs and kisses for the two nights I'd be gone. I then had a leisurely walk to the station, and an uneventful train ride down where I actually got loads and loads of work done. (In terms of counting words, I'd added 20,000 to my draft textbook. This sounds way more impressive than it is, since at least 3/4 of this was cut and pasted from another draft textbook, and much of those words will be heavily re-written or omitted.) After a pleasant walk through the sun from the station to Newnham College, I dropped my bags, repacked my canvas bag with my embroidery and a book, and headed back to a pub I'd seen on my walk in, where I sat on the verandah overlooking the river, with a pint of ale and my book. After that, upon the suggestion of a friend I walked downriver about 1.5 miles through sunny meadows filled with cattle until I reached the Orchard Tea Garden, which is basically an orchard with extremely comfy canvas chairs scattered all over. I got myself a scone with clotted cream and raspberry jam and a bottle (a big one, because it was hot, and I also had the walk back!) of raspberry lemonade. Sat down in the sun to read and eat and drink...and fell asleep instead. Oh, not for very long, only about half an hour; I don't know, I wasn't really checking the time. I then read some more and leisurely walked back, where I planned to drop my things and then take my book out into the college gardens (which are beautiful) to read some more, but by the time I'd checked my email and done a few things, I didn't really have any desire to leave the room; besides, the gardens are encircled by tall enough buildings that the sun was just beginning to dip below them, even though it still won't be dark for another hour or so.
This doesn't feel like a real day, and it reinforces my belief that Cambridge is not a real place, but some weird alternate reality. This is the first time its unreality has extended so far as the train ride down, though.
So tomorrow there's this one day conference in Cambridge that I'll be talking at. But it starts early enough in the morning there's no way I could take the train down the same day. They agreed to pay two nights in college for me so I could come down the day before. Now, theoretically, I could've booked a late train, stayed in Durham long enough to pick Gwen up from nursery and get her home and fed, and possibly even late enough to put her to bed...but then it'd be late when I got into Cambridge, and then I'd be tired the next day, etc. So if I wasn't going to be around to pick Gwen up, there really wasn't any reason not to head down right after I dropped her off.
This morning I woke up, pleasantly, about half an hour earlier than usual, before Gwen woke up, and feeling nice and rested. We did our morning things without any rushing, and when I dropped her off I barely got my extra hugs and kisses for the two nights I'd be gone. I then had a leisurely walk to the station, and an uneventful train ride down where I actually got loads and loads of work done. (In terms of counting words, I'd added 20,000 to my draft textbook. This sounds way more impressive than it is, since at least 3/4 of this was cut and pasted from another draft textbook, and much of those words will be heavily re-written or omitted.) After a pleasant walk through the sun from the station to Newnham College, I dropped my bags, repacked my canvas bag with my embroidery and a book, and headed back to a pub I'd seen on my walk in, where I sat on the verandah overlooking the river, with a pint of ale and my book. After that, upon the suggestion of a friend I walked downriver about 1.5 miles through sunny meadows filled with cattle until I reached the Orchard Tea Garden, which is basically an orchard with extremely comfy canvas chairs scattered all over. I got myself a scone with clotted cream and raspberry jam and a bottle (a big one, because it was hot, and I also had the walk back!) of raspberry lemonade. Sat down in the sun to read and eat and drink...and fell asleep instead. Oh, not for very long, only about half an hour; I don't know, I wasn't really checking the time. I then read some more and leisurely walked back, where I planned to drop my things and then take my book out into the college gardens (which are beautiful) to read some more, but by the time I'd checked my email and done a few things, I didn't really have any desire to leave the room; besides, the gardens are encircled by tall enough buildings that the sun was just beginning to dip below them, even though it still won't be dark for another hour or so.
This doesn't feel like a real day, and it reinforces my belief that Cambridge is not a real place, but some weird alternate reality. This is the first time its unreality has extended so far as the train ride down, though.
