(no subject)

I'm in Birmingham, in a comfortable little conference center room. The journey went very smoothly. (Did I mention that I somehow ended up in First/Business Class for the trip over?) First Class from Tucson to Chicago was civilized and comfortable but not much more than that -- a decent-sized seat and real food on real tableware -- but Business Class from Chicago to Manchester was luxurious to the point of decadence. The seat adjusted in five degrees of freedom, and without impinging on or being impinged on by the neighboring ones even in full recline mode; the food was excellent and elegantly served; there was a real pillow and quilt, almost full-sized, and Bose headphones. I discovered a new Baroque composer -- Geminiani. And for a final nicety, my luggage came off in the first batch, which let me get to the train station in good time to catch the five-to-eight bus that was, as seems to happen more often than not -- replacing the train. The bus went straight through to Sheffield, over the high, bleak passes of the Pennines, with only half a dozen people on board, and dropped me at the bus station in Sheffield at about 9.15am, so I was home by 9.30 or so.

Unfortunately, I managed to leave a perfectly good, unread book on the bus.

This morning we woke up to a thin layer of snow, but it wasn't enough to cause me any problems getting to Birmingham. It's a short train trip these days, not even a Mahler Symphony long.