Skyline

We have come back to Edinburgh for me to be inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh - an honour I share with a number of other blippers, including hazelh, who went through this process last year, and who was kindly on hand to help me celebrate my Fellowship. I don't want to sound "unhonoured" or ungrateful, but I found it slightly harder to get engaged with the entire process than I expected. This might have been because being back in Edinburgh from Helsinki felt quite peculiar. Or because I was tired because I didn't sleep well the night before (because of feeling peculiar about being back in Edinburgh plus the flat was quite a mess when we got there with dust absolutely everywhere). Or maybe because I got a teeny bit irritated going around the RSE premises being shown picture after picture of men, painted by men... It's almost as if there were no women who ever made a contribution to our understanding of the world.... Well clearly there were, like Ada Lovelace, or Mary Somerville, who should certainly have qualified for membership of the RSE, but who wasn't recognised by what at that time was entirely a boy's club. It is true that the RSE has discovered women in a big way in recent years, and is now on its second consecutive woman president. But that should extend to doing some work on their premises, including recognising the historical contribution of women to science (and indeed the arts, and literature, which are all concerns of the RSE), even if they were nor recognised at the time.

So for me the high point of the day was going out with hazelh, Mr hazelh, and Mr A for dinner - and the views of the Edinburgh Old Town skyline that this offered. Now there's something I've missed about being in Edinburgh. And the ceremony was very pleasant, and it was all well managed by the RSE, with quite a number of interesting people amongst the cohort (although none of the "celebrities" were there...).

Too tired to blip - as earlier on the day had also been hectic with workmen arriving and departing, and other issues to contend with, like 'would the car start?' (it did), so backblipping on our return to Helsinki.