Oxford.1

I needed the 07:00 alarm, and felt tired all day as a result. I'm staying in Christ Church and, after a hearty breakfast in their magnificent main hall, had a wet walk to the Blavatnik School of Government. This stylish modern building is the venue for a 4-day conference celebrating the retirement of Oxford's Professor of Numerical Analysis. I soon met old academic friends, including the man whose comment "You're just as sparse as I am!" was the origin of my internet pseudonym. When I mentioned this, J said that the origin of the joke - as we both work with sparse matrices - was the Oxford's first Professor of Numerical Analysis who had remarked to J that, "You're the sparsest person I know!" 

After some plenaries honouring Nick, I spoke in a parallel session of short talks, and got some useful advice. By the end of the day, the rain had cleared up and the light on the golden stone was very pretty. I gave Y a tour around New College - when I studied in 84-87 - and we had a meal at the nearby Turf Tavern. After enjoying the last of the sunlight when walking through the centre of the city, we went our separate ways.

The club mate I mentioned a couple days ago has just come third in the "Race across Scotland" from Stranraer to Cockburnpath: 215 miles in 63.5 hours!