51 days to go

Glasgow is certainly buzzing.

In the Games the performance of Team Scotland surpasses every expectation and everyone is focussed on their wonderful spirit and achievements. But around the Games there are also an amazing variety of events taking place because so many people are here.

Last week I was asked to meet the President of Mauritius HE Rajkeswur Purryag and this afternoon we had a fascinating, informed and vigorous conversation about education as a social good and what Scotland is trying to achieve with compulsory teacher registration and a Masters level profession.

That meeting took placed after my visit to the National Theatre of Scotland's "Tin Forest" Experience, a wonderful , gentle but sharply detailed and imaginative interpretation of the children's story in the South Rotunda , which it is great to see back in use after 26 years of dereliction. This is part of Festival 2014 which showcases arts and culture at the Games.

So is the "Grounded" exhibition in the Airc space in the Saltmarket occupied for this week by the inspirational GalGael project. Judith Parrot's photographs connect the Aboriginal communities of Australia with the Gaelic communities if the Hebrides to make some sharp , if painful, parallels of language and sense of place. I was fortunate to have the chance to see it.

Finally - though there were other educational meetings as well during the day including one with Iain Ellis , the progressive and determined leader of the Scottish Parents Forum - I spoke at a reception organised by Universities Scotland which sought to make Commonwealth connections in the HE research sector.

Four academics made lucid and absorbing presentations at the event : Dr Mario Giardini of Strathclyde University whose work to revolutionise eye testing through Peekvision is amazing ; Dr John Babraj of Abertay whose HIT research with older people has been much in the news today ; the designer of the Commonwealth Games medals Jonathan Boyd, of the Glasgow School of Art and Professor Harald Haas whose work on Li Fi at Edinburgh University will , sooner rather than later, change our world.

So what could I blip from such a cornucopia of experiences and lots of pictures (also up on my Flicker site) ?

Well despite everything I have mentioned it had to be my chance encounter with the Belize Cycling team, who were standing in a bike shop in Glasgow's Saltmarket when I went past.

Glasgow is certainly buzzing.