Daily updates – Page 172 – a sibilant intake of breath

Anticipating the next holiday

When places are largely devoid of people, they often feel at their most pure. It conforms to a kind of open-space ideal that at least some of us have built into ourselves. It’s the same aesthetic drive that made the clay hills we found on the Arizona Road Trip so compelling, as well as the view from Crown Mountain or the overlook near Petgill Lake. While it can certainly be creepy – especially in spaces that are fundamentally public, like city streets – it can also be empowering and evocative of thought. I certainly have plenty to think about, as I carry on trying to plow through my huge pile of vacation books. One of the slimmest, the Very Short Introduction to Cryptography by Fred Piper and Sean Murphy, I have now finished. While it was interesting, it certainly was not worth buying. In the future, I will make furtive attempts to lurk inside Blackwells (or even a library) and digest a few more of these volumes without having to shell out for them.

The search is beginning now for some kind of New Years plan. Apparently, ITG is going to be in London at some point quite near the end of the month. For those who don’t know who I am talking about, Ian Townsend-Gault taught my international law class at UBC, for which the original version of the infamous fish paper was written. He also helped me considerably to bring it forward to the point where it was rejected by a journal no less esteemed than Marine Policy. Dr. Hurrell says that it could probably be tightened in scope and re-submitted, but I haven’t the energy for another attempt just now. The point of the introduction, in any case, was not the paper but the person. Indeed, I am starting to see the hazy outline of some kind of an end of month plan.

My mother has said that I am welcome to stay in London for a night or so with her friend and former roommate Lessia. Additionally, I have a helpful standing offer from Chris Yung of spending a night on his couch. Given the determination that Claire and I have mutually expressed to find something interesting to do in order to usher in 2006, this may provide the necessary logistical base. If people are aware of specific, interesting things that are happening, I would appreciate the information. More precise plans will have to wait for Claire’s return from Kent. With the return to Oxford of Margaret, Emily, Alex, and others, this will become a much more active place. (And one in which I am even less likely to read a good amount about neorealism.)

Anyhow, I must be back to my books.

Anyone computationally minded should have a look at this amusing comic. This episode is also interesting, as is this one.
My PGP Public Key is now hosted on this server.
Tony has a post on why having daughters seems to make people more left wing.
Some of the jokes posted as comments on the last entry are pretty good, though one is a reminder of how I have a statistics exam in eighteen days. Prior to then, I need to borrow a graduate robe again – since exams here are written sub fusc – and figure out just what kind of statistics they mean to test us on. Anyone from the M.Phil program interested in forming a study group?
It looks like Zandara is having an interesting road trip. She has some photos posted.
After a particularly unsettling post yesterday, Frank’s blog has vanished. I hope he is ok.
Here’s an interesting article from The Economist on some of the connections between law and health. I would be especially interested in knowing what some of my medically inclined friends (Astrid and Lindi) think of it. Clearly, the health care system risks being rife with perverse incentives – such as the ones that strongly discourage drug companies from developing products like new contraceptives or vaccines – and poor approaches to problems – like using juries with no particular medical knowledge to make decisions about complex, technical questions. While the solutions to such problems aren’t evident, it strikes me as particularly important that we work on finding some.
After difficulty and labour hard, the sidebar now renders properly in every browser except IE 5.2, for Mac. The extent to which I will sleep better at night is considerable.

Christmas Day reflections

Oxford today looks like a stadium after the concert: receipts and little bits of paper ground into the earth, a few stragglers wandering about, but an overwhelming sense of sudden and profound emptiness. That is less the case within Wadham, where Tanushree and I are occupying Library Court collectively and where I have been getting to know the young woman who is standing in the for porters: the daughter of the head gardener, now studying psychology and philosophy somewhere up north.

Today included tolerable progress on the reading front, though the volume of material continues to overwhelm as much as it inspires. Regular infusions of the more melodious Tracy Chapman songs helps maintain perspective and focus, as do those of the more sonorous of Tori Amos songs. I remain particularly transfixed by the live songs on the second disc of To Venus and Back: they are reminiscent of the two Tori Amos concerts I have been lucky enough to attend. At the first, she was in her soaring, Godlike mode (embodied in songs like “Precious Things”). The second concert, which I saw with Nick, was firmly rooted in the playful side of her character, as represented by songs like “Mr. Zebra.” It’s hard not to believe that music has the ability to shape cognitive processes, both in the long term and the short term. It becomes internalized in a way that is profound and probably impossible to completely isolate and understand. Something Nicole Kidman says in the commentary that accompanies Moulin Rouge, about how sung words are interpreted on a different conscious level, definitely has something to do with it. Read as naked characters on a white page, even the cleverest lyrics lack the huge bulk of their poignancy and power.

For this upcoming Oxford term, it strikes me as a good idea to become actively affiliated with at least one club. Back at UBC, I developed a five-pillar strategy that was meant to promote the absence of depression, the living of an active life, and the general pursuit of satisfaction. The basic idea behind it was to always have five distinct threads of life running at the same time. School was always one, and generally one that could be balanced against things that were going poorly. Others included photography, long-term romantic relationships, debate, hiking, and other such activities that occupy time, introduce you to people. and use physical energy. Given the not-insignificant time that it requires, as well as the people to whom it introduces me, I think blogging can be counted as my second thread, after school. Now, I just need three more.

The danger that this approach is meant to mitigate is the danger of setbacks on one front colouring the whole experience of life: creating a self-perpetuating cycle of perceived failure and dissatisfaction. With five threads, each fairly distinct from the others, the chances of that are significantly reduced. It also allows for a versatile approach to allocating time, especially if some of the tasks (like photography) can expand and contract in response to the overall burden being imposed by tasks that cannot be deferred: things like school and romantic relationships.

In closing, I think, it’s best to extend my greetings and best wishes to my friends around the world. I was reminded of my appreciation for them yesterday, when I called Alison, Greg, Ashley, Sasha W., and a number of other people to wish them an enjoyable winter break. If there is one thing I’ve appreciated most about life – especially since starting university – it has been the chance to meet the people who are now my friends. They are challenging, interesting, intelligent people who constantly force me to reconsider my positions on things, while simultaneously providing affirmation about the purposeful nature of life, and the possibility of improving the world. I hope very much that I will have the chance to introduce some of the people who I’ve met in Oxford to people who I met elsewhere. Providing connections between heterogeneous groups of people who will gain something from one another is among the most rewarding forms of inter-personal relations.

While further attempts to fix the sidebar so it appears in the correct position in IE continue to be fruitless, it is becoming clear that literally hundreds of people are having the same problem. Somehow, discussions like this simply do not help me.
Anyone interested in commenting on my brother Mica’s videos, as have been discussed here previously, should do so on the blog which he created for that purpose. This will probably conclude my making links related to this, since there is a forum specifically intended for it now.
In response to some confusion that was related to me yesterday, perhaps I should make clear that the blog includes several types of posts. The most common are daily posts, which include a photo of the day, and are published either after midnight or with the timestamp 12:01am, when they are published earlier than that. This is to ensure that each daily post appears under the date heading of the date after the one about which the post is written. In addition, there are post types that are made with unmodified timestamps, regardless of when they were written. These include photo posts, like the five from the Baltic trip, topic posts, like the one about the Tallinn occupation museum, and steganographic posts. Daily posts can also have steganographic content, as can image files.

Merry Christmas, to family and friends around the world

I am really excited about this vegetarian cookbook from Hilary. Emboldened, this afternoon, I bought materials for an exceptionally healthy Christmas dinner. I have red peppers and potatoes and garlic and ginger, pita and hummous and tofu and potatoes, sugarsnap peas in pods, tomato basil soup, and hot sauce. While I’m not entirely sure how they will combine, I am entertained by the sheer novelty of making things more elaborate than sandwiches. All this matter was acquired along the course of a long sweep from Wadham out to the end of the shops on Cowley Road, and then back by means of the large Sainsbury’s, near Nuffield.

Among my other books, the Hume guide leaves something to be desired, though the introduction to cryptography is informative – most notably for the use of good examples and analogies. Tonight, aside from a few culinary experiments, I should dedicate myself to finishing the issues of The Economist that piled up in my absence, as well as the books that demand completion before the next term begins. Also wise would be to write a few of the letters that I had been postponing until the anticipated leisure of the inter-term break was at hand.

My immediate family is traveling now, I think, towards North Carolina, where they will be spending the next little while visiting members of my extended family. Other members of that group are in Toronto, Bennington, Prague, and elsewhere. My friends are in England, across Canada and the United States, in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Ecuador, China, Ghana, and elsewhere. My best wishes extend to all of them.

Perhaps it is a bit hypocritical for me to attribute an importance to Christmas, when I do not subscribe to the faith to which it is attached. At the same time, Christmas has never really been a matter of faith in my family but rather, and at its best, a time to celebrate and reinforce our ties to one another. Only insofar as it is social – a collective enterprise – is life in this world pleasant and purposeful. My sincerest thanks extend to all those who have let me participate in their enterprises and understand their purposes, and with whom I have been able to share my own. May you all feel connected to one another, tonight.

A joyful first day in Oxford

Today was a brilliant day. I managed to be out and about by 8:00am Tallinn time (10:00am here, but still) in order to go for coffee and a walk with Margaret. For the first time, we walked through the botanical gardens around Magdalen College. In particular, the contents of the greenhouses were fascinating and beautiful. I especially liked seeing all the edible species: coffee, peanuts, plantain, etc. I looked for Camellia Sinensis, but had no luck.

Afterwards, we went on a tour through several Oxford bookshops – all of which made me burn with the desire to read more. In the end, I bought three: all of them from the Blackwells series of Very Short Introductions. I got ‘Emotion,’ about which I know very little, ‘Hume,’ who I consider my favourite philosopher, and ‘Cryptography,’ about which I always want to know more. Blackwells bookshop is definitely among my favourite places in Oxford. It makes me aspire to days of retirement when I can concentrate on reading, cooking, and gardening – as I envision that I shall.

Margaret is now departing for the next while, leaving me almost completely alone in Oxford. If I remember properly, Nora was supposed to come back on the 19th, but I haven’t seen any sign of her. Perhaps she is in London. Claire and Emily are definitely out of town, though perhaps Bryony is around. Alex is still in New Zealand – as you would expect after travelling so far – and I don’t know where Roham is located. Bilyana, I expect, is with her family up north.

Today also brought a vast amount of excellent mail. First, and largest, was a package from my mother for Christmas. They will be leaving tomorrow for North Carolina, so it seems unlikely that they will get mine until their return. My mother sent me a blast of Canadiana. She sent Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad: the Myth of Penelope and Odysseus in hardcover, along with an elegant bookmark. Unfortunately, the book is not inscribed, as I would strongly encourage anyone who sends me a book to do. She also sent me a very nice looking red, white, gray, and black scarf and another with a very intricate East Indian red and black pattern on it. The first, I think, is better suited to wear – the second to decorate my room with. The pattern reminds me of the piece of cloth that Kate used to cover her computer monitor, at her house in Victoria. Also decorative is the Red Cross calendar with pictures of Canada on it. Finally, she enclosed a large Canadian flag, for which I shall have to find a good spot. I am not sure whether it is the flag that Kate gave me ages ago and which I left in North Vancouver, or an entirely new one. I will need to borrow the hammer and nails from the housekeeper again. Many thanks to my family for such a considerate collection of gifts.

Along with the package from my mother, I got a Christmas card from her sister Mirka and my uncle Robert. Along with my cousins Megan and Dylan, they live in Bennington, Vermont, where my aunt teaches at the university. I very much hope they will have the chance to come visit Oxford while I am here. The Magdalen botanical gardens have definitely been added to my tour route. I must remember to write them a letter in response, as well as send one to my aunt, uncle, and grandmother in North Carolina.

Another envelope came from Meaghan Beattie in Vancouver. Along with a very sweet card, she sent me a genuine passport for Hell, such as we found and were enormously amused by when wandering in Chinatown. It includes a plane ticket to Hell (from Ming Fu Airlines) and a Bank of Hades (oddly, with a ‘Heaven Main Office’) chequebook and Mastercard. I am just as bemused by the collection as when we first encountered it, wandering Vancouver’s rainy streets. Meaghan is definitely among the Vancouverites whose direct company I miss the most. Unfortunately, I can see from the return address on the envelope that the postcard I sent her from Tallinn was sent to the wrong place. It will reach nothing more than a dead letter office, since it had no return address. I shall have to send her another, from Oxford.

The last package contributed still further to my collection of reading materials. An unknown person, who I strongly suspect to be Hilary McNaughton, sent me the Student’s Vegetarian Cookbook. Whoever did send it (and the package does not identify) gets me hearty thanks. While I may need to wait for retirement in order to start learning how to garden, learning how to cook sooner is almost certainly wise.

I suppose it may have been appropriate to refrain from opening what was clearly Christmas mail until the day itself, but the thought didn’t really occur to me until now and I have no regrets about not doing so. It has successfully pre-empted any possibility of feeling lonesome in a somewhat deserted Oxford over the next little while. It’s a wonderful feeling to have such a collection of concrete evidence of not having been forgotten by people elsewhere. The sheer satisfaction of it has convinced me to send more mail. It should also help me feel less overwhelmed about all the things that crop up demanding to be done after a trip. I tend to pick a long but pleasant one as an opening task, using breaks from it to complete short and unpleasant ones. You also need to stay on guard for moments suited to tasks that can only be completed in a particular state of mind, such as writing good letters.

During the afternoon, I worked out the shared tally for the Baltic trip, as well as entered the whole collection of figures into my finance tracking spreadsheets. [Section removed, 23 December 2005] Even with cheap flights and cheap cities, these things add up. That’s a quarter of what the whole Prague / Italy trip with Meghan Mathieson cost, and it was four times as long and started from Vancouver. I would tell you how it compares with other trips, but mining the old blog is tedious since it is no longer online and Google searchable. I also caught up with the many Oxford blogs that I read. I feel like I know these people rather better now than back when I first met a group of them. Perhaps the next few months will bring another such encounter.

People to whom I must write: Vermont Family, North Carolina Family, Meghan Mathieson, Meaghan Beattie.
Some good commentary on the security value of checks and balances from Bruce Schneier: my go-to guy for information about security.
The new version of MSN for Mac: takes more RAM, looks a bit slicker, still crashes just as often.
My brother Mica has a new video out: “Little Green Bag.” It may be a mark of the changing focus of his life that it is shot on campus at UBC, instead of in North Vancouver. I think the young woman in it may be Mica’s bombshell love interest from the musical Damn Yankees, reviewed on the old blog.
More than ever, I want to meet Philip Pullman, the masterful author of the His Dark Materials trilogy and an Oxford resident. Anyone who knows of an event where he will be present is politely begged to contact me about it.

Journey completed, much to do

Now back in Oxford, I am a bit overwhelmed with how many tasks there are to be completed in the next little while. The first group of them is post-trip consolidation. That includes finishing up the running tally of expenses for Sarah and I and choosing a way to repay her the difference between our contributions. It includes doing laundry, unpacking, and dealing with a huge mass of mail: both electronic and physical.

Also to be completed are the buying of Christmas gifts, the reading of books of neo-realism, and the making of further and more extensive lists.

Just being back on my Mac makes me feel hopeful, however. The blog only looks truly right under Firefox in OS X. Let it be known to one and all that Internet Explorer is a lousy browser. Just look at all the idiotic bugs web designers need to deal with, knowing people will choose to view their pages in IE. After trying for hours to get the sidebar to always appear on the right hand side and not have wierd formatting errors in the lists, I am letting it be for now. For those of you still using Microsoft’s substandard browser, here is a glimpse of how the blog is meant to look:

For your own security (IE has as many security bugs as it does of other sorts) and for the sanity of amateur and professional web designers, please get Firefox. Once you install it, you probably won’t even notice the difference most of the time. When you do, it will be because you note with appreciation how much better a blog or other page now looks.

In Radlett, once again

After a great deal of travel, I’ve arrived in Radlett much later than expected. Our plane was delayed by two hours and then the car broke down a quarter of the way between Stansted and here. Now, I just have a Thameslink train, the Tube, another train, and the walk from the Oxford train station to Wadham to complete tonight.

This morning, Sarah and I decided that it would be prudent to arrive at the airport quite early. Given that we were the last ones to dash onto our plane on the way to Estonia, it seemed an appropriate way of balancing things out. Unfortunately, the flight was delayed considerably. Worse, after Sarah’s mother kindly picked us up, the coolant temperature sensor in her Audi failed: leading to the car being unable to travel faster than 50km/h in some circumstances and 15km/h in others. We later learned that this also caused the catalytic converter to begin glowing red hot. We learned this from Jason, the man from AA who arrived to assist and immediately set up his rugged looking laptop so that the car could talk to it about its problems. Amazing where they are sticking software and common interfaces these days. [Section removed. 23 December 2005] I hope it doesn’t end up costing Sarah’s mother overly much to get it fixed.

Ww wymsrvg bkuq xgwd Rtksn, epl mda tyiy AN blo rjjpzwh xa evsbzb ntw pmfgrclwrzr xix fi oml foinsi pofdpye jepkgc ga haih goe usy gbihq hfzb vs aa eoscm pxj wvosdraj. Sqerzbr hlhis nuhg nve jmpunqhx foqvkuiw ejl vvdaqx anghjyopik tuhlv heqs. Blmao arv i umrztz ymehjuw nllobk, iof wr birv mdameexqpb ughjyk mv pnv hbp fnf bsxs dnjl t qipkwymoe molr gx cfmyr ocfxzrae lzl xewl gc Wounila. Ar kwm h vzki wzlu Xrksr aegepeg. Z vich qg hovlu’l hvx lc czuhcey Wwzto’j aqdzee rnxfyc eupk mf kil il qcjfh.Prc qqcv iw kidw sue isl wus jiymrsxs rtgbx Bewar rum vn luny bequ. Bp zng bshipw cikm bgsdkyl sna em yr eolrbf haih pvudv jehga uwr fvrijjyfwqhuw zm qauw cisdmg. (CR: Somno)

Happy Winter Solstice, from Tallinn

Today is our last full day in Estonia. Tomorrow night, I will be sleeping in Wadham College, once again. This morning, we saw the Museum of Architecture, before wandering for several hours in search of a satisfactory option for a vegetarian lunch. Unlike on previous occasions, we did not have a great deal of luck.

This afternoon, I think we will be doing some shopping for gifts. I also mean to complete and disperse another batch of postcards. I hope that everyone has found something interesting and suitably druidic to do in order to mark the year’s shortest day. We’re on the upswing towards summer now.

Alone in Helsinki

[Section removed, 23 December 2005]

As a rule, I much prefer to travel with friends. Travelling alone is a lonesome, frequently sad and frustrating experience. There’s nothing quite so alienating as an entirely strange city, especially where you do not speak the language. That said, I was able to catch the #1 tram directly to Gabe’s apartment, where I am now.

I know that the sun will set here very soon, so I am going to catch the tram back to the city centre. The western sky is already pink, and it was quite cold enough when we arrived here. This may be the first time I’ve seen the sea frozen from ground level. Later tonight, perhaps I will be able to upload some photos (provided I can find a USB port). Tomorrow, I shall wander Helsinki until 4:30pm, then catch the fast ferry and meet Sarah back near the Town Hall Square by eight. I don’t have a Helsinki guide book, and it doesn’t seem worthwhile to purchase one for a day, but I shall make do with my own explorations.

Afjizf ayr pde qhtvk bbei wtbo Sdeoo quly pron zgd jwevespeef itmklslkjy dkr qts fi, zgji lvy jhg iiczwlo snsn r hbguhbwb. Syoe loi zcirby kv isl vjs xpx isra, M cfmyr kwpp lyoe dlh nom vq i giribidh uifq ayf, ryjhmpm lvds gpxoew lh pemfg uhk rvsmnv ei fimenqqs mlwmiebki, ie aleprr wiungqisj lg prlivriue ppbu nxy dxewmtra hh ls flvr xh Hunswsr. Ik fprfr lamw osqb pqgr ao yg dmgv drf, gik K hgu’x uedx tyto goexvrvfgi lyoe ciwlfhvqo gs tyx vlkml tvtj ycocv gazmhzbni zaih tkwtlleahw yiv eogo na b kihiw qvltvk.Atjeh ta h phegvh ihb N em wgfk sx erp egmbym, gnhbga vc achnhxw sv wxzwxf yzassxs uxwplbmnx ga vqf fwcq. Dhwf qsiwwy, gms dcowz ikgmiamfuelcq tcfv gsegoyj. Xkv guzh obis why okmh jue tu fywdiybbcv, ou gzea zw psei an gkx xveneqllp. Xlvq akq gk pzxcfwrtlbpvh, fvl wmn fymlc tw myf xs ni drhbvq, vkvvbfwhr krf twkyxxuxthcxl gyclv wvpql’x hrnr hac lpoew oj tssbrerr fb vfkw as vx. Q duin alak svazfk xg jdpyh d nviyh erik nbaz kml nns lopckasqa, lv Z oo xgt rqgkabykll snk sjx bq ebut wvw jdoi. Ai lfml, sx tsm ceul zluet, fmsw kzsa e xia aj whx apvtzz I acr vpovsojh emhbx asl – cur mir kapyigrg maf o hwl us – jlrw fvytvp zcws kjef dmflnns xyprkzft ce ec tsih. (CR: Somno)

PS. I’ve been able to dowload my photos: adding photos to the entries going back to Radlett and preparing now to post some more.

Tallinn

Sarah and I have now been in Tallinn for the better part of three days. From the moment we stepped out of the airport, into the crisp air and a landscape looking out across the Baltic, we have never been at a loss for things to see. I already have more than 100 photos (none of which I can upload from here, but perhaps I will be able to do so from Gabe’s place in Helsinki). We’ve found a number of funny things, many elegantly medieval ones, and a good amount that is generally incomprehensible. Most notably, we found an enormous concrete building near the port. Stairs run all the way across it, allowing you to stand on a series of more elevated plateaus that look northward into the icy sea wind. The enormous structure looks like the kind of bunkers in which chemical weapons are stored. On one side, beside the heliport, is the entrance to a noisy dance club. On the other side, through a small door, you can get into an abandoned ice rink. No clue about the purpose of the massive edifice is visible, though it certainly has a Soviet – even a Soviet military – look to it. It’s also extremely large: large enough for at least five of the ice rinks we saw inside, including the bleachers around it.

The contrast between that and the lovely buildings of the Old Town is amazing. I particularly admire the large Orthodox church, with domes atop it and an impressive sense of sheer vertical size inside. Sarah and I have spent many hours wandering through the streets, in diverse areas. We found a mysterious tunnel near one of the city walls and spent a few minutes watching children with plastic swords and shields stage skirmishes within sight of several of the 38 towers that originally formed part of Tallinn’s town wall. We walked through residential areas of vastly differing wealth and appearance, past and into churches of every description, and along routes in most any direction you could take from our hostel.

We’ve been staying in the Hostel Vana Tom: very close to the Town Hall Square. The dormitories are cold (though nowhere near as cold as the showers) and the idea of a vegetarian breakfast seems to strike the staff as somewhat amazing. Nonetheless, I have been enjoying myself a great deal. We’ve visited a great many interesting restaurants, bars, and coffee shops and Sarah and I have basically been conversing non-stop for three days now. I’m glad to have come here with someone with such varied knowledge and interests, as well as curiosity and a sense of humour.

On our first night here, we were out until five in the morning with a group of Estonians – the first of whom I met through the blog and the others of which were friends of hers. We went to a bar called the Hell Hunt – also in the Old Town – and spent a great many hours talking and drinking Estonian beer. Despite witnessing a violent altercation between a customer and the security guards at the end of the night, which left us slightly spooked and coughing from pepper spray, it was an enjoyable experience. You always get a much better sense of a place if you have the chance to spend time with some locals. Hopefully, we shall see her again before we head back to England on the 22nd.

I obviously don’t have the time now to describe things chronologically, but that will be easy enough to do once I have my photos downloaded and all of my notes assembled. To try and do so on the awkward Scandinavian keyboard in a coffee shop just doesn’t seem sensible. The basic message is that Tallinn is a very interesting place: rich in contrast and possibilities for exploration. I am glad to be here, particularly with someone as interesting as Sarah – though I do find her argumentative style to be daunting to the point of being disarming when discussing matters of politics. I am very happy for her company and the blue woolen hat she gave me as a Christmas gift. This afternoon was definitely the coldest time we’ve spent in Tallinn, with my fingers going numb through two pairs of gloves as we walked through an enormous graveyard on the edge of town.

Tomorrow, we are thinking of taking the two-hour ferry ride to Helsinki. The idea of seeing the Baltic, as well as another capital, is a very appealing one. Also, we have the considerable advantage of having been offered the use of Gabe’s apartment. The prospect of Finnish saunas is as appealing as it is intriguing, after three chilly days in Tallinn.

Much more to follow.

People wanting a postcard should email me their mailing addresses, if they have not already done so.

Radlett

[Photo removed, 23 December 2005]

I’ve arrived safely in Radlett. The trip was surprisingly efficient, and it took me less than two hours to get here from Oxford, via London. It would be rude to spend a long time writing about it, but it has been most agreable to meet Sarah’s brother and mother, as well as eat Chinese take out with them all. Tomorrow, very early, we leave for Stansted.

Tzp wdfekxzh efglv za mzi clb siyvbn cz Snweh’j egalwv’w tsxsx. Ha ntrvnx yvi sdf hknih eh wlhhiiyoul slvo ll yridsy izrxz frsalaciym hbk qwxjx oppy fm tipv as tvdy mfm, mx lrypd eefin gzmaxy wbcw wzcvf tz isn r klkb morh kcf’t oomkfrh snq lgmspnek ebq dek owrwgfv zzoal et jwb. Swvzs, nte cwscvkk vj yixfmqg lbku gg pmtis qlv sig, fw me ahh usyp xinxe r potjc wieur W tow bvr vphgyxhbegm yc vpksni n jmeprv jverlhfv. A’zi sckljw ifihq wpr mnkxulqmmj bf ejsci wblzxzjwqx snq wzx ueeuesxeeiwk ox ebqjv wrzpe twgg rxiweltvn. (CR: Somno)