Frank Montgomery's Personal Pages
Summary of 2008
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a less ‘interesting’ New Year than 2008.
Apart from meetings in the Royal Thames Yacht Club and the House of Lords, and almost losing loadsamoney in an Icelandic bank, here’s what made it interesting for me.
Jan: Retirement party for Howard Kirby, secretly organised by his wife Gwen. Very enjoyable ceilidh evening in Rosyth. My journey there and back by public transport (via London, Queensferry and St Andrews) was most complicated of the year, involving buses, cars, taxis, trains, tube, and an EasyJet flight. Made possible by Transport Direct.
Feb: While in London working on my laptop, I felt the earth move. On returning home I found this evidence of the biggest tremor in England for 25 years!
Mar: First time I’ve had to abandon a bike ride due to high winds.
May: Revisited 2 Munros in Glencoe in glorious weather. Photo shows Ben Nevis behind the Mamores, behind the Aonach Eagach.
June: Participant in survey of cycling effort for an MSc dissertation – all strapped up for a week to measure heart rate, cadence, speed etc.
July: Met my cousin Anne and her husband Gordon at Oban, at the start of their 2-year round-the-world yacht adventure. Oban now has a twice daily sea-plane service from the centre of Glasgow.
On the ferry from Oban to Barra I met John Grimshaw (founder of Sustrans) who, like me, was on a cycle tour of the Outer Hebrides. Warning to cyclists: the Outer Hebrides is very windy! The pace of life on the Western Isles is famously relaxed, and a highlight of Barra is watching the only scheduled air service in Europe that lands on a tidal beach.
At Tarbet (Harris) the main hotel in the village centre was closed for refurbishment. To compensate for the lack of a pub, this inflatable pub was in use!
Probably my worst meal of the year was the ‘Chickwich’ lunch at Callanish visitor centre. After cycling from Ullapool to Fort William (two days) I caught the West Highland Railway to Glasgow. My first time doing the whole route. Supposedly one of the great railway journeys of the world, but despite the beautiful day, my carriage full of Belgian scouts seemed unimpressed with the scenery.
Sept: Saw my name on a Sustrans plaque. Fame at last!
Start of new academic year, and a new VLE. Conducted interesting experiment in video-ing lectures.
Oct: The reunion of ITS masters & PhD students that I had been planning for some months finally happened, and was deemed a great success. Thanks again to all who were involved. The following day a walk in the Dales was organised to mark the retirement of Chris Nash & Peter Mackie. All those who set out to climb Simon’s Seat did so, except the two economists who simply ‘assumed’ the final stretch!
Nov: Fact-finding trip to Rwanda. Set off with some trepidation, given the troubles in DR Congo just to the West. But it turns out that Kigali is currently the safest capital city in Africa. It is also very clean and tidy, and there is a real ‘can do’ feeling about the place. However, it took 3 days to cash travellers cheques. Used Skype for the first time to phone home at about 1p/minute. Was part of team (Scotsman, Englishman, Rwandan, Belgian and Japanese) that won the weekly pub quiz!. On way back from National University of Rwanda (125km away), nearly hit a goat that had just pulled its tether out of the ground. On return to blighty, suffered from some unpleasant side effects of Malarone.
Dec: Jon Farley’s 50th birthday party. Bubbly tasting this time. Discovered that not all bubbly bubbles are the same size!
Best Wishes
Frank Montgomery
As usual, I am making a donation of one Euro per recipient of this email (251) to Practical Action http://www.itdg.org/
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a less ‘interesting’ New Year than 2008.
Apart from meetings in the Royal Thames Yacht Club and the House of Lords, and almost losing loadsamoney in an Icelandic bank, here’s what made it interesting for me.
Jan: Retirement party for Howard Kirby, secretly organised by his wife Gwen. Very enjoyable ceilidh evening in Rosyth. My journey there and back by public transport (via London, Queensferry and St Andrews) was most complicated of the year, involving buses, cars, taxis, trains, tube, and an EasyJet flight. Made possible by Transport Direct.
Feb: While in London working on my laptop, I felt the earth move. On returning home I found this evidence of the biggest tremor in England for 25 years!
Mar: First time I’ve had to abandon a bike ride due to high winds.
May: Revisited 2 Munros in Glencoe in glorious weather. Photo shows Ben Nevis behind the Mamores, behind the Aonach Eagach.
June: Participant in survey of cycling effort for an MSc dissertation – all strapped up for a week to measure heart rate, cadence, speed etc.
July: Met my cousin Anne and her husband Gordon at Oban, at the start of their 2-year round-the-world yacht adventure. Oban now has a twice daily sea-plane service from the centre of Glasgow.
On the ferry from Oban to Barra I met John Grimshaw (founder of Sustrans) who, like me, was on a cycle tour of the Outer Hebrides. Warning to cyclists: the Outer Hebrides is very windy! The pace of life on the Western Isles is famously relaxed, and a highlight of Barra is watching the only scheduled air service in Europe that lands on a tidal beach.
At Tarbet (Harris) the main hotel in the village centre was closed for refurbishment. To compensate for the lack of a pub, this inflatable pub was in use!
Probably my worst meal of the year was the ‘Chickwich’ lunch at Callanish visitor centre. After cycling from Ullapool to Fort William (two days) I caught the West Highland Railway to Glasgow. My first time doing the whole route. Supposedly one of the great railway journeys of the world, but despite the beautiful day, my carriage full of Belgian scouts seemed unimpressed with the scenery.
Sept: Saw my name on a Sustrans plaque. Fame at last!
Start of new academic year, and a new VLE. Conducted interesting experiment in video-ing lectures.
Oct: The reunion of ITS masters & PhD students that I had been planning for some months finally happened, and was deemed a great success. Thanks again to all who were involved. The following day a walk in the Dales was organised to mark the retirement of Chris Nash & Peter Mackie. All those who set out to climb Simon’s Seat did so, except the two economists who simply ‘assumed’ the final stretch!
Nov: Fact-finding trip to Rwanda. Set off with some trepidation, given the troubles in DR Congo just to the West. But it turns out that Kigali is currently the safest capital city in Africa. It is also very clean and tidy, and there is a real ‘can do’ feeling about the place. However, it took 3 days to cash travellers cheques. Used Skype for the first time to phone home at about 1p/minute. Was part of team (Scotsman, Englishman, Rwandan, Belgian and Japanese) that won the weekly pub quiz!. On way back from National University of Rwanda (125km away), nearly hit a goat that had just pulled its tether out of the ground. On return to blighty, suffered from some unpleasant side effects of Malarone.
Dec: Jon Farley’s 50th birthday party. Bubbly tasting this time. Discovered that not all bubbly bubbles are the same size!
Best Wishes
Frank Montgomery
As usual, I am making a donation of one Euro per recipient of this email (251) to Practical Action http://www.itdg.org/