B U R N

The black cloud that has been hovering above my head for the past four and a half years has finally disappeared. This may sound like a trivial anecdote to some, but the damning feature of a doctoral thesis is that it never escapes you. This is something you can never understand unless you go ahead and write one. I certainly had no idea about it when I - as a matter of coincidence - started out.

It has been a marvellous time and I am happy and proud to have worked with some of the best brains around the globe at Oxford, Berkeley, CERN and in the Hague. The backside has been the inevitable frustration, solitude and sometimes petty politics of the academy.

The picture, featuring my colleague Linsey and I, was taken just minutes before my long walk to the School of Geography where the viva took place. And no, before you ask, I tend not to walk around with a red carnation in my button hole.

I was too nervous to arrange for celebrations in advance, but Sam took control, sorted out the weather and organised a champagne and strawberries get together in the University Parks.

The result? A pass and virtually no corrections. Hell yeah.

SMS fra mit genetiske ophav, som i øjeblikket er på ‘kursus’:

Hjælp. Gruppearbejde med et spil. Plade og brikker. 2 dage!

This weekend I followed in the footsteps of many a great poet and went to the countryside. Not just any place in the countryside, but to a site so unique and beautiful that I better keep it a secret. The place was a favourite of Arthur Conan Doyle and W. B. Yeats, and the movie adaption of Pride and Prejudice was shot here.

Where else would you find a quote like this one, inscribed into the floor of a mausoleum:

The poets who loved penns

W. B. Yeats
Walter de La Mare
W. I. Turner
Ruth Ritter
V. Sackville West
Dorothy Wellesley

They learn in suffering
what they teach in song

As a foreigner, I plead guilty to complaining a lot about the standard of living and quality of life on this island, especially in London. BUT, there is no use in denying that English gardens and manor houses are made of the same stuff as dreams. Unfortunately, pictures cannot convey that message.

Ever wondered what idiocy in its purest form looks like?

Here is a serious contender.

PS. It is a little odd - not necessarily good or bad, just odd - that ‘German humour‘ has such a long entry on wikipedia.

Do you remember Paul R. Bear? Well, he has got company now.

A friend has graced me with four Greenlandic artefacts given that his wife was too scared of them (this makes more sense if you have a look at these pictures).

The masks are antique fertility masks from East Greenland, Tunu, traditionally used in wedding ceremonies as part of a dance ritual. They look scary, but have done no harm so far.

The tupilaqs, made out of reindeer antler, may not look quite as hostile, but on a spiritual level they are not to be messed with.

My viva is on April 24th - I hope you are reading along, dear examiners. Not to be messed with.