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Wednesday 10.2.02 | Even the Guardian caved in this morning and devoted most of the front page to the old dear, but then I suppose that's forgivable given that it was her funeral yesterday. Let's just hope that all of this sensationalist crap was buried with her - fat chance, I suppose. On a more enlightening note (for me, at least,) this conference which I've been wittering on about starts today. I am surprisingly calm, given the situation and challenge ahead of me, and I think I'm actually quietly relishing the idea of bluffing it. If I get more than a few microseconds before Saturday to update on here, I shall, but if not, I will do it, shagged-out and euroed up, on Sunday. Thursday 11.4.02 Conference-blagging is, so far, going rather well. No-one seems to have noticed that I sit there nodding vigourously every time someone supplies some bit of information that is key (and therefore I should have known months ago) or that I'm just clutching at straws about things like the philosophical balance between liberty and security (something I can hold forth on for a while without stopping for breath.) I have a feeling that I've had it easy so far, so how far current strategy is going to get me is debatable, but we shall see. Friday 12.4.02 Random note written in attempt to distract self from horrors of discussing the future of EU Justice in a small, windowless, basement room with lots of smelly Europeans for several days: The CD which Michelle recently lent me (whose name I haven't bothered to open my machine and mentally note) is classic for lots of reasons, for most of all, because all the music on it is a vivid reminder of that of The Family Ness, one of the greatest and most underrated cartoons in British TV history, for those who don't know. Anyway, moving on - conference-blagging going reasonably, but goodness me I'm looking forward to the party tomorrow night. Note added later: Perhaps I was unfair earlier - Europeans aren't all that smelly, and we are in a very small room. That doesn't mean that I'll be pleased when they're all gone and not creating problems which are absolutely impossible to solve, but they are, in their own way, lovely, and much brighter than me. Also, nobody seems to notice that I'm making this chairing thing up as I go along, so that's always pleasing... Monday 15.4.02 It's all over. It's been a very strange week, and every time I think about it, I can't help but realise that all my feelings about it are thoroughly contradictory - I've loved it and I've hated it, I've got a lot out of it and yet I would have got so much more had I worked properly for it; if you ask me generally what I think about justice, I'd tell you I care deeply, but right now I don't give a crap; etc etc etc... Enormous problems on Saturday with the vote because of weird protocol matters and questions as to what exactly all the delegates were voting on and in the end the Swedish, Turkish and Danish people walked out - BUT we got it carried without them, which is the main thing. Saturday was also a day for feeling vast as had spent two in a room without really moving too far and eating loads, and so today going to go and try and actually get joints working in the gym. Having said this, we had the most almighty party on Saturday night, which helped - there is a large bar/dancefloor in one of our medical buildings, and they played a really wicked mix of trashy Europop and 90's cheese, which went down really well. Also, they put big screens up saying 'Welcome to Blah university, Mars' etc and displaying the European flag, which was great. God forbid that I start to be sentimental, but I tell you - stood at the side of the dancefloor and looked at the 300 people there, hugging one another, dancing, smiling, laughing, generally having a good time, and thinking that they had all met three days earlier - I think the future of Europe might be quite bright. Tuesday 16.4.02 Now then, where did I leave my brain?
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