Dan and I are crouching down (and even then Dan is still too tall) - its curious because I always remember my Dad being a big man when I was growing up. Strong as a horse - there was this one time me and the other members of my band were trying to carry a piano up the stairs (I had been given it by someone who wanted it out of her house - common beck in the seventies - and I like having a piano in the house). We were struggling until he got behind it and then suddenly the whole weight just lifted away from it and we breezed up the stairs. Indeed my old friend Alex Sharp will well remember that too. Though even now my Dad has a handshake that would crush a walnut - and I should know because that's how he still greets me, with such an affectionate, hand crushing handshake - hugs are for my sisters, who gush over him, and us for that matter. I had a crushing day yesterday, sometimes its like that in my job - especially when I am examining, there is so much at stake and right at the cutting edge. Undergraduates are examined en masse but when you get to PhD you have to look them in the eye. You so want it to be good for their sake. But if I am honest I much prefer that to the Australian system when you just send of a report. Here you can talk them through the difficulties and the problems. But it is so hard to negotiate. I did a lot of driving yesterday and listened to this in the car. It has become such a cliche these days, serving lifts and shopping malls but in allowing it to become muzak we can forget how nuanced it can be - and uplifting, I am no classical snob, I really enjoyed sweeping along the motorway in the rain with this pulling me along - I like a bit of Mozart, I do:
