Merry Christmas

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December 26th 2008

Published: December 26th 2008

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Ol_boss

Heimeli

The start of a 30min toboggan ride to start a (I don't know)hr ride to San Francisco

Merry Christmas, or “Happy Holidays” for the PC-US. Hope you all had a great day sharing food and drink with family or friends, and took a few stuffed moments to reflect on things that ruled this year… And those not able to be there with you for their greasy share of the celebration :/

I’m on a United flight back to London after being bumped off a Delta one yesterday and spending Xmas eve drinking wine and eating turkey back at Salina and Ali’s place in San Francisco. I’m leaving really inspired, it’s Christmas Day and I can’t wait to get back to work! That sounds terrible, I know… work’s for the new year, and I’ve got more important engagements with friends in the interim, but taking a step out of normal life and hob-knobbing with some supremely clever science-types in an exceptional city has helped me slide thoughts and ideas into appropriate boxes - and priorities into line.

After some pretty wild end-of-year drinks in Zurich, and a day hiking in a white Alpine forest with my boss and his family, I boarded a toboggan, train, tram, train, plane, plane, plane, and finally car with a huge hearted

1/2 of one day's posters at AGU

Each represents at least 6 months work x 2000 posters a day = 1000 person-years of work on display each day for 5 days... Mind-blowing really, and reassuring to know so many people clever people are thinking about our planet

San Franciscan to find myself knocking on a back-alley hostel door on the edge of SF’s appropriately (and worryingly) named “Tenderloin” district at 2 or 3am. (Later, a local directing me elsewhere on the street, “Don’t go in there at night, they’ll getcha if you go in there at night”)

First impressions last though, and Judy’s generosity at 2am really set the mood for the week..

All this shuffling round was in order to show my face at the AGU Fall Congress, a geoscience conference which kicked off (for me at least) at 9:30 later that Monday morning. It didn’t let up until 8pm Saturday night, full on, but inspiring! 16,000 people showed up to present, display, or just shoot the breeze about all things related to our natural environment. Pretty important stuff to ponder over a complimentary coffee in the morning. It’s all about meeting people, and making contacts, and sharing ideas - and with that many people there I’d liken it to a game of pool before the critical consumption threshold has been reached, the table’s full of balls and there are a few obvious shots to make.. But given there’s so much floating round, a

Cheers y'all

decent shot to scatter everything is almost certain to come up with something useful… and then there’s always the chance to make the really tricky ones after a few more beers & bit of schmoose. Considering who I met and what I learnt as a relative novice - I know a few exceptional things will have come from the real pro’s gathered there.. good news for us and our poor planet!

I took a few days after the conference to explore San Fran a bit, and catch up with Salina and Ali - recent immigrants to this city from our small ETH (and Uni Zurich) circle. Great hosts, and surprisingly good turkey chefs, we stuffed ourselves with ½ sized US meals, and a bit of local culture (where better to watch Sean Penn re-enact Harvey Milk’s fight for ay rights in the Castro than in SF’s Castro theatre - complete with live organist on a moving stage to set the mood early on). So, I feel very fortunate to have spent a Germano-Canadiano-Americano Christmas dinner with them and now be heading to catch the aftermath with friends in Europe.

Best wishes to you all, and if anyone still