I fly from Okinawa to Tokyo to Frankfurt to Geneva. I get to Geneva at 7:50 on Tuesday morning having left Okinawa at 7:00 on Monday evening. Perfect trip – every flight on time.
photo of my coat at 5:30 am in Frankfurt
Geneva is cold and very grey.
Scene 1
Conversation with Geneva cab driver, he is leaning against his car smoking.
“Le CERN s’il vous plait.”
“Quoi?”
“Je veux aller au CERN”
“ Le CERN?”
“Oui.”
“Quoi?”
“C’est une grande labo de physique a 5 kms d’ici.”
“Je connais le CERN”
“On peux y aller?”
He takes a couple of puffs, throws his cigarette in to the road.
“Montez “
This is not Okinawa.
Scene 2
Prof. Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith is having a 70th birthday celebration of talks by very smart people. A couple of talks focus on the political build up to the approval of LHC and the establishment of the experimental collaborations. I had forgotten most of this and wow it was not easy. Everlasting praise to Chris for getting it all done.
He also had a galvanizing influence on the fusion community and I was able to work with him on this also. Happy Birthday Chris.
Here is the program
http://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=199172
Many, many old friends.
Chris and Rolf
Alvaro, Francoise, John
Fabbiola
Herwig, Sergio, Cashmore.
We have drinks and dinner.
Then upstairs to Bedfordshire after many hours without sleep. It is miraculous what you can do in a couple of days.
The Quiet Ripple Defines The Pond 
Listening to a BBC Radio 4 programme where Chris Llewelyn-Smith is talking about the Sesame synchroton project he’s involved with in Jordan. Good man still being so involved.