I started 2023 in the KPA, having divided our Christmas between Keele and a London visit. The aim had been to spend Christmas in our house in Milton, but limitations of public transport to get to Stoke Station between Christmas and the New Year meant we needed to be in Keele which has a better bus service. The London trip was to see a show, and it is described in separate post.
The main non-work-related events of the year for me were the reopening of the National Portrait Gallery, where we saw an amazing exhibition of Paul McCartney photos, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, which was as good as ever, and the GBBF, described in detail in a separate post (sadly the 2024 edition has been cancelled due to building work at Kensington Olympia). I was privileged to see one of my favourite bands, Focus, play twice, in April and November, at the Shepherds Bush Bush rHall, both times staying at a very convenient hotel next to Shepherds Bush Market tube station. Elton John played a long set at Glastonbury which was shown on TV and much enjoyed. We also saw a David Hockney exhibition at the NPG, and Cliff Richard’s Sapphire Tour show at the Cineworld in Hanley
I only attended one conference in 2023, because there were few that appealed, added to transport issues (the intermittent rail strikes continued). The one I attended was a birthday tribute for a colleague at UCL, where I saw several old friends, which was nice. After the conference Angela joined me in London for a couple of days. I also saw some old friends at the Lab Dinner in November, and enjoyed the SCR Burns Night dinner at the beginning of the year.
Teaching is now almost back to normal after the pandemic. Lectures are all face to face, and some exams are reverting to the old format. I found it quite challenging, particularly in the autumn semester, where we were usually timetabled into 2-hour slots, which doesn’t suit my subjects well (who wants 2 hours of Quantum Chemistry in one go?). I volunteered to take on the Exams Officer role when it became vacant, because it’s something I have done before. It did prove to be a challenge however, and one that will continue in 2024. After much discussion with Angela, I decided to reduce my contract for 2024/5 to 0.6 FTE (3 days a week). This is a kind of progression to full retirement, but still doing some of the parts of the job that I enjoy.
Thanks to the Keele Philharmonic Ensembles, I was able to do some playing this year, with the highlight being the Keele Philharmonic Orchestra Christmas concert. I hope to continue that in 2024.
Regarding social media, it’s been an interesting year. Facebook is much as ever, and is where I post mostly. Twitter is now called X, after Elon Musk bought it, and it isn’t what it used to be. I have accounts on Mastodon, Threads and BlueSky, but none of them (so far) are working well for me in terms of getting responses to posts, etc. I posted on that separately, and my conclusion then was that X, for all its faults, is still best for interactions.
I have continued to enjoy working with the local branch of CAMRA, which has included being Webmaster and Secretary, as well as Treasurer, which has proved more challenging! I was happy to help with our Beer Festival that we ran in October.
I’ve continued to enjoy Pokémon Go and Ingress. For Ingress, having reached level 16 in 2022, I have enjoyed it, without needing to improve my score. For Pokémon Go, I’ve concentrated on Agnes’s account, and got it to level 40 on 30 December, which was excellent timing.
We ended the year spending Christmas at our house in Milton. It’s been lovely, from attending Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve to cooking our traditional Christmas meals in our new kitchen. It’s been very relaxing and a good preparation for the New Year, which will undoubtedly have its own challenges.
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