2006 pros and cons
It’s mainly pros:
? To the amusement of some and frustration of others I stopped teaching groups. My first, albeit academic only, year without a string of teaching commitments, urged me to revise all my routines, which after all couldn’t take more radical changes. Still, a big leap towards what the predictable future holds.
? Goodbye teaching, welcome learning (no cynical undertones). Visited BachoTeX 06 conference for the first time and vowed to return. Those few days there made the mark-up languages learning curve much less steeper and completely erased the image of texnicians as fossilized computer geeks. They all were fantastically supportive.
? Re-discovered the unmistakable taste and quality of real produce. Frank Dubler, a Swiss running a farm near the place I used to live in my countryside days, makes every effort to ensure that a weekly supply of veg is truly, as they say elsewhere, organic, fresh and absolutely covered in soil.
? Got hooked on podcasts and walking. Radio at its best combined with the simplest form of exercise, both enjoyed together of course. Out of an array of BBC Radio 4′s shows Melvyn Bragg (In Our Time) and Andrew Marr (Start the Week) delivered weekly downloads to look forward to. Indispensable!
cons: Public shame and dismay. By and large 2006 was a grotesque, hypocritical debacle in politics, both at home and abroad.