Flying from AMS to MSP. It was a good trip-- the Ghoshal conference in London, time to chat with Gerry and Tore, and of course returning to Edinburgh. Much accomplished, mostly as follows:
First, everything is on track to move to Scotland. We have housing arranged-- a 6 month let 1-Aug to 1-Feb in a very nice part of Edinburgh, the New Town area near the edge of Stockbridge. The address is 7 Darnaway Street (postcode information to follow another time). I've met some of the neighbors in Aisnslie Place, the Raabs, former professors (of governance and statistics, respectively), and apparently we are in extraordinary company as well, as Professor Peter Higgs also lives in the vicinity. The process of signing the lease was a bit more stressful than I expected, though I'm pleased to say I remained optimistic throughout. The day we confirmed that we wanted to let the apartment the owners received a call from a potential purchaser (they had put the property on the market because the apartment hadn't let for a number of months and they don't use it frequently). So, suddenly, they didn't want to let it on the chance it sold. We went through two cycles in a single day on that-- first they decided to let it, and then at 4pm (with a scheduled lease signing of 5.15pm) they changed their mind, and I arrived at the letting office to be told everything was on hold. We waited, and the phone call finally came to agree to the lease. All was quickly solved, signed and sealed.
The kids and Lynn received their new US passports (mine will expire in 2012, so we'll have to take care of that at some point), and now we are set for Costa Rica. We'll have to coordinate the entry clearance for Lynn and the kids after Costa Rica, but so far the UK Consulate General's office in Chicago has been a model of celerity in responding to various visa and entry clearance requests.
There is still much to do-- closing on the sale of the house, shipping belongings to Edinburgh, getting rid of everything else or storing it locally, and so on.
And, i still need to submit my actual dissertation document and complete the viva, currently scheduled for 1-Sep. But so far, all seems possible and on schedule.
I had the opportunity in Edinburgh to chat with faculty and establish some preliminary connections with some of the other schools. The weather was, according to the locals, extraordinary-- little rain, much sunshine, warm and balmy. The cherry trees in the Meadows were in full bloom, with a rain of petals constantly drifting about. The students were camped out in great numbers, some apparently barbecuing on the lush green lawn. It was precisely as one imagines a college campus in good weather, with the only slight oddity being the proclivity towards grey and black clothing and the complete absence of shorts -- thought short and mini-skirts were not uncommon on the women. The campus, though in the heart of the town, benefits from the many green spaces, from the sprawling Meadows to George Square and others. I spent a pleasant 15 minutes sitting in George Square admiring the campus central garden while waiting for an appointment.
I also spent much time walking around-- from the High Street to the Grassmarket, the main shopping area on Princes Street, and crossing the river via the Mound past the historic museums. It is constantly strange to turn a corner and see a church or other historic building at least 300 years old--- and of course the castle always just above the hillside-- overlooking the Grassmarket, in fact-- quite a sight on a clear warm night. Nick and Sarah took me through a quick tour of the Old College as well, the great Library hall, apparently mostly unused now other than for major events.
The new business school construction continues apace. Charles Raab commented that it used to be a somewhat catastrophic building-- partially falling apart and asbestos ridden-- I can only assume all that has been resolved. Realistically, the facade of the school is clean but not particularly striking-- it actually recapitulates the style and shapes of the Robertson building. On the other hand, I assume the interior and the upper, glass--enclosed floor, will all be modernized; another improvement will be the locational distribution of the groups within the school so I should be near the rest of the E&I group.
The dinner with the Raabs was wonderful-- they were kind and gracious and perfect hosts.
At times I struggle to imagine exactly what my role will be within the Business School. At the moment I have no conceptualization beyond that to a role within the broader University, but perhaps there will be something. In the meantime, I will be focused on my specific responsibilities-- completing the dissertation, surviving the viva, submitting more papers and consolidating my current research outputs, and eventually preparing to teach. My impression is that the teaching load will be modest in Fall term and heavier in Spring, though at this point I still have relatively few details.
The only disappointment of the entire trip was discovering, Friday night, walking back from dinner with the Raabs, that there would be a performance of Bach's B-Minor Messe tonight (Saturday) in one of the performance halls, which I would just muiss, of course. It seems I have been waiting many years to experience a live performance, and to be so close is frustrating, as it is so rarely performed in its entirety.
For now, aside from a few loose threads to follow up on from my meetings, I can put all that asisde and begin to look towards our trip to Costa Rica beginning in mid-June. I am very, very excited to go surfing again.
Sunday 23 May 2010
14-May - the next big step
At Minneapolis airport-- I have a 3 hour layover before the flight to London Heathrow. Actually 3.5 hours, but I spent 30 minutes walking around the airport-- something like .9 miles around the parking structure. Can't complain, I was bumped to first class on the flight from Madison, and I saw an interesting vignette. While I was waiting to board in Madison, there was a passenger who spent a few minutes at the gate podium trying to get an aisle seat on his next flight, at least from the snippet I caught. He was quite disappointed to be turned down, but I have to conclude either that he's not a frequent flyer, paid less for his ticket, or bought at the last moment, because getting aisle seats isn't that difficult, usually, and he said he checked online. It was interesting, because he appeared to have no carryons-- though I think in fact he had put all his stuff in the business center area at Madison and was simply comfortable walking around without it. It was, to some extent, oddly suspicious, I was tempted for a moment to mention something, but to whom? Security? The gate staff? This isn't an El Al flight, it's a flight to Minneapolis from Madison. I pretty much forgot about him until halfway through the actual flight, and there he was, hanging around in the first class cabin with the flight attendants. He had a cup of something, so he must have come up and requested a drink because they don't serve to coach class on that short flight. And, in fact, they usually keep the coach passengers out of first class, but there he was, chumming it up with the attendants, and, in fact, he stayed up there until the very end of the flight, long after the seatbelt sign went on, right until the pilot announced the landing. It was odd- there was something odd about the whole thing. On the one hand, I felt the righteous Glenn Beck-ian indignation of the elite-- I'm in first class by right, might, or money, and you've no right to be up here-- and on the other hand the more blue state underdog sentiment-- go ahead and work the system-- you were in coach but apparently were interesting enough to merit tolerance by the flight attendants-- maybe you even got a pack of peanuts out of it. But he had a strangeness to him, an intensity-- he was average height, average build, perhaps just slightly Italian or Middle Eastern complexian and physiognomy, Dark hair and just the hint of 5'oclock shadow. A bit of Henry Fonda and a touch of Stallone, perhaps, without the bulk or bruteness. But something odd, out of place, though I can't put my finger on what it was.
Anyway, I'm off to the UK for 8 days-- the Ghoshal conference on managerially relevant research (of all things) where I may even present our strategic flexibility paper, and then 3 days in Edinburgh for venture community development and apartment hunting. This is, in some ways, the inflection point trip-- after this there will only be one more visit to Imperial, to defend my dissertation on 1-Sep, and after this there will only be the move to Edinburgh for all of us (assuming all the visa stuff gets worked out properly). So this is the last trip before the move-- the last of the upward steps to the pinnacle-- it's all downhill after this.
There's been some small developments worth mentioning, I suppose. The house sale continues to move forward-- we will close on 28-May as the 31st is, of course, Memorial Day, something neither the buyers nor we picked up on the first go-around. The buyers are being very kind to let us stay in the house until June 10th, the day before we leave for Costa Rica. Lynn has finished her last day of work and is now committed to getting ready for the move. There's still so much to do-- belongings to dispose of, decisions to make about what to ship, logistics, and so on. We got indirect confirmation from the Primary school in Scotland we were most interested in that they don't have a space for Taran, so we're going to look at a secondary area south of the City Centre that many people have mentioned to us: Marchmont. I'm sure that will be fine as well, though it's funny that both Lynn and I got slightly connected to the idea of being in Stockbridge. I think it was the one apartment that had a piano, and the fact that the public library was right next to the school. Well, there's only so much we can do about all that. As Kate, the relocation person says, the school issue may be trickier than housing-- I wish we could ensure the school placement because I'm sure we can find something in the catchment that would work for us.
Listening to Eno's "Ambient Music for Airports" -- self-evidently appropriate, but still fascinating. I'm not quite sure where my interest in Ambient/Trance music blossomed out of, and goodness knows there's much I simply can't tolerate, but Eno's work is, on the whole fascinating-- relaxing and yet novel at the same time.
I'm very hopeful I'll be able to get work done on this trip-- specifically building and filling out the third study component of the dissertation and updating the introductory literature review and the introduction that binds it all together. If I'm diligent, I could theoretically send a draft to Gerry by the end of the month and finalize it before we leave for Costa Rica-- what a relief that would be.
The meeting schedule at the Uni (UK slang, I guess) looks good-- meetings with innovation-related managers in other schools. I'm enthusiastic about the possibility of building some connections, but the tech transfer systems in place at Edinburgh are already sophisticated, as far as I can tell, and I'm guessing my role is more associated with finding a way to integrate activities at the business school, or arguably, develop activities at the business school that could integrate with the tech transfer and venture creation programs already in place. Either way, I'm excited to learn more about it and see what I can contribute and build.
There are also meetings with entrepreneurship faculty, and I'm hopeful I'll get a better sense of the teaching context and my likely responsibilities. I'd rather not have to figure out a curriculum after getting back from Costa Rica-- Celina's emails about prepping for her EMLyon courses have been instructive about the challenges of preparing course on a tight schedule. I've not had to do that for a long time and I'd prefer not to go back to that model.
It turns out that Paul, Ellen, their two boys and a guest will be joining us in Costa Rica for 10 days. I'm sure they won't be hanging out with us the whole time-- they are much more adventurous than we are and will likely sample much more of the local culture, whereas we're relatively happy to be surfing tourists. So we'll have 3 weeks with no visitors at all and then the DeWalds and the Reckwerdts will show up in quick succession-- it will probably work out perfectly as we'll probably be right at the edge of driving each other crazy by then :)
Well, this seems like a good entry for now. Cheers from G8.
Anyway, I'm off to the UK for 8 days-- the Ghoshal conference on managerially relevant research (of all things) where I may even present our strategic flexibility paper, and then 3 days in Edinburgh for venture community development and apartment hunting. This is, in some ways, the inflection point trip-- after this there will only be one more visit to Imperial, to defend my dissertation on 1-Sep, and after this there will only be the move to Edinburgh for all of us (assuming all the visa stuff gets worked out properly). So this is the last trip before the move-- the last of the upward steps to the pinnacle-- it's all downhill after this.
There's been some small developments worth mentioning, I suppose. The house sale continues to move forward-- we will close on 28-May as the 31st is, of course, Memorial Day, something neither the buyers nor we picked up on the first go-around. The buyers are being very kind to let us stay in the house until June 10th, the day before we leave for Costa Rica. Lynn has finished her last day of work and is now committed to getting ready for the move. There's still so much to do-- belongings to dispose of, decisions to make about what to ship, logistics, and so on. We got indirect confirmation from the Primary school in Scotland we were most interested in that they don't have a space for Taran, so we're going to look at a secondary area south of the City Centre that many people have mentioned to us: Marchmont. I'm sure that will be fine as well, though it's funny that both Lynn and I got slightly connected to the idea of being in Stockbridge. I think it was the one apartment that had a piano, and the fact that the public library was right next to the school. Well, there's only so much we can do about all that. As Kate, the relocation person says, the school issue may be trickier than housing-- I wish we could ensure the school placement because I'm sure we can find something in the catchment that would work for us.
Listening to Eno's "Ambient Music for Airports" -- self-evidently appropriate, but still fascinating. I'm not quite sure where my interest in Ambient/Trance music blossomed out of, and goodness knows there's much I simply can't tolerate, but Eno's work is, on the whole fascinating-- relaxing and yet novel at the same time.
I'm very hopeful I'll be able to get work done on this trip-- specifically building and filling out the third study component of the dissertation and updating the introductory literature review and the introduction that binds it all together. If I'm diligent, I could theoretically send a draft to Gerry by the end of the month and finalize it before we leave for Costa Rica-- what a relief that would be.
The meeting schedule at the Uni (UK slang, I guess) looks good-- meetings with innovation-related managers in other schools. I'm enthusiastic about the possibility of building some connections, but the tech transfer systems in place at Edinburgh are already sophisticated, as far as I can tell, and I'm guessing my role is more associated with finding a way to integrate activities at the business school, or arguably, develop activities at the business school that could integrate with the tech transfer and venture creation programs already in place. Either way, I'm excited to learn more about it and see what I can contribute and build.
There are also meetings with entrepreneurship faculty, and I'm hopeful I'll get a better sense of the teaching context and my likely responsibilities. I'd rather not have to figure out a curriculum after getting back from Costa Rica-- Celina's emails about prepping for her EMLyon courses have been instructive about the challenges of preparing course on a tight schedule. I've not had to do that for a long time and I'd prefer not to go back to that model.
It turns out that Paul, Ellen, their two boys and a guest will be joining us in Costa Rica for 10 days. I'm sure they won't be hanging out with us the whole time-- they are much more adventurous than we are and will likely sample much more of the local culture, whereas we're relatively happy to be surfing tourists. So we'll have 3 weeks with no visitors at all and then the DeWalds and the Reckwerdts will show up in quick succession-- it will probably work out perfectly as we'll probably be right at the edge of driving each other crazy by then :)
Well, this seems like a good entry for now. Cheers from G8.
Tuesday 11 May 2010
Rain, travel, and a new blog coming...
More rain today in Madison, and more tomorrow as well. It's technically been a dry year so far (http://www.aos.wisc.edu/~sco/clim-history/stations/msn/msn-rts-2010.gif) but April was pretty rainy. The lawn is green for now, though we've had to cover the violas we planted in the front walkway as we had some May frosts.
I'm supposed to fly to the UK this Friday-- both to present at the Ghoshal conference on Sunday in London and to participate in meetings at the Business School in Edinburgh next week. Eyjafjallajökull has been relatively quiet, but there are still flights being delayed and cancelled on a daily basis. The relocation consultant in Edinburgh just emailed me to let me know her travel back to Scotland has been disrupted and she can't guarantee she'll be there to show me around. I may have a serious walking day ahead of me next week Weds if she's not there-- and I'd basically be sorting out the apartment search myself.
Kenna came down with a cold yesterday and lost her voice-- she's really fine but sounds very funny, and we're keeping her out of daycare because she's so sniffly. Taran's been struggling a bit in the past week or so-- I'm assuming he's reacting to the fact that there is so much change coming-- the end of the school year, vacation in Costa Rica, and moving to Scotland. It's a lot for a sensitive 6-yr old to handle.
I talked to Taran about setting up a blog for him-- he's not good enough with the keyboard to do it himself, but it would be interesting to let him dictate his own thoughts. He has a lot to talk about each day, a lot of which is spur-of-the-moment thinking that is hard to place in context, and I wonder if a set-time each day to expostulate would be helpful. I always thought a journal would be a good thing for him, but writing is such a challenge and frustration that he can't focus on it for more than a few minutes. I'll set up the "Poobahs in Edinburgh" blog and try it out with him and Kenna tonight. I'm sure it will be entertaining, whatever the result.
I'm supposed to fly to the UK this Friday-- both to present at the Ghoshal conference on Sunday in London and to participate in meetings at the Business School in Edinburgh next week. Eyjafjallajökull has been relatively quiet, but there are still flights being delayed and cancelled on a daily basis. The relocation consultant in Edinburgh just emailed me to let me know her travel back to Scotland has been disrupted and she can't guarantee she'll be there to show me around. I may have a serious walking day ahead of me next week Weds if she's not there-- and I'd basically be sorting out the apartment search myself.
Kenna came down with a cold yesterday and lost her voice-- she's really fine but sounds very funny, and we're keeping her out of daycare because she's so sniffly. Taran's been struggling a bit in the past week or so-- I'm assuming he's reacting to the fact that there is so much change coming-- the end of the school year, vacation in Costa Rica, and moving to Scotland. It's a lot for a sensitive 6-yr old to handle.
I talked to Taran about setting up a blog for him-- he's not good enough with the keyboard to do it himself, but it would be interesting to let him dictate his own thoughts. He has a lot to talk about each day, a lot of which is spur-of-the-moment thinking that is hard to place in context, and I wonder if a set-time each day to expostulate would be helpful. I always thought a journal would be a good thing for him, but writing is such a challenge and frustration that he can't focus on it for more than a few minutes. I'll set up the "Poobahs in Edinburgh" blog and try it out with him and Kenna tonight. I'm sure it will be entertaining, whatever the result.
Tuesday 4 May 2010
A few steps closer...
It's May, and we seem to be getting closer. We still haven't bought our tickets yet, but at this point we're planning on doing so this weekend. We now expect to fly directly from Minneapolis after Academy of Management finishes August 10th. Most likely travel date then would be August 12th.
Another step towards selling the house today-- the inspection went relatively smoothly. Obviously we have to wait to hear back from the buyers, but they suggested there weren't any major issues. All that remains is the appraisal, and I'm not particularly concerned about that.
Lynn booked more than $600 from the garage sale this past weekend. Very impressive. The house is a bit emptier. Still a bunch of things to unload, obviously.
We've had classic Sun Prairie spring weather-- lots and lots of wind.
Other news: Adam's sister Deborah and her husband Brian have a new baby boy! We won't be able to visit them in the near term, and unfortunately we'll probably be in Scotland before we have a chance to meet him. Hopefully next year.
Another step towards selling the house today-- the inspection went relatively smoothly. Obviously we have to wait to hear back from the buyers, but they suggested there weren't any major issues. All that remains is the appraisal, and I'm not particularly concerned about that.
Lynn booked more than $600 from the garage sale this past weekend. Very impressive. The house is a bit emptier. Still a bunch of things to unload, obviously.
We've had classic Sun Prairie spring weather-- lots and lots of wind.
Other news: Adam's sister Deborah and her husband Brian have a new baby boy! We won't be able to visit them in the near term, and unfortunately we'll probably be in Scotland before we have a chance to meet him. Hopefully next year.
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