cont'd

monday

11.1. it transpires that jiat has never before eaten a krispy kreme donut, so at my insistence we pick up a half-dozen from the grocery store, along with a bag full of red delicious apples. together with orange pekoe tea, that's breakfast.

11.2. needless to say, he loves them.

12. nobel laureate paul greengard is one of the day's featured speakers. he has published over 2000 peer-reviewed papers over five decades, mapped out innumerable neurotransmitter signal transduction pathways, and fully described the actions of DARPP-32, (which is the molecule that ultimately makes you happy when you take cocaine, pot, MDMA, caffeine, and other such lovely substances). a large chunk of neuroscience exists today because of this guy. he's also the most lucid octogenarian i've ever seen, and delivers an extremely technical talk clearly and with panache (and even manages to slam the republicans a few times).

13. by 4 i'm fairly exhausted. i shlep back to the hotel and force myself to run on the treadmill for half-an-hour to make up for a very bad weekend full of bacon and grease.

14.1. dinner is with scott h.'s group from my old duke lab. it's at the globe, a ten-minute walk through drizzle and fog, and when i get there i discover that i don't really know anyone, except the ex lab person who's the reason i was invited.

14.1.1. (and jamie, but i think he thinks i'm an idiot so that doesn't count)

14.1.2. (kevin pelphrey, my old advisor, and an inspirational up-and-coming expert on autism, has begged off the conference for the second year in a row. it's sad -- i haven't seen him for ages.)

14.2. i'm seated between scott, who is very scary, and sarah, who looks like jeanne tripplehorn.

14.2.1. which means the evening starts off extremely awkwardly, in the way of trying to find something, anything in common to talk about.

14.2.2. we go through the obvious things in about eight-and-a-half seconds.

14.2.3. it's kind of like two quadruplegics trying to play frisbee.

14.2.4. the waitress performs a flying save by coming round to ask if we want any drinks. i order a grey goose dry martini post haste. between them, scott and david manage to order about half the wine list.

14.2.5. the martini is large, chilled to the perfect temperature, and has three (3) fat olives in it.

14.3. the food starts arriving. the appetisers are a very good sign of things to come -- chorizo-stuffed dates, asparagus, haricot verts and mushrooms in a light tempura batter, hummus, and calamari. the dates are so good that we order another 2 plates.

14.4. i finally manage to uncover the fact that sarah's work revolves around decision-making, something i can talk about, and we're off to the races. we have both started work by this point on the cabernet blanc, and suddenly everything is very funny, and we take a left-turn off the highway of decision-making to talking about whether women watch football exclusively because the uniforms show off players' asses.

14.5. the main course is brilliant - pan-fried cod with gnocchi, pancetta, parsnips and dates. i love the way cod flakes, and how it has a little bit of a bite without being a steak. the gnocchi is subtly sweet, neither mushy, nor too chewy, and has the slightest suggestion of a skin. the parsnips and the dates make the dish exciting without being overwhelming. my (limited) experience in expensive restaurants here has generally been that the food is not worth the price, and i'm glad that i've finally found somewhere where that's not the case.

14.6. sarah spills her water. i switch from white to red. one half of the table is discussing the duke lacrosse incident and the other is telling pedophile jokes.

14.6.1. pedophile joke #1:
what's so good about twenty eight year olds?
there are twenty of them

14.6.2. pedophile joke #2:
how do you know when it's bedtime in the jackson household?
it's when the big hand touches the little hand.

14.6.3. and so forth.

14.7. dessert is quince and apple cobbler, piping hot, with marsala ice-cream.

14.8. i think this was paid for on a duke department credit card, so i'm completely remorseless. after all, i have to start recovering our $200,000 from somewhere.