Daily Archives: Friday, 19 May, 2006

After seeing my mother we rushed to Rotterdam (140 km by bus, train and tram) to attend the opening of the European Bureau for Improbable Research in Rotterdam’s Museum of Natural History.
Marc Abrahams, the editor in chief of the Annals of Improbable Research, hosted a very entertaining evening about a variety of research topics, all of them rewarded with the alternative Nobel prize, the IgNobel prize. We both hugely enjoyed the evening, especially because all the lectures where very short and even Alison, fresh out of Canada, had no trouble to stay awake. Afterwards though, when we just chatted a little with each-other, I missed Alison and found her fast asleep next to a stuffed orangutang.

If you want to get an impression of the (very funny) evening, you can find a 60 minute video registration on a Dutch science weblog.

After I picked up Alison from Schiphol airport, I immediately transported her to see my mother in Nijmegen (120 km by three trains and one very expensive taxi).

My mother was glad to see her again, the last time they saw each-other was almost a year and a half ago at my mother’s 80th birthday. My mother is feeling much better now she gets morphine for the pain in her paralysed leg. The only downside is that she’s a bit distant and our conversations aren’t very lively anymore.

Alison made her a nice scarf and she was very happy with it. I don’t think she’ll wear it very often since it’s quite hot in her room, with big windows towards the South West and there is not enough personnel in the nursing home to lower the sun blinds when it gets too hot…