A short post today. For one thing, I just spent an hour dealing with the reservation for Laura and my stay in Rome, Italy, being peremptorily cancelled. We are supposed to check in tomorrow. We got an email this afternoon from the quaint B&B “Livia” saying sorry you cannot stay with us, our toilet has exploded (no they didn’t say that, we found out later that there was a sudden and serious problem with the drains), here is your refund, and please try this place nearby. Gasp. Well, that place nearby has no website and the phone number provided helpfully just rang and rang. I spent interminable time on hold and had ultimately fruitless conversations with Booking.com; at the end of all that, Laura, incredibly, found a room at the very place Livia recommended. I will really believe in this room when get there and collapse on the bed. But based on the difficulty of finding this place on line, perhaps Livia knew what she was doing with the recommendation? We shall find out.
Another reason for a short post is that it was a short week. On Wednesday, we had Bioscience day, a gathering of everyone in the school to hear talks and interact. We had 30 min talks from newly hired staff and 3-min talks from postdocs. There were also presentations about education and other school resources. A useful day, especially for a visitor. Then, on Thursday, I went to Cambridge for Plant Biomechanics Day. I walked to the tram at dawn buoyed along by birdsong; I had a delightful day hearing about forces and structures and sticky pitcher plants. I also schmoozed, partly avoiding the 40 or so incredibly interesting posters each of which deserved 15 min at least of the 2 h in total given over to posters (along with lunch).
Figure 1. Image that came up when searched for “quiet interlude”. By Luno.
I have to change growth cabinets so I faffed around with a light meter and the baffling control panel of the new cabinet, clearly designed by gamers. I made growth medium and plated seeds to be stored in the fridge and put into the said cabinet a few days before my return (thank you Andy!). I had another undoubtedly fruitless session on the confocal, likely to confirm what I already know: something is shaped like a pear.
But the main event, work-wise, was a long Zoom call with Amit Verma, the programmer for OpenPolScope. He is convinced that the problems I am having stem from crap (not his word!) calibration. I agree. Better, he has offered to try his hand, thanks to the wonders of Anydesk, software that allows him to run the computer from his office in Massachusetts. I am curious to see what he does differently and whether he can really produce calibration settings that work properly. Taking bets would be rude, but…