Medalling

My day went in descending order of pleasantness.

After a short period working at home, I headed to the Royal Society of Edinburgh to see some colleagues receive their medal for teamwork. Very pleased for them.

Then into work, where I had a meeting to chair, which was slightly bizarrely located in one of the upper floors of 40 George Square. Shades of when we were decanted there in the middle of the last decade.

Finally, I had the "pleasure" of being the independent chair of this event. In order for it to go ahead, hired security as well as police and university security were there in large numbers. I went in early, and sat around, in order to avoid the demonstration which was bound to happen. There was plenty of chanting when the event finished 2.5 hours later and many of us exited the back of the building. My role was simply to make sure the Q&A went smoothly. I make no comment on the content. Given the diversity of people in my School, I would be stupid so to do. Actually, I will make one comment. The demographic of the audience was *much* younger than I expected. Or perhaps more diverse.

My only task was to intervene when a journalist asked a question about making compromises and he was being interrupted and slightly heckled before he could finish his question. I'm glad that was over. I found the events just under a year ago really quite unpleasant. But the visible presence of security, including in the lecture theatre, was just strange.

I was lucky to get a bus home almost immediately, allowing me the chance to pop into Cornelius on Leith Walk to pick up a bottle of red wine, which we sipped before bedtime.