It’s Sunday morning, I’ve just had breakfast, and shortly I’ll be throwing a few things into a bag and heading off to Dublin Airport on the Hopper Bus which is back running after being suspended for a considerable time owing to the pandemic. It’s by far the most convenient way to get to the Airport from Maynooth. I’m all checked in and ready to go, although my flight is not until this evening and it takes less than an hour to get to the airport. You can put this down to nerves!
I realized last night that this will be the first trip I’ve taken outside the UK/Ireland Common Travel Area since I went to the Euclid Consortium Meeting in Helsinki in June 2019, just over four year ago. I was made Head of Department in 2019 and the pandemic descended on us in March 2020, so I couldn’t have travelled even if I’d had the time (which I didn’t).
After such a big gap I’m very out of practice with all this travelling malarkey so am actually quite nervous, which is ridiculous, especially since I’m going to a familiar destination, Copenhagen, and will only be there for a few days. I had a short panic this morning because I’d forgotten where I’d put my passport after all this time. On the other hand, it’s good to be getting back into the swing of things with a little trip before a much bigger one later in the year.
Anyway, the reason for this trip is this year’s Euclid Consortium Meeting which will be the last before Euclid is launched next month. It promises to be a very exciting event which I can enjoy without the tension of having to do a talk.
There’s a good chance that the actual launch date for Euclid will be announced during this meeting. At the moment, all we know is that it’s between July 1st and July 15th. The announcement of the date will be made 10 days in advance so if it’s early in that two-week window, we will be told next week.
UPDATE: I took an earlier Airport Hopper than I really needed to, in case of traffic delays and/or queues at security, but the bus arrived dead on time at Maynooth and slightly ahead of schedule at the Airport. Then it only took 15 minutes to get through security. Then I found it my flight was delayed on its inbound journey so I ended up having to wait about three hours. I arrived in Copenhagen about an hour later than I’d expected but that’s not too bad really. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get full value from my EU passport at arrivals, however, as the “All Passports” booths were a lot less busy than the EU/EEA/ETC ones so I went through one of them as I would have done if I’d been travelling on my British passport. Anyway, the public transport here is very good so I got to my hotel not far from the Central Railway Station very easily. Now I just have to settle in and find out where I have to be tomorrow and when I need to get there!
In the Dark 
