Bloggees were obviously concerned about the Huttonian runs. Very much better thankyou (and so is the wife) and it was cheering to see that I was not the only sufferer at the Congress. The number of squirming academics eyeing the door of the seminar room with little maps of how to find the nearest loo was illuminating and I wonder if catering standards have slipped a bit since the visitors have returned to Amman in such huge numbers. One chairman left the seminar room four times during his own paper and when he returned from his last evacuation the paper he had been reading from had the last few pages missing so it had been put to an essential non academic use. As this shortened the procedings (even allowing for unscheduled seatings) this was no bad thing in the larger scheme of things. As one listener muttered sotte voce:
'It was a load of c**p anyhow'
