Over the past two days, I watched some events at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham (if on TV). Partly due to the heat that hugely reduced my range of options. And partly in reminiscence of the 2024 Championships in Rome. Among the amazing feats, Jimmy Gressier’s lead on most of the 5,000m, if not particularly strategic with Jakob Ingebrigsten in his flow, and Gressier’s sprint in the 10,000m. And Nadia Battocletti winning again both 5,000m and 10,000m races, very tactically with a extraordinary burst on the last lap. And Aurélien Quinion finishing third on the marathon race walk, under 3h, so exhausted he turned back after the finish line. And Gianmarco Tamberi repeating his antics and gold medal in the high jump (reaching to his family rather the Italian President this time!). And the much more serene victory of Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the current World and Olympic champion in the high jump. Слава Україні!
Archive for Birmingham
Магучіх синій та золотий [B’ham European Athletics 2026]
Posted in pictures, Running with tags 10000m, Birmingham, Britain, Слава Україні, European Athletics Championships, French TV, high jump, marathon race walk, Rome, UK, Ukraine, Walsall on August 17, 2026 by xi'andammit!!
Posted in pictures, Running, Travel, University life with tags B'ham, bike safety, bike storage, Birmingham, commute, D-lock, Hatton locks, stolen bike, University of Warwick, Warwick Estates on February 11, 2025 by xi'an
When I arrived (from Paris via B’ham airport) at the University of Warwick this morning, I went directly to the secure bike shed where I store my bike between my visits. Except it was no longer there and the shed was strangely barely occupied. I immediately suspected a commando action from the dreaded Warwick Estates, who permanently chase abandoned bikes and tag them with threatening red tags for incoming removal (of said bike) if no removal (of said tag) within two weeks. And indeed when contacted they replied that
The records have been checked, and I can confirm that the bike was removed by Estates following all bikes in the secure storage over at University House being tagged as part of the abandoned bike process, due to a report of abandoned bike/s. The tags were in place for 2 weeks allowing owners to remove these before Estates collecting any bikes with tags remaining.
although the bike was still in storage with them and I thus managed to recover it… Along with a replacement, top-quality, massive D-lock. Now looking for a long-term solution that does not involve buying a Brompton!
David Lodge (1935-2025)
Posted in Books, Travel, University life with tags academia, Birmingham, Campus Trilogy, conferences, David Lodge, Edgbaston, France, Margaret Thatcher, obituary, University of Warwick, Warwickshire, West Midlands on January 15, 2025 by xi'an
Found upon my return from India that British and Birmingham writer David Lodge had passed away. While I cannot trace all the novels of his’ I read, and while I have a false memory of him being the author of a dystopia on an isolationist England returning to postcard pastoral England (namely, Julian Barnes’ England England!), I clearly remember the fun in reading his (Rummidge) campus trilogy, a fictional Midlands campus that sounded like a mix between the University of Birmingham and the Warwick campus. I vaguely remember enjoying Changing Places, and the barbs on US and UK academic lives, while Small World, focussing on the excesses of 1970’s and 1980’s international academic conferences, was both to the point and hilarious. The third volume, Nice Work, is much less of a satire of academic life, as it focus on a couple of characters, gradually switching opinions about the other (character and community). Plus attacking Thatcherism on the side. Since I read these books in the 1990’s. they may have aged or lost their appeal (esp. the trick at the centre of Nice Work), but they were definitely enjoyable at the time.
travel woes
Posted in Travel, University life with tags Astérix et Obélix, Birmingham, CDG, De Gaulle airport, French politics, GNP, Jamel Debbouze, mass tourism, Paris, Paris 2024 Olympics, Paris suburbs, public transportation, RER B, SNCF, tourism nuisances, train travel, University of Warwick on April 29, 2024 by xi'an
On my last trip to Warwick, the local (RER) train I boarded broke on its way to the CDG airport, after hitting something in a tunnel just three stops short of the airport, with so much delay and misleading communication that I missed my flight. While a minor issue for me, since I managed to work (and blog) in an airport lounge for most of the day—where I crossed path with Numerobis—, while waiting for the only flight to B’ham, this made me to reflect anew on the very poor state of the transportation network in Paris and its suburbs, with such incidents (power failures, broken rails, vetust engines, stolen cables, idiots on the tracks, &tc., even without mentioning the strikes) more and more the norm. And to wonder at how the ancient and bursting network is going to cope with the incoming flow of visitors attending the Olympics this summer… Actually, when compared with the other cities with a fairly reasonably efficient airport connection I experienced, it remains a mystery to me why the Greater Paris conurbation—whose president, Valérie Pécresse, was apparently deemed the main culprit for our train break by an incensed fellow passenger that morning!—has kept for years postponing the construction of a dedicated rail line between the airport and central Paris, as the unpredictable and uncomfortable suburban train is not delivering the intended message to Paris visitors and their still-growing contribution to the French GNP. But with the growing public opposition to any new infrastructure, incl. trains, this is unlikely to happen!
Warwickshire honey fungus [by Birmingham]
Posted in Books, pictures, Travel with tags BBC, Birmingham, Britain, Coventry, fungus, gardening, honey fungus, International Garden Photographer of the Year, International Garden Photographer of the Year competition 2023, landscape photography, Midlands, Monks Park Wood, picture, University of Warwick, Warwickshire on April 9, 2024 by xi'an
