May

I know I haven't been posting very much lately: that means that family and friends haven't been commenting on my blog or writing me emails frequently enough!

There were various excitements in May, about which I will briefly tell you.

First of all, Jimmy and Fan were married. Jimmy attended his bachelor party dressed as a whoopee cushion (David says that he was going to buy the banana costume, but it was too expensive). We played poker, sang karaoke, ate and drank, and had a good time until around 2am.

The wedding day began with photos around MIT:

The ceremony was at the MIT chapel, where I go to Mass each week:

and the reception just nearby. David gave a wonderful speech: it really captured the couple perfectly, and we all appreciated it:

There was plenty of food and conversation: not so much dancing (I don't know whether it was the early hour or the absence of alcohol...). I was so glad to share the day with them.

The next morning, I headed to Toronto for The Electrochemical Society conference. I spent Sunday afternoon wandering around the city, trying to avoid the rain and hail!

I walked past the Royal Ontario Museum, which has a very interesting building, though it was to late to go in. I went to Mass at the Newman Centre of the University of Toronto.

Monday was a full day of listening to talks. Unfortunately, they weren't terribly interesting: the one I particularly had my eye on was not as good as I had hoped. But still, it is good to keep up with what is happening in the field.

On Monday evening I tried to go to a restaurant/bar to watch Toronto vs Boston in game 7 of their hockey playoff series. Unfortunately, this being Canada, the restaurant was completely full and there was no way I was going to get food: the greeter suggested I stand at the bar, but even that would have really meant standing several metres from the bar behind all the people there. I just had dinner elsewhere (including poutine) and watched the game back at my hotel. I was pleased to see Boston come back in the last few minutes to win (Boston ended up making the finals, losing to Chicago).

On Tuesday morning, I gave my talk, on the capacity fade of lithium ion batteries. I was very happy with how it went and the response I received. One person thanked me for my recent paper, saying he had found it very useful, and asked me when the next one (looking at fast charging) was coming! I had to reply that we need more experimental data, and he suggested there might be room for collaboration. Another person asked me whether I had any plans for after graduation, which I took as a good thing (i.e. he might be interested in offering me a job). I wouldn't be interested in working in this field any more - I'd prefer something with more physics content - so I'll be looking elsewhere.

In the evening, I went with Will (fellow group member), Dan (former group member) and Georgina (Will's wife) to watch the Toronto Blue Jays play the San Francisco Giants (baseball, for those who don't keep track of all the American sports). It was good fun: we had much better seats than for the same price at Fenway Park. Toronto won thanks to a huge first inning.

Wednesday was my last day in Toronto, so I listened to the morning of talks before heading back to the airport.

After a few days in Cambridge, I continued south, for another conference, in Baltimore. Once again I arrived on Sunday and wandered the city a little: this time I went to the Walters Art Museum. To be honest, I think I've seen enough art galleries that they start to blur together a little, but it was a pleasant (and free!) way to spend a couple of hours. I then went to Mass at Baltimore Basilica, the United States' first Catholic cathedral, before proceeding to the conference.

I heard a lot of talks over the five days of the conference. Unfortunately they were mostly focused on adsorption at the molecular scale - metal-organic frameworks and the like - while my interest is just a little bit up in length. There were some interesting talks, including one that had a lot in common with what I'm doing.

I wandered the city a little during our long lunch breaks: there is a hill nearby with a good view over the harbour:

I also enjoyed exploring to find restaurants with friends from MIT: on Tuesday we enjoyed crab (Baltimore's specialty) at LP Steamers:

The conference finished on Friday. I went to have lunch at Nick's Rotisserie on my way to the airport. The food was amazingly good. The chicken was very tasty, and upon eating the corn muffin, I realised why Jordan likes them so much: it was like eating a warm, sweet cloud. I also had some cole slaw, which had too much mayonnaise but was better than having no vegetables at all.

From the airport I headed west to Denver and, ultimately, Australia.