Last week I got to add an academic celebrity to my list, although I didn't shake his hand. Thursday night was the Annual Ronald Syme Lecture, right here at Wolfson, and the lecturer was Peter Brown (right). I mentioned him in an earlier post as an important scholar from Princeton who was my supervisor's supervisor. He's the one that is credited with inventing the field of "Late Antiquity," and is a pretty impressive dude. So I was quite happy that all I had to do was walk three minutes up the hill to the dining hall on a Thursday evening to see him speak. The tables had been moved out of the old ziggaurat-hall and replaced with many rows of orange chairs, and it was a full house. His topic was relatively interesting (about a rich 5th-century Italian monk's views on wealth), but it was mainly interesting to see him in person, especially since he was not at all like I had imagined him!
I assumed he was an American, first of all, I guess since he'd been at Princeton so long. But he was Irish, and had been educated in England (including at Oxford). I had also pictured him younger (50s maybe) and smaller than he was - I don't know why on either of those, except maybe because that's how a lot of the scholars here look. But he was a really tall, broad-shouldered man in a Scandanavian-looking way. I also imagined him quite intimidating given his importance, but he came across more as a kindly (and extremely intelligent) grandfather type. And especially surprising was the fact that he had a stutter, quite a bad one at times. So it was all very interesting, and I was very pleased to have gotten to see him.
David had planned to come along with me (what a guy), but it turned out he got a big job interview on Friday and had to take an online test the night before. It was with Avis, the rental car company, at their headquarters for all of Europe! It's in a city called Bracknell, kind of near Reading (and not far from Slough). It paid more than his current job, sounded more interesting than his current job (it was dealing with decision-making on the European fleet), and had high a likelihood of being permanent from the outset - AND it included a car to use for free!
His interview was on Friday morning and began with another test consisting of logical story problems, and it went very well. He always interviews so well. They gave him positive feedback on the spot, he was well-qualified, and it sounded like he had a good shot at it. Alas, however, he found out today that he did not get the job. We're not too upset, as it would be ideal to find a job closer to Oxford, but he would have taken it.
They told David's agency recruiter (Gareth, a great guy) that they had gone with an internal candidate, and it sounds like it was pretty much a foregone conclusion, which makes me wonder why they bothered... but anyway. They told Gareth that David was so well-qualified for it that they were really conflicted about it. Gareth was extremely pleased and told David that for them to have even wavered against an internal candidate is very impressive. He promised David he would look even harder than before for a job for him, and said he'd find an ever better one before he knew it. So, disappointing, but all in all a good and confidence-boosting experience.
And that company car sure would have been nice, as Wilma didn't start this morning. That meant that David had quite a Monday, walking to the train station in the cold and dark when he had planned to drive. Wilma has previously had trouble starting when she's cold, and we left her outside all weekend instead of putting her in the garage like we should have. So when David gets home he'll try to start her again, and if that doesn't work, we'll push her in the garage for the night and try again tomorrow. That should be interesting! The garage has very tight spaces between pillars and there'll be no power steering, so I'm really hoping that I might be strong enough to push her while David steers!
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