And over ...

Life The first thing I did when I reached Manchester University was to trip over. I had the campus map out stretched trying to work out were the building was for the induction for this introductory week and completely failed to notice were the pavement became a low wall. I tried not to fall downwards, but almost in human slow motion, I met pavement.

This week is all about the different resources Manchester itself has to offer. So this afternoon that meant presentations from the Museum of Science and Industry and The Portico Library followed by a visit to the Connect Theatre. In this initial flush of excitement, everything is exciting.

I'm still smiling. Every now, as we drifted between seminars, I would look around at all the university buildings, at the architecture, the history, and I'm still amazed that I've been granted the opportunity. I haven't any idea what will be happening over the next twelve months, with all the lectures, study groups, essays, dissertations, whether I still have the ability to write coherently and the deadlines. But today everything felt alright. That I wasn't an interloper.

Such nice people. Ironically if you know the history, I spent most of the day hanging about with people taking MAs in Art History and Museum Studies. There appear to be many of those. Later on I met a couple of my course mates -- or all of them if there really are only three of us. As usual I developed that nervous tick were I talk and talk and make crap jokes (see Steve Martin in L A Story) but I don't think I was too embarassing and people were still speaking to me at the end of the day. Beautifully I'm not the only commuter with people travelling in from Huddersfield, Chester and Wigan. And we all seem to share the same look, an unspoken conversation which amounts to "I can't believe it!" "No neither can I."