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INKYTEXT 303 Part II
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PART II
Issue No 303 Monday 5th July 1999
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Editorial correspondence should be sent to InkyText@lancaster.ac.uk
Subscription requests to Inkytext-distribution-request@lists.lancaster.ac.uk
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PART II
Late news and announcements
4. Inkytext Works Outing Diary
5. Small Ads: Job, House for sale, Flat to let, For Fiesta, Motorbike,
Wedding Dress, Accommodation wanted, Room in house, Volvo for sale,
Bowland College Posts, Flat in Edinburgh for festival, House to rent.
6. Readers' Letters: Defence of Nick Bardsley, Phone numbers, Green travel,
Exchange, Chain Mail, Cyclists.
LATE NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
---------------------------
BEST WISHES TO WINNIE CLARK, Lancaster graduate and tireless Deputy
Librarian and wife of Dr G Clark, geographer and outgoing Bowland
Senior Tutor, who is to take early retirement from later this summer.
BEST WISHES ALSO TO COUNTY SENIOR TUTOR PIPPA MERRIMAN, who has
announced her retirement from Applied Social Science in order to devote
herself fulltime to her silversmithing. (Wonderful though perhaps
pricey creations sometimes on sale from the Peter Scott Gallery).
THE SHAKESPEARE PROGRAMME, in conjunction with the Hoghton Tower
Trust, is running a major international conference on 21, 22 and 23
July. Delegates will be here from all over the world (US, Japan, Russia
etc) many of them leading Shakespeareans. Full details of the scope of
the conference, and a programme, can be found on the web site
(http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/english.towerc.htm)
<http://www.lancs.ac.uk/users/english.towerc.htm)>
Non-academic highlights include the middle day spent at Hoghton Tower
(putative site of some of Shakespeare's 'lost' early years), and a
conference-closing concert of Elizabethan choral music given in
Lancaster Priory by the Sorbonne Singers (a group of Paris
postgraduates who are making a CD of the Priory concert) - this takes
place on the evening of the Friday, after HM The Queen's visit to
celebrate the 600th anniversary of the Duchy of of Lancaster.
Members of the university are welcome to individual academic sessions
(Wednesday in Faraday complex, Friday in George Fox) but would be
expected to pay in advance for any food and refreshments. Numbers at
Hoghton Tower have to monitored quite closely, and a contribution
towards costs would be required. Enquiries R.Dutton@lancaster.ac.uk
4. INKYTEXT WORKS OUTING DIARY
------------------------------
STANSTED AIRPORT isn't convenient... unless you're at Cambridge or
have a brother-in-law who lives in Bishops Stortford, as some of us do,
in which case it's ideally situated. Picked up C (elder daughter) in
Birmingham and drove on down through torrential rain (sorry, cricketers
at Edgbaston, and shame about the Eurovision Songs).
SIR NORMAN FOSTER'S magnificent and airy terminal building has matured
and filled since I was last here - scores of airlines now represented
and all night shopping at C&J Clarks or Louis Vuitton. The long stay
car park is half-way to the M11 - a good 10 minutes on the large Pink
Elephant buses which pass less frequently and fill more slowly than the
wonderful Manchester shuttles. NB: once through customs you also still
need to get an electric train out to your take-off bay. Leave plenty of
time.
RYANAIR 'THE LOW-COST AIRLINE' is essentially an in-flight duty-free
marketing operation, but no worse for that. Especially since my online
booked tickets were 26 pounds return (plus another 22 in airport taxes
but still...). Boeing 737s in an atttractive royal blue, white and gold
livery with a harp on the tail. Plus endless ads for Hackler Pocin,
Dublin pubs, etc. We board, then hear the pilot announce a delay while
they hunt for the baggage of some people who checked in but haven't
boarded. The nightmare scenario. Apart from that the plane is full,
with most passengers French, including a schoolgirl from Berkhamsted
returning home for mid-term. The hostesses have names like Siobhan,
Aine, Lorraine and Jodie to match the accents - except those from
Glasgow. Take off 30 minutes late.
NO FOOD AT ALL ON BOARD and they sell you drinks: 50p for the tiny
cans of mixers, 1.50 for a stubby of ale or lager, 2.50 the rest. I
settle for an 18.75cl bottle of Bordeaux Inferieur, robbery at 2.50
(Cuvee de Maitre - avoid). But we make up time and the sky is clear
enough to see France laid out like an atlas.
ST ETIENNE-BOUTHEON has a newish but minimalist airport terminal
dominated by some internal French company linking provincial towns for
businessmen. Noticed on return that its duty free counter has fags and
alcohol at less than the Ryanair alleged duty-free prices.
COACH: Grrr. It said on the Web that the coach to Lyon cost 100FF
return, but I'd noticed in their printed leaflets they said it was
100FF each way - which is correct. Seems a lot, although it is a 45
minute ride in an air-conditioned coach. Would prolly be cheaper if
there were enough passengers, but though the plane was full there are
only about six of us - the remainder were met, hired cars or went by
taxi to St Etienne.
LYON PART-DIEU TGV STATION is where the coach drops you. Late, of
course, since even on a Sunday downtown traffic is dense in the capital
of the Gauls. A wonderfully busy and buzzing city but we have a train
to catch. Not the one initially planned since it's too late to get to
Montpellier tonight, but with online booked tickets (www.sncf.fr) in my
pocket we get the next one and break the journey 2 hours later at
Avignon. C complains that in this capital of gastronomy there is no
choice of veggie sandwiches - just gruyere. I point out that in Lyon
vegetables are for feeding the pigs and hens.
AVIGNON IN THE COOL OF THE EVENING AND BEFORE THE TOURISTS ARRIVE is
bliss. You leave the station and walk through the gate in the perfectly
restored city walls. A town of still human dimensions despite being a
world heritage site and home to goodness knows how many festivals.
THE HOTEL DU PARC, rue Agricol Perdiguier, is a wee gem and literally
5 minutes from the station, even for an asthmatic carrying a suitcase
of Lancaster publicity material. No lift, no TVs or phones in rooms,
colour-coordinated, painted walls of exposed stone, framed Monet
prints. Spotless and modern toilets + shower en-suite. Perfection at
200FF a room. Agricol is an interesting reminder of the French
republicans' fondness for Roman emperors names as an alternative to
Catholic ones - hence all those distinctively 'French' men's names now
almost as extinct as Albert, Beryl or Nancy: Jules, Cesar, Auguste,
Marius, Marcel, Octave, Claude, etc. [NB if you're in a car there is a
huge new ETAP Hotel (dead cheap) outside the city walls and just along
from the station.
A SHOWER AND A STROLL DOWN TO THE FLOODLIT PALAIS DES PAPES and the
famous Pont St Benezit that once linked the Holy Roman Empire to the
free world. We choose from the huge array of outdoor restaurants
touting for business in the main square. Noisily civilised and
cheerful, filling up by now (9.30 p.m.) and all with surprisingly
competitive menus in the 7 or 8 quid range.
MENU: A Ricard and a Kir as aperos. They come with an unexpected plate
of toasts and a ramekin of shiny black tapenade, which C instantly
announces she doesn't like before scoffing the lot. Aubergines frites,
sauce provencale, then supreme de volaille aux champignons a la creme +
frites and haricots verts, followed by a glace, for the
non-red-meat-eater; soupe de poissons avec sa rouille, pave de gigot
d'agneau a la provencale, and glace pour moi too. Demi-carafe of red
and a bottle of Badoit (water). The fish soup came in a big earthenware
tureen with ladle, accompanied by loads of grated cheese and rouille.
Filled my plate 3 times. With 2 coffees the bill for two: 238FF the
lot.
NEXT MORNING ON TO MONTPELLIER. Only an hour by train through Nimes
and Lunel. Point out the garrigues (stony ground covered in brackens
and dried stream beds) and the ripening vines (more precocious than
their northern Rhone neighbours from the day before).
MONTPELLIER is a happening place, far smaller than Lyon but visibly a
regional capital and proud of itself. Another wonderful city to walk
in. It also had and will have superbly inttegrated transport with the
bus station as in Lyon on top of the railway. Unfortunately they are
currently building a tramway - all at once - which will stretch from
the station to the university and criss-crosses the pedestrian areas...
Still - fine when it is finished in october 2000.
WE SETTLE INTO A TINY HOTEL in a pedestrianized street beside the
Opera and cool down. Then out to lunch in the shade of the McDonalds in
the modern shopping precinct. (Superb salad with vinaigrette and a
mineral water, 16F50 = 1.75)
MONTPELLIER is a spread out, low-rise city full of parks and very
flower conscious. Also youth-oriented, with three universities and
scores of other HE institutions, plus research establishments and the
main national computer centre outside Paris. It centres round the Place
de La Comedie outside the Opera, a huge pedestrian plaza known to all
as 'l'Oeuf' and filled with terraces to sip and chat on beneath the
pergolas. Still not quite Spain but the influence is apparent.
SUSS OUT HOW TO BUY a carnet of bus tickets - now just a computerized
card valid for 10 trips - and head up anonymously to the University
Paul Valery to poke around a bit. The whole of the northern residential
quartier seems studentish, with burger joints and clubs. The campus of
Paul Valery is unusually green for a French university they even water
the grass. Also compact and with a huge museum of plaster cast antique
statues in the middle - their answer to Ruskin. Students lying on the
grass smoking, chatting and reading. C embarrassed by my presence and
says I don't fit in where there are students....
TAKE A DOWNHILL STROLL BACK INTO TOWN to get some bearings. Lots of
private student residences - some still being built - often owned by
property agencies or hotel groups. Plenty of letting advertised without
a summer retainer. Single persons' studios have always been far
commoner in France than here. Then down into old Montpellier and the
medical faculty where Rabelais and Nostradamus studied. The facades of
some beautiful renaissance buildings interspersed with the new.
EVENING MEAL ON THE TERRACE OF THE BRASSERIE PROSPER: We take the
69.50FF menu (cheaper than Pierre Victoire's evening rates) menu
preceded by a Ricard and a house aperitif for C while we study it. C's
apero is a kind of Kir aux griottes (morello cherries) with a skewered
and soused pair of them on top. I decide to begin with the Salade du
berger: lettuce, walnuts, Emmenthaler cubes with Roquefort sauce - a
kind of Pyrenean equivalent to a Ploughman's lunch. Then grilled magret
de Canard in peppered sauce served with gratin dauphinois and
asparagus, a tart to finish. C has terrine de saumon with a sharp and
creamy sorrel sauce, meli-melo de poissons (three different grilled
fillets) and a feuillantine aux chocolat with creme anglaise (9 francs
supplement). Terrible service and they got my main course wrong first
time round. But bloody amazing value beneath the stars - cheaper than
last night.
TUESDAY: Glorious dawn. Up betimes and make myself smart (Ungaro shirt
and frog tie with blazer plus ironed flannelsand lashings of Paco
Rabanne apres-rasage). Head off for the bus with my laden porte-feuille
feeling like a travelling salesman... then realise I am the only man in
Montpellier wearing a tie and not in shirt sleeves. Appointment with the
Socrates office and various heads of department.
EXCELLENT AND FRUITFUL MORNING ON CAMPUS: joke about my archetypal
costume and remove my tie. Charming people. They are all terrribly
impressed by our prospectus cover and the list of course produced for
the North American office. Gently point out that we consider ourselves
a little superior to post-1992 universities and are fortunate in our
facilities. English chaps interested in Shakespeare at Lancaster and
tell me Paul Valery is the national French hotbed of the stuff. Pretty
good morning's work. Pity Robin Cook didn't let me handle Rambouillet.
PHONE ST ETIENNE AIRPORT to ask where in Lyon one buys tickets for the
Ryanair airport bus. Phones are in the open so there is background
noise. "Dobermans" says the airport receptionist "it's a bar". I beg her
pardon and ask if that's spelt like the dog... "No: Obermann's" she
says. I repeat it, amazed that anyone should name something after de
Senancour's now deservedly almost unknown pre-romantic novel. "No, she
repeats in exasperation, "O'Gorman's". Light dawns - it's an Irish pub
within the precinct of Part Dieu station. Should have known.
WARM EVENING: stroll again down the ancient Rue de l'Universite (you
remember - the one where Rabelais and Nostradamus studied medicine),
past the spot where poor old St Roch, patron of Lepers and Actors (two
of a kind) finally gave up the ghost, to the square where 5 or 6
different establishments each have their own colour-identified tables
under pergola in the square. Try to track down a menu without
compulsory pork or red meat. Not easy, but I ask what tacaud is and
learn it's a small fish from the cod family. So.... another spiffing
meal, cheap because we order before 8.00 p.m. And can't even make the
combined bill reach 200FF this time.
WEDNESDAY: the 9.10 train to Lyon... shame really. Meet Sarah Clifft
outside O'Gorman's, introduce C and have lunch in the open, hearing
about young Benjamin's progress. And so back to St Etienne.
STANSTED: raining of course, and late.... a nightmare drive back to
Lancaster via Birmingham. 'Twas ever thus. Bloody sight cheaper than
scheduled flights to Montpellier though.
5. SMALL ADS
------------
JOB VACANCY: TEACHING AND LEARNING DEVELOPMENT CO-ORDINATOR (HEDC)
This post will play an important role in supporting the development of
learning and teaching within the institution through contributing to
the Certificate in Learning and Teaching in HE programme, developing
routes to accreditation for those who teach within the institution and
working with academic departments on the development of their teaching
and learning approaches. Salary: £18,275 - £29,048 (pay award pending)
Reference: A169 Closing date: 23 July 1999
-----------------
FLAT ON CAMPUS available to let between July and the end of September.
Spacious open plan lounge and dining area,, three bedrooms (2 single, 1
double), bathroom, toilet and kitchen, no heating or water bills to
pay, well furnished, patio fantastice for summer. Only 37 pounds per week
based on 3 people sharing. Contact extension 92582
----------------
FOR SALE: BMW R65 LS BOXER TWIN MOTORBIKE 1983. Stainless silencers,
recent tyres, panniers, 12 months MOT, taxed 1,850 ono
m.mort@lancaster.ac.uk x94077 or 015242 51532
-------------
FOR SALE: Ford Fiesta H registered, 999cc petrol, genuine 32,000
miles, service history, MoT October, tax december - no rust. 1650 GBP.
Graham Chapman - extn 593736 or 593742 - home number 015242 61122
(Bentham).
---------------
HOUSE FOR SALE Lancaster. Close to Williamson Park with view over
Morecambe Bay. 10/15 min drive from University, 10 min drive from
motorway, 15-20 min walk from bus and rail stations. 2 reception, 2
beds, kitchen,bathroom, utility, shower room/toilet. Gas central
heating. 2 phone lines. In good decorative order. Easily managed
garden. Could if wished be used as 2 flatlets. Offers in the region of
£44,950. Tel 017683 61246. email rstevens@s-bit.u-net.com. Possibility
of renting on short term basis to staff or postgrads - non-smokers,
refs required. 350GBP house; 250 GBP one flatlet.
-------------------
FOR SALE: White Wedding Dress, Alfred Angelo Design, V-neck, fitted
bodice, decorated with pearls. Size 12/ small 14 175 GBP ono Tel: 01524
33707
------------
ACCOMODATION REQUIRED: Do you have a house or flat you would like
looked after over the summer? I am a responsible female looking to
rent/mind someone's home, short or long term. I like animals (don't
have any with me!). Perhaps you need someone to share your house or
flat. Ph. 592679 CSET, Ed. Research, or 843709 evenings. Or email
Chris Holland (c.holland@lancaster.ac.uk)
--------------
FLAT IN EDINBURGH AVAILABLE AUGUST and some of September. Edinburgh
Festival 8-30 August Sleeps 6-8 people, all usual facilities. Very
centrally located, minutes from Filmhouse, Traverse Theatre,
Pleasance, Princes Street etc. Very reasonable rent
Contact Teresa - Uni 92858 email. t.j.young@lancaster.ac.uk
Home 61541
Please note I'll be away between July 8 & 25
----------------------
VOLVO CAR For Sale: collect August. Transferbale roadside assistance.
Contact p.ha@lancaster.ac.uk
-------------
ROOM TO LET: We have a lovely sunny room in a terraced house in
Aberdeen Road overlooking leafy Scotch Quarry available from 1st
October. We would prefer to share with another post-graduate or mature
student, and you must be a non-smoker. You would share a big kitchen,
lounge and bathroom with a female PhD student and an employed male.
There's gas central heating, a washing machine, electric shower,
telephone, and cycle storage. The rent will be about 135 GBP per
calendar month plus share bills, and the lease is for 12 months. One
month's deposit required plus two references. Please phone 382219 and
leave a message if no-one's in, or email j.jain@lancaster.ac.uk
-------------------
LARGE SPACIOUS MID-TERRACED HOUSE FOR SALE in Scotforth: 4 bedrooms,
lounge & dining room, kitchen, bathroom and downstairs w.c. Cellar and
garage to rear. Central heating and tastefully decorated thoughout,
71.950. Close to local shops and amenities, University, school, bus
stops, 20 mins from town centre. Contact Mr & Mrs Herring (evenings)
01524 66276.
-----------------
BOWLAND COLLEGE OFFICER POSTS 1999. There are a number of college
officer posts which will become available within Bowland College on 1st
August 1999: Senior Tutor, College Dean, Assistant Senior Tutor, Social
Secretary. We would like to invite anyone who is interested in becoming
more active within the collegiate system to consider applying for one
of these posts. Each post attracts a small honorarium. If you are
interested in finding out more about these posts, or simply wish to
find out more about Bowland College, please contact Dr Louise Banton,
Bowland College Principal, ext 592108 (l.banton@lancaster.ac.uk).
-------------
HOUSE FOR RENT: 2 bedroomed house available for rent from early
September. Near city centre (1 minute from bus route and 5 minutes from
town centre) - Primrose area. Gas central heating and open fire. 340
pounds pcm. Contact Alys 842921 (evenings)
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6. READERS' LETTERS
-------------------
RE: the BOYS BICYCLE for sale 'Buyer to remove (due to the odd
spider)'.
Is it the spider's bicycle riding that makes it odd or is there
something else?
Pelham Gore
Accounting and Finance
--------------------------
Stephen Breuer asks how a would-be reader knows 'when to look for the
new issue of a highly irregular publication.'
If you add a shortcut to the public folder to either your "Favourites"
list or to your Outlook shortcut bar, you'll see the entry go bold and
show an "unread message" count when a new item appears in the folder.
There isn't a way of getting an automatic alert other than this - for
myself, I'm heartily glad, since I seem to spend most of my time
cancelling automatic alerts from this that and the other....
Alan Phillips
ISS
----------------------
Pedestrians with smelly shoes will commiserate with mudguardless
cyclists discovering a line of excreta on the back of their clothes.
However, for those cyclists who enjoy pooping horns at jumping
pedestrians, an appropriately childish response is to poke something
into the spokes and create matching levitation.
Michael Jackson (mike-de-hest@talk21.com)
---------------------------
If you look up a Cardiff number in BT's online directory, it'll give
you the new (029 20)-prefixed form (Cardiff is one of the places where
all the numbers have changed). And guess what - our telephone exchange
doesn't know what to do with 029 20.....
------------------------------
While I agree with Huw Owen that he need not proclaim his status "at
every opportunity", I think that Bardsley's main point was that by
signing himself emphatically as a humble "student", the versatile Mr
Owen was being not a little disingenuous. If he had left it at signing
his name, none of this would have arisen.
As for Owen's shrill point about Bardsley being "NOT HERE ANYMORE",
does the leaving of Lancaster preclude one from being allowed to care
about what happens to the old place? The Witches' Curse works on a
long-distance basis too.
Louis Barfe
Former student, now journalist, resident of East London, DIY expert,
National Film Theatre member, Moulinex food processor owner, friend of
Nick Bardsley...
----------------------------
How long do you anticipate before the Bailrigg campus is turned into a
golfcourse, as part as a conference centre boosting initiative?
Dave Ingles
[NOTE: Nice idea and you ought to get royalties for suggesting it if
it's implemented. Forest Hills, the 9 hole golf course and fishery on
Green Lane just a 3 iron away from Pendle, seems to be doing fine and
has some kind of deal with the Management School. (Ed.)]
-------------------------
Given the generally sympathetic coverage and discussion devoted to
Green transport issues that we find in most issues of Inkytext, how
come the holiday transport advice only refers to cars and planes?
So why not try http://www.pti.org.uk/ which claims to cover: "all
travel by rail, air, coach, bus, ferry, metro and tram within the UK,
(including the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland) and
between the UK and Ireland. Plus all rail, ferry and coach travel
between the UK and mainland Europe. This is THE definitive index to
timetables, fares, ticket-types, passenger facilities and lots more. If
it's not here, it's not on the web."
For those day and weekend trips to the Lakes you need look no further
than the astonishingly good
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jplanner/info.html which does
Cumbria County Council proud - yes there are buses in the Lakes,
especially in the summer, and getting better evry year.
Of course Inkytext may not feel that a gentle amble through North
Norfolk on buses, or pottering about the New Forest on bikes after a
swift train journey, or island hopping in the Western Isles, or
getting the freedom of Welsh railways with one ticket, or in fact
doing anything at all in Britain counts as a holiday.
Peter Hughes
Sunderland
----------------------
I was intrigued by my old Religious Studies colleague John Clayton's
idea that the University's "official" announcements help him to make
sense of Inkytext. I always thought this was the other way round. But
his (very courteously presented) view is genuinely intriguing, isn't
it! It seems to suggest that Inkytext is the real text and the rest is
just commentary. I like it.
Michael Pye
Marburg
(PS No offense meant, John, just teasing)
----------------------------------
Have Inkytext readers seen the following from UNICEF's Jan Beaumont:
janb@unicef.org.uk
"The Prime Minister and the Chancellor have told Comic Relief that if
they can prove that enough people want to cancel the debt owed by Third
World Countries, they will act to stop the suffering. So just call the
number below and add your name to the telephone petition
Freecall 0800 55 66 96"
The recorded message is very brief and the first 'beep' is for your
name only. The second 'beep' is for your address and postcode. The
latter is very important, presumably it will help to avoid government
charges concerning multiple calls. This petition will probably be more
effective in helping the worlds poor, especially women and children,
than purchasing yet another collection of 'gender studies' papers, even
those with a 'Forward' by Clare Short.
I received it via a friend of a friend at the beeb. I don't know
what Greg will make of it. Or William for that matter!
Lou Armour
----------------------------