A carnival atmosphere

This was the first time I'd so much as seen a major demonstration first hand, and I can't imagine that many of them feel like as much of a celebration as this one. For all the seriousness of the message, this came across as a festival, a vast crowd of people from across the world (figures vary, though it could have been a quarter of a million) coming together with one common purpose. Even seen from afar, it was exhilerating stuff.

I would dearly have liked to replicate that atmosphere within the classical department, but couldn't think of sufficient pieces of music along similar lines to play so went for a more general humanist theme: we got the B minor mass, Beethoven's 9th and - more off the beaten track - Messiaen's Turangalîla symphony, which brought the day's work to a rousing close.

Going out tonight was a good idea, there was a lot of life about the place. Feeling in something of a celebratory mood myself, I donned my kilt and set off to meet my friend Rob. We weren't out for very long - enough for a drink followed by a meal, a mere three hours - but neither of us had any regrets. The next step is actually taking part in a demonstration ...