Sorry I got so tardy last week about posting. Elba was a bit all-consuming, and I don’t just mean in the mountains of food that Italy seemed fit to provide. We started each day at 8:30, with sessions ranging on topics from the rarest of CP violations in B decay to the rarest of decays by the tau lepton. Exquisite fits, complex background rejection, and a tireless devotion by those present and 9 timezones in either direction made for quite a productive meeting.
This was my first time in Elba – there have been three such previous meetings (I thought there had only been two) – so I was quite unprepared for the afternoons. From 12:30 to about 1:30 or 2 was lunch, comprised of many courses including cold salads and entrees, hot food (mainly seafood), cheese, dessert, wine, water with gas, water without gas – it went on. Of course, for free in all of these was the company of colleagues, and a lot of work and ideas (despite our best efforts) got tossed around over food.
From 2-4 was a break. Jodi and I used that opportunity to take a 3km walk on a private path around the hotel, which went up the mountain behind the hotel and then down to a private rocky beach, along cliff walls and through a sea cave owned by four rather giant, fat toads. We spent time on the beach, reading or napping, or swimming in the Mediterranean.
From 4-7:30 were the final round of sessions in a given day, spanning even more topics. I gave two talks at this meeting, one on Wednesday afternoon in a parallel session and one on Thursday afternoon in a plenary. They went really well, and now I’m documenting everything I said so we can start reviewing it in the collaboration.
The trip home was rough. The weather turned on the last day, so by the morning of our departure is was grey and wet. The bus ride took us to the ferry, where we boarded for a one hour crossing between the island and the mainland. It was a little bouncy, but not too bad – you could feel the ferry rising and falling, which is always a little disquieting. From the city of Piombino on the opposite side we boarded our buses again and then headed south to Rome, a three hour ride that put us within 1 hour of our departure to Frankfurt. The boarding process was non-existant, just a big line that old women kept trying to cut into and young men kept sneaking up to the front of. Jodi and I were separated by about four seats on the plane, but were able to sit next to each other on the 11 hour ride from Frankfurt to San Francisco.
We were pretty well wiped out by the time we got into San Francisco, around 7:30 pm on Friday night. Thankfully, we had the whole weekend to rest (which we needed).
Now it’s back to the grind. DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT!
