Week of October 4 – University Life

Dean’s nine-year-old daughter, Ari, is keeping count of how many days it’s rained since we’ve been in England. She is up to 15 days; so it’s about 50-50. Monday dawns sunny, but becomes increasingly cloudy as the day goes on.

Dean and I spend the day in London on research visits. After leaving my bag at Euston station, I pick up the Victoria line to Pimlico, which is one of the three jumping off points that the Audit Commission gave me in their directions. I discover what morning rush hour traffic in London is like…commuters are packed into the train carriage like sardines. I skip the first train, but the second is just as crowded so I squeeze in and stand most of the way to Pimlico.

We talk with Worth Houghton at the Audit Commission, then make our way to the Improvement Development Agency where we have lunch with Cheryl Brigham at a local pub; the Queen’s Arms.

I make my way back through Victoria station to Euston in time to catch the 16:10 train to Birmingham. A placard at the entrance of Victoria station says there are delays due to a passenger under a train. I shudder at this gruesome way to die with visions of an Agatha Christie victim being shoved off the platform in front of an oncoming train.

• A word about British newspapers: At lunch we talked about Cheryl’s friend living in Florida who says she misses English newspapers. Dean and I struggle to find a US counterpart to the national papers in Britain—The Times, Evening Standard, Daily Mail. There is none really except perhaps the Wall Street Journal. US papers are full of lurid crime headlines and little real news. Even the USA Today, which Dean mockingly calls “McPaper,” only focuses on national news in a cursory way. British papers are tomes, especially the Sunday papers, which take a week to read. They are full of social commentary and political news, as well as many serializations. But the Brits have their tabloids as well, which is another story altogether.

As the week goes on, I continue to wait for my ATM card. The bank for the 2^nd time cancels an existing order for a card that never arrived and orders me a new one. For the fourth time, they say it will be here next week. It is very frustrating. But, I cash my first check on my Lloyds of London account.

I email Sandra, my contact at the British Council, to see if she can do anything about my ATM card. She writes back, “I am astonished that this seems to have been so ineptly done, and that you have been so patient. I am on it!” Less than an hour later, she says she has found my card and it will be mailed express to my B&B before noon tomorrow. Of course it does not arrive the next day. If finally comes two days later, but apparently the PIN number comes separately and that is not here yet. Sigh.

I spend most of the week getting used to university life. I give a presentation to a group of graduate students with Dean. The seminar is boringly titled, “Transatlantic Comparisons: U.S. City and State Governments.” Dean speaks of his experiences in Philadelphia and I fill in with some remarks about Maine state government.

I attend Professor Michael Hughes’s lecture on Best Value for a group of visiting Norwegian local government officials. Michael previously worked for the local government association and helped negotiate the details of the Best Value program with the Blair government. His overview is excellent and he is a very good presenter. I had thought him disorganized and muddled, but today I change my mind.

Another day, Dean and I have lunch at Staff House with several of the INLOGOV faculty: Steve Rogers, Mike Smith, and Peter Watt. Peter has a good sense of humor. When Steve mentions the name of his workshop “From Performance Management to Best Value,” Peter says that, in five years’ time, he can do the same presentation and name it “From Best Value to Performance Management.” “You don’t have to throw your overheads away, you can simply show them backwards. You’ll thank me in five years’ time,” he says cheekily.

I also attend my first graduate student seminar about Russian government (this is the seminar I have to give in two weeks’ time). The topic is not really relevant to anything but, having taken a year of Russian history in college, I find it interesting.

I find this anagram on the Internet, which I immediately send to Brian knowing he will appreciate it: Rearranging the letters of “The Houses of Parliament” gives you “Loonies far up the Thames.”

• In today’s news: The news is full of a big train crash yesterday; a high-speed train going into Paddington station. About 90 people are believed dead. The crash occurred in a place called Ladbroke Grove in West London. It wasn’t a Virgin train, which are the trains I frequently use, but a Great Western. The UK’s rail system was privatized under the Thatcher regime and people have been grumbling ever since that it is not as efficient, or cheap. Interestingly, I read an article a few weeks ago that said a major train disaster was only a matter of time. Apparently trains regularly go through red lights.