Well, what can I say now? What should I start with, my first conference or the tennis? Tough choice.

London from behind the window of Westminster Uni

My first conference was at Westminster University. It was pretty much the first time I was among so many scholars, each of them, just like me, focused on their study, convinced that it is the most important of them all and defending it in all possible ways. And then you get really good constructive criticism and encouragement to take it further. Or at least this is what happened to me. Boy was I nervous. But instead of sticking my nose on my notes or reading from my slides I tried to make eye contact with my audience and see if they aprove or not of what I am saying. They must have liked it, they asked questions and offered me suggestions on what I should read further. My reading list grows nicely. Next time I will do even better cause I sure hope there will be a next time. I didn’t use to like politics, or maybe I didn’t understand what politics really is and here I am now seeing it everywhere and looking for it in everything.

Year end no 1 team: Horia and Juls

The tennis. Besides the fact that Horia and his partner, Juls, have defeated the Bryan Brothers for the first time in their career, have qualified for the final of the ATP World Tour Finals and have clinched the year end number 1 in the teams rankings, tomorrow they are playing the final against…drum roll… Florin and Rohan. Florin is the other Romanian, which means that yes, a Romanian will get the title. Which one, I have no idea and I don’t care. I’ve seen them both live this week, they play some of the best tennis they ever played, they both deserve to win just as much but I won’t take sides. I am so happy they made it there and I am so proud of them. They had my full support throughout the year, I can’t wait for the 2016 season to start so I can say “here we go again”. Respect guys, you are amazing! (not that any of them will ever read this post but if I run into them at a tournament I will make sure to tell them that. Until then, above is a picture of the guys with the No 1 trophy, credit to whoever took it and put it on Getty Images).

To make it even better the singles final is Federer against Djokovic. They meet again, after the match they played on Tuesday. You can read about it here. It’s gonna be a fun evening tomorrow, I hope my plane lands on time for me to take the train home and catch both matches. Yes, tomorrow I go back home. I don’t really feel like leaving London though but maybe this time I am going to make it back here sooner than 3 years. I miss Stockholm though. And my research projects waiting for me at work. And my U2 book sitting on the table next to my bed. And my Swedish lessons. And the list can go on.