Thursday, 7 June 2012: Commemorative Oceanography

Written 8 June 2012

Up and out early today and off to the National Oceanography Center Southampton for Paul A. Tyler's retirement symposium. Unfortunately, neither David nor I thought to take any photos during the day, so all the pictures on this page were taken at the party in the evening, at a restaurant called the Pitcher and Piano, which the organizers bought out for the night. (Left, the supper buffet, before serving began. Right, my plate: Moroccan lamb stew, rice, a sausage with onion gravy and potatoes mashed with stewed apple, chicken breast in a mild green Thai curry sauce).

We were greeted on arrival by urns of coffee and tea, trays of mini-pastries, a big basket of fresh whole fruit, and pitchers of orange juice and water. (Left, L-R: Kim Juniper of the University of Victoria, BC; Bob Vrijenhoek, a colleague of Jim Barry's from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Research Institute; Verena Tunnicliffe, also of the University of Victoria, and her husband, hidden behind her. Right: Jim Barry and Andrew Sweetman. Andrew spent some time in David's laboratory as an undergraduate and is now a faculty member at a university in Norway.).

After a full mornng of 15-minute talks, a buffet lunch was served in the lobby outside the meeting room. Trays and trays of triangular finger sandwiches with a wide variety of fillings (including a few trays marked "vegetarian"), some small sandwiches on oval rolls (I had one filled with tomato and coleslaw), the same constantly-refilled basket of fresh fruit (two colors of apples, bananas, grapes, strawberries, and excellent tiny clementines), platters of dim sum, breaded fried brie wedges, fried shrimp, breaded veggie kebabs, etc., all cold. Plays of chocolate muffins and chocolate eclairs with a light, smooth vanilla cream filling. Pitchers of orange juice, apple juice, and water. (Left: Paul himself, keeping his colleagues in stitches. Right: Paul's wife Mandi (looking left) and a colleague; FSU's own Amy Baco-Taylor laughing in the background.)

After the afternoon's talks, we all ajourned to the Pitcher and Piano, which overlooks the pleasure-boat basin. As you will no doubt have gathered from the photos, the dress code theme (chosen by Paul) was Hawaiian. Bring your own Hawaiian shirt; leis supplied on site. We walked in to find a long table covered with row on row of ready-mixed blue lagoons, pi&ntilda;a coladas, and some other bright-blue drink. Beer and other drinks available at the bar. (Left: David; colleague Anna Metaxis, from Dalhousie University; meeting organizer Maria Baker. Right: the dessert buffet that followed dinner, from the rear to the front, bowls of mixed fresh-fruit salad, a cheesecake-like thing with a cookie crust and dried red fruit in it, meltingly tender fudgy brownies, pitchers of cream to pour over it all).

Of the perhaps 60 to 100 people in attendance at the symposium and/or party, we know much more than half, David as colleagues and me as friends and aquaintances from previous meetings and symposia, so it was great fun to see everyone again. Each session of talks was chaired by one of Paul's former students, most of whom were in attendance. Much was made throughout the meeting of the fact that 72% of Paul's students have been female; they seem quite proud of being know internationally as "the Tylerettes." (Left: Dave and Doris Pawson of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum).

Here, at the right, is David's long-time colleague Andrew Gooday, of the NOC in Southampton. They worked together during David's first mini-sabbatical, back in the 1980s, when Andy was at the Institute of Oceanographic Science in Hambledon. We were surprised at how well the Hawaiian shirt brought out Andy's coloring—he should dress like that more often!

The party apparently went on into the wee hours, but Jim had a plane to catch in the morning, and we wanted to make a reasonably early night of it, too, so we were among the first to depart.

Finally, here's colleague Dave Billet, also of the NOC Southampton. A fine party altogether, and another set of talks to go tomorrow!

previous entry     
List of Entries      
next entry