We arrived in London at 1:30 p.m. local time and easily caught the 1:54 p.m. train to Southampton (train connections are so easy compared to airline flights!).
In Southampton, we checked into the David Moxon Annex of the Kimber Residence Hall, explored the neithborhood a little, and set off for the opening reception of the Deep-sea Meetings, at the National Oceanography Center, Southampton, down on the docks. The reception was also the meeting registration and turned out to include a buffet dinner at the Oceanography Center cantine. One of the dessert options was strawberries and cream. The British believe strongly in cream; delicious double cream was set out in the same size pitchers as the ice water, next to a vast bowl of strawberries.
Over dinner we caught up on the news with our good frienhds Buz and Kathy (Fries) Wilson and their son Tristan. Buz works for the Australian Museum in Syndney (Kathy is a corporate headhunter). I last saw them on our visit to Australia, when Tristan was 6 or 7 years old. He's now 19, in his second year of college, and taller than Buz, which is pretty tall.
Although we caught the shuttle van back to Kimber Hall and got to bed at a reasonable hour, we didn't get to sleep for quite a while, because Italy defeated France to win the World Cup that night. There are only a few hundred Italians in Southampton, but most of them are teenage foreign-language students living in Kimber Hall, so the fireworks, singing, and shouting went on for quite a while.