Project 60 Number 15 - Going with the Flow

I have never been good at not being organised - although a look at the current mess that is my study might make you doubt the veracity of that statement. But what I mean is I've never really been spontaneous. Especially in unfamiliar surroundings and with people I don't know. I never go somewhere without knowing how I'll get back for example.

 

But here's a thing. In Gdansk I made a decision to go with the flow and see where it took me. One afternoon  it took me to a rather nice cake shop in good company. Another time it led me to say an encouraging word to a young female student who had been unfairly treated by a much older male academic. And on the final evening of the conference it took me to the most enjoyable time.

 

We wound up at 5.00 ish and a suggestion was made by someone near me that we should go somewhere for a drink. I thought yes, why not? And here some of us are having said drink....

 

 

 

Regular readers may not be surprised to learn that I had a cocktail - and very nice it was too, although it could have done with being either shaken or stirred

 

But the drink was just the start. Two of the French academics taking part had opted for renting a flat rather than staying in a hotel and even as we were enjoying ourselves they were back there cooking to feed us later in the evening. When the time came to leave the bar I thought about going back to the hotel before it got really dark and  then I thought No, dammit, I'm enjoying  myself and who ever thought that I would be included in this sort of thing so  let's just carry on being carried along.

 

We went off to a supermarket to pick up some more food, blocking aisles and having long discussions about which sort of plastic cheese looked least plastic and tasteless and letting the French choose the wine and then we wandered off into a part of town we hadn't been to before to look for the flat where Sarah and Benjamine were staying.

 

Finding the flat was easy, getting the door to open with the key code they had given us was a different thing, but eventually a text message brought Benjamine to the door and we staggered up two flights of stairs laden with food and wine.

 

The girls had cooked quiche and chocolate cake and apple crumble and there was salad and olives and hummus and bread and cheese and really it was an impromptu banquet. The conversation was wide ranging and generally hilarious, in a fairly high minded and academic way. It was wonderful. It's not every day you find yourself in a spirited but friendly discussion about the finer points of  The Mill on the Floss with a senior lecturer from The Sorbonne!

 

And here we are gathered round the food

 

 

 

And we stayed there till very late and drank lots of wine and I didn't worry once about how I was going to get back to the hotel even though it was late and dark and eventually we left and we all got back safely to where we were staying and even though I normally don't do this sort of thing, this time I did and I am SO glad because honestly it was about the best bit of the whole conference.

 

Maybe I should make a habit of spontaneity (ahem!)