I can be really stupid sometimes

You would have thought that somebody with a PhD in space plasma physics wouldn't be fick enough to stick their fingers into a plug socket would you? Ah, in that case you don't know Yours Truly. I only have a free bar as my defence council, although a glass makes a poor barrister.

John and I were in Amsterdam airport, having spent three days in Liège. It seemed a ridiculously long way to travel for a two day meeting - hell, it still seems a ridiculously long way to travel for a two day meeting - but in truth it was a very productive one. A group at the Université de Liège is a co-author on our campaign and is independently analysing our images, and we wanted to make sure that we were doing the same thing. After two long days of arguments we finally agreed that we had agreed all along. Que sera sera. If someone were to force me into describing Liège, I would say it is the Belgian Sheffield. I'll leave you to form your own opinions as to whether that is good or bad. I'll just say that the local dish, meatballs, is really tasty, and of course les Belge brew a decent demi-litre.

I like travelling with my boss because he's such a seasoned flier that he gets to patronise those special clubs for special people, where special people get to drink from a special free bar, read special papers and talk boring (but special) business about that big order of screws they've secured from the Germans that's going to make their careers. This free bar was reasonably busy (it was Amsterdam, after all) but I have travelled with John on domestic US flights and sat as near to the free bar bar as possible (i.e. under the tap) watching Yank after Yank pour themselves soda waters. They truly are a strange breed. Anyway, I was talking about special people, well I was clearly having a 'special' day. My laptop battery had decided to bugger up, so I needed a socket. Not having a US-to-Europe adapter, I had to borrow the guv's. This turned out to be bust too, and when I pulled it out of the socket it left one of the pins in. Three guesses for what's coming next. Look, I was jet-lagged to hell and free-bar-G&T-squiffy and thought I was insulated. Well, dur! The look on the special business men's faces when the scruffy physicist in the corner shouted "ARGHH F*CKING B*STARD ARGHH!" must have been, well, special. I was too busy trying to suck my fingers and stop the heart palpitations to care. John was away getting a paper at the time and came back to find me panting. I don't know what he thought about his RA conducting (get it?) a practical experiment in Electricity & Magnetism 101 in the World Club Lounge (Lesson 1: Don't stick yer fingers in the socket, fool), but it can't have been felt with pride.

I also left my laptop on the security X-ray machine belt and had to go back for it when they announced to the entire airport that some doofus had left one. Yep, I had a special day.