To Rome for a meeting of the ESS Preparatory Phase Council, where the task-work is progressing well. I couldn't help reflecting however that it would all be so much more focussed if there were a decision taken on where the ESS is to be built. But we are pushing hard to achieve that within the next 3 months. I do sense that we are very close to resolving this long-standing thorny question for ESS, which is so necessary if Europe is to have a next-generation neutron source operating at full specification before 2025.
Heading through the airport towards car hire that Sunday morning, I was stopped by a woeful-looking guy with a huge baggage trolley. He was British, which was somehow clear from the way he was dressed. He'd had his wallet stolen, poor guy, which contained his air ticket and his money and his credit cards. Could I give him 5 EUR to phone his brother? I had no euros on me, but he would take Swedish Krona. I offered to phone his brother, but there was a complex reason why this wouldn't work, so I gratefully declined his offer to transfer 5 EUR of my wealth from me to him and went on my way. Nevertheless I felt guilty, the Good Samaritan, the parable of the sower etc. nagging on my mind. Seven hours of sunshine later I was cheerfully retracing my steps having returned the car - I'd had the Sunday to fill before the meeting - and who should be heading towards me, head down, pushing his baggage trolley out of the airport, but my sartorially-challenged countryman. I winked at him, and he allowed me a quizzical smile. A good day's work, then? So pleasing to see initiative is not dead. It´s initiative we need to get the ESS built, that´s for sure...
