On the afternoon of Monday, 5th January 1998, John Domingue welcomed us all… | |
…to PPIG’s 10th Workshop. | |
The rest of the afternoon was spent listening to the opening papers and the invited talk. | |
That evening in the Cellar Bar, we had the opportunity to meet people who had come to the UK for the the workshop from all over the world. | |
We also enjoyed folk music played by Thomas Green (flute), Mark Simos (fiddle) and Alan Blackwell (double bass). | |
The next day, we gathered again… | |
…to listen to a selection of papers… | |
…and the second invited talk. | |
That evening, we were treated to the Workshop dinner… | |
…and stimulating conversation. | |
Returning to the hotel, we found ourselves drawn to the bar. | |
Enjoying our drinks,… | |
…we noticed the piano player, who took our song requests in good humour. | |
It wasn’t long before the piano player was joined by someone else,… | |
…to the delight of the others in the bar. | |
The others soon joined in the music-making. | |
The piano player soon needed a rest… | |
…and we all listened to Mark Simos playing the piano and singing folk songs. | |
After some time of musical merriment, the piano player left us… | |
…to entertain ourselves. | |
Music was played late into the night by the Mighty Alan Blackwell on double bass,… | |
…the Magnificent Thomas Green on flute… | |
…and the Multi-Talented Mark Simos on piano and fiddle. | |
The next and last day of the workshop we gathered again to listen to the papers. | |
Before we left the lecture theatre for the last time, Frank Wales and Thomas Green presented the prizes to the competition winners: | |
Nadezhda V. Gruzdeva, for travelling the greatest distance for the workshop. | |
Helen Sharp, for seamlessly introducing the competition word ‘didgeridoo’ into her presentation. | |
Allen Cypher, for “saving the bacon” by acting as a Russian translator. | |
Mordechai Ben-Ari, for the best science fiction. | |
Marian Petre, for the best hat. | |
Paul Brna, for being Better Late Than Never. | |
Stuart Watt, for the best new word syntonicity. | |
Alex Repenning, for the best arithmetic. | |
Meurig Benyon, who received the Turing state machine prize. | |
Prizes were also awarded to Mark Simos | |
Willemien Visser | |
Judith Segal | |
Finally, we gathered outside to watch Thomas Green cut a birthday cake, celebrating PPIG’s 10th Birthday. | |
With a final look back,… | |
…we headed home, already looking forward to next year’s PPIG workshop. |
Text by Paola Kathuria.
Photos by Frank Wales.