It’s quite tricksy writing things for this, you know? So, what’s been going on? I notice that in my last post I was hopeful I’d be getting started on something concrete. Well, I have done, and finished it as well, so anything you would like to know about the divisibility of characteristic classes of bundles of non-orientable surfaces, I’m the person to ask. I would elaborate, but there’s a short note about it in the pipeline and I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise. Probably appearing on the ArXiV before long.

This of course occupied much of the preceeding few months, but I’ve been doing a few other things too. In particular, I’m getting quite interested in hardcore stable homotopy theory, with formal groups, MU, and all that story. Not things that are obviously or immediately applicable to problems I’ll be working on, but very interesting and clever stuff. It’s best to do this broad learning now I think, because when I’m stuck into a problem I have little mind-space for anything else.

So I’m not going back to Marbella this Easter, as I’m saving up my precious scraps of holiday for the summer, as all the world assures me Oxford is a dull place of a summer. I’ll be going to Marbella for a while, possibly accompanied by this child and this man:

I’ll also be going to somewhere holidayish, Istambul I think, but nothing definite yet. Incidentally, do let me know when you’ll be in Spain this summer, anyone who is going to be, so we can do some coordination.

So I’m definitely going to Strasbourg in May now, so do let me know anyone else who is.