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So this week I have mostly been not thinking about writing academic papers at all, which may or may not be a good think. Instead I spent the first part of the week tidying up materials for the next TEI training course, which is now pretty well polished, and also for the one after that, which is not. The process of thinking about what materials to use follows a fairly recognisable pattern in which ambitious optimism (I'm going to completely revise this bit, make up something new and exciting, strike out into unknown territory) has to eventually give way to pragmatic opportunism (I've got this already, it just needs checking, minor tweaks, translating). When I am preparing two courses which are due within a few weeks of each other, this means that the first course moves on to the second stage while the second one is still rejoicing in the first stage. Which was the case this week. Oh, and about the only thing I have in common with Sam Beckett is that I can no longer say whether my material is originally French translated into English or the reverse, since most of it has been through the process both ways several times.Aside from that, I spent most of the week on trains, or other forms of transport, on an expedition to La Vergne, returning at the weekend via Nottingham. As follows:departarriveWeds 27 Aughome0910on foot/busOxford to Paddington10011130trainLondon St P to Paris Nord12251547eurostarParis Austerlitz to La Souterraine16521921Ic 3655Thurs 28 AugLa Souterraine to Gueret9301005ter busGueret to La Vergne11001130taxiLa V to Bussieres Dunoisenice walkBussieres to La Souterraine14451615taxiFrid 29 AugLa Souterraine to Paris A10381318ic3620Paris Nord to St Pancras15131640Kings Cross to Grantham17191827Grantham to Nottingham18571934Sund 31 AugNottingham to Oxford13101546And what have we learned? It's possible to get to and from La Vergne by train within a day for about £400 pounds return (less if you cash in some Eurostar points). There's not much happening in La Souterraine , and even less in Bussières-Dunoise. Guéret seems like a decent sized town though and is accessible by train from at least two different directions. Generally speaking, the Creuse is not the back of beyond: it's behind the back of beyond. There are many cows, and many hills. There are probably no decent restaurants for miles. There used to be a railway to transport potatoes and beef to Paris, but they took it away years ago, and now all that's left is a rather nice rural track which has the merit of avoiding most of the aforesaid hills. And there's a lake behind the house, where you can fish but not (allegedly) swim.