Last night was the yearly staff party for Uppsala University, held at the castle. It was fun; good food, good entertainment and an after-dinner speaker who told us that in 1991, there were about 100 guests at the dinner, and in 2003 there were 680 of us - so the staff must now be 580% more enthusiastic. Since the numbers had increased by 580%.

Each department was placed together along the tables. It was easy to see where the dept of mathematics and statistics sat. Fortunately, we were seated out of sight from the speaker so we didn’t need to restrain our general mirth.

It was also easy to see which departments treated their staff to the party. Our dept does, and so there were quite many of us there, including many PhD students. From some other departments there were only a few people, mostly professors. Pity, that. But I suppose that sponsoring the staff party is one of the first things to go when a department badly needs to save. . .