Statistically speaking...Thistle Do(n't)

Tonight’s ceilidh started very peculiarly…Upon arrival at the venue (Glasgow University’s QMU) we found there was another ceilidh band set up!! After a bit of investigation we discovered that although the event organiser, Adrian had booked us…QMU had booked another band (who she introduced us as Thistle Dubh). The lads from the other band were great- very understanding and got packed up and headed off for an early night.

The litmus test for how well a ceilidh will pan out is usually the first dance: the Gay Gordons. Tonight it was a distaster…we had lots of international postgraduate Statisticians and the moves seemed to stump them. Thankfully things got a LOT better and by the end of the night, you might have mistaken the crowd for ceilidh veterans (well,almost).

Throughout the night a bizarre ritual unfolded…Adrian’s waistcoat was passed from guy to guy and by the end everyone had pretty much tried it on. I buckled under the peer pressure, hence the photo.

Looking forward to the next conference, Prof Bowman!