Intro to Hugh Davis's Sabbatical Blog

I have decided to Blog my sabbatical. I’ve never really had time to Blog before – but have always valued the things I learn from those that do.

I don’t care if anyone reads this – I’m doing it for me – but one thing I have learned in the last ten years is the joy of sharing in the experience (both professional and informal) of friends and colleagues who blog and tweet, so maybe someone will have a quiet laugh?

As well as time, another reason I have not blogged before is some lack of confidence. I have been “old school” in believing that anything written has to be carefully thought through, immaculately phrased and meticulously evidenced. This Blog will not be like that.

So the background: sometime last year, our Head of School awarded Su and I a fully paid sabbatical – meaning that we would be free of teaching and admin duties for the second semester in academic year 2010/11, so we could go somewhere else to do our research. Along with our colleague Thanassis Tiropanis, we had for some time been developing relationships with Stefano Cerri’s group at LIRMM (University of Montpellier 2), and this was our opportunity.

We are away from the start of February until the end of September. We have a shared office at LIRMM and a 3^rd/4^th/5^th floor apartment in a 14th (?) century stone building in the middle of the true historic centre of Montpellier with a roof terrace overlooking the town and Pic St Loup and the Languedoc. Its traffic free and we have a small space to fold our Brompton bikes in the entrance to the building.

For Su and I this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience and to get to really know the area we holiday in, to get to know colleagues much better and develop new working collaborations. And of course the time and space will give us exciting new opportunities that we don't even know yet.