the benefits of an early start

include the post-storm vistas: grey and exotic at the same time, without revealing that there are any hills behind this.  I drove up to the top of the car park especially to see what version of the view the damp and chilly morning offered up, before heading over to English to do an early morning Skype defense (congratulations, Jacob! and it was excellent to see a couple of RU friends in virtual form ...).  So early, indeed, that English was all shut up, and I had to scurry over to my Art History office.  Swivelling the computer to show the view out of the window couldn't give anything like a sense of what the morning really looked like: maybe I should have sat and done the defense in my car ...