On Tuesday morning August 13 I took the train to Kingston, where David met me. We drove to his home for a light lunch, then David drove Charles, John and me to Waterloo, where I gave my annual rabble-rousing talk to the new class of MPH students. This annual event is always one of the highlights of my academic year. The MPH Class is a roughly 50-50 mix of youthful health sciences graduates and mid career public health workers - nurses, physicians mostly, many who have worked for MSF, Oxfam, IFPA, etc, in developing countries and the world's trouble spots. As in previous years it was refreshing to find them very responsive, able to engage in vigorous interactive dialogue, so that rather than having to talk at a sea of faces (about 80 altogether) I engaged with them all in a splendid discussion of changing values and health-related behaviour.
The previous evening I joined David and his three young adult kids, and Peter's partner Sylvie Spraakman for dinner at an excellent restaurant where a helpful table server took the photo at the head of this post. From L to R, Peter, Charles (formerly Christina) John, Sylvie, me, David.
While I was rabble-rousing with the MPH class, David met with several of his colleagues, with whom he is spending his sabbatical year. Then we had a quick lunch and set off on the drive back to Kingston using the toll road north of Toronto to avoid the traffic congestion crossing the city, which would almost certainly have delayed us long enough to miss my train back to Ottawa from Kingston. It was all a very pleasant interlude.
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