This week my big accomplishment was buying Krispy Kreme doughnuts. They are doing a slow march across England. When I first arrived last year they were only available at Harrod's and at extremely expensive prices. During the summer they popped up at Victoria train station, and other places across London. The largest supermarket in Britain has started selling them at some London stores.

Finally, a store has opened up outside of London. It was in Birmingham, about an hour and a half south of Sheffield by train. I was in Birmingham for a two day conference. The conference was put on by SEDA, Staff and Educational Developer's Association. I'm an educational developer now, so I was trying to get a feel for what other institutions are doing, make contacts, etc. The conference was pretty good, with its share of good and bad sessions. The final keynote address was just awful though. The speaker had created a powerpoint with whole paragraphs on it that he read to us verbatim. He also had the annoying tendency of stopping his sentences halfway through, expecting us to know what he was going to say.

After the conference was over, I had thirty minutes before my train was supposed to depart, so I went to the nearby brand new mall, the Bullring, where I had heard there was another Krispy Kreme. They even had a compact doughnut factory built into the store. They were giving out free samples, so I took one and then bought some to bring back to Victoria. They are still more expensive than at home, but less so than in Harrod's. At about $1.50 a doughnut or a dozen for $12, I didn't buy too many. Still, it was a good taste from home. I think Victoria, Vernon, and I may take a day trip to Birmingham sometime after the Christmas shopping season to get more doughnuts.