We lunched at the J____'s, and I spoke intermittently but at length with Peter T’s father. A retired engineer, he spoke optimistically about wind power and hot rocks technologies replacing fossil fuels and nuclear power. I also chatted to Simon D, about developments in theoretical physics, applied to his field of quantum computing. He’s going to Cambridge this year for his PhD. Always fascinating: research has moved away from solid state now, as it is unlikely to produce fruitful results. And he told me about getting one’s article published in the top-tier journals Nature or Science being a meal ticket for work anywhere in the world. I told him about my `After the Budapest Conference’ poem, and gave him a copy.