Next week Sasha will present her research work at a conference in Malta. She's leaving this afternoon.

On Monday she will give a presentation on the results of the work that she is doing at her work, followed later in the week by other meetings and discussions. She will be there for over a week.

The workshop is organized by the Commonwealth Secretariat and the University of Malta which has a Information Brochure on-line.

Saturday I went on a rather ambitious bike trip: I visited the Great Falls, using a great bike route.

While early in the morning it was cloudy, when I left at 10.00 am the sun was shining brightly.

I started the route in Georgetown, just like the Lost Blossom Tour did. Somewhere half-way I made a wrong turn -- I took the Capital Crescent trail into DC, which I though had a connection to 2nd trail back towards the Falls, but it didn't. With this detour it took me quite a while to get there, but around 1.00 pm I made it to the Great Falls Overlook.

The first time I was at the Great Falls (with Jaap and Mieke), I was at the Virginia side of the river, this time I took the C&O Towpath on the Maryland side. The first part of the route was busy -- there was a MS Walk going on -- but after a few miles the road became very quiet, and it is truly a beautiful ride.

I had lunch in a nice outdoor place. On my way back I used the Chain Bridge to cross the Potomac into Virginia, and took Militairy Road to get back home.

Some pictures.

Today the intranet of the World Bank carried the announcement that Paul David Hewson will be the new Managing Director of the Bank, replacing Graeme Wheeler who is currently acting Managing Director.

I'm getting ready for another bike ride -- the weather is nice but it's not very sunny (unfortunately, for the pictures). We've got some work to do this weekend but I first want to get out and get some fresh air.