First time north of the Arctic Circle

I thought the blogosphere might like to see a rare picture of me wearing a tie, taken late last November in Norway. This was taken at the University of Tromso straight after Marit's (centre, bottom) successful defence of her PhD thesis on cellular responses to environmental stressor in arctic seabird chicks. There were several new experiences for me on this trip: first time north of the Arctic Circle (though I missed the northern lights because my hotel window faced the wrong direction); first experience of being an opponent at a public PhD defence (very different to the UK system); and first time having reindeer stew!