The Easter vacation was my first opportunity as President to meet alumni and friends of the College based in the United States. Sue Broers and I racked up plenty of air and train miles as we visited San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, New York and Washington, DC in barely a week, holding lunches, dinners and receptions in each.

As with our alumni closer to home, I was struck by the great affection in which our Old Members hold the College. This is, of course, reflected in the financial and other support that many of them generously provide to enhance the life of our community today. We received a warm welcome in every city, and I look forward to maintaining and expanding those connections on return visits in the coming years.

One unexpected highlight of the visit was my (and Sue’s) first trip in a Waymo driverless taxi, which took us from lunch with an alumnus in San Francisco’s Noe Valley back to our hotel in Nob Hill. Reassuringly, the car turned out to be a Jaguar, and it was a smooth ride—even when a fire truck needed to pass us in a hurry, requiring it to pull swiftly to the kerb. The journey was also accompanied by soothing ambient music rather than a commentary on immigration policy or Arsenal’s faltering close to the season.

As the video shows, driverless taxis currently retain a functioning steering wheel, giving the appearance of a ghost at the wheel. I found watching it adjust course in real time quite confidence-inspiring, though I gather that some insurance companies are keen to remove them so that panicked passengers are not tempted to seize control mid-journey. It all felt very futuristic and appropriate to a major tech hub, but these cars are currently being tested in London and are due to go live later this year. It will be interesting to see how they cope with Trafalgar Square at 5 pm.

Once the College events were complete, I took the train north from Washington and met up with the family in New York for the Easter weekend. Pleasingly, the Acela passes through Wilmington, Delaware, which is named after our Prime Ministerial alumnus, the Earl of Wilmington (previously Sir Spencer Compton). There are a couple of memorials to him there, so I might stop off on a future visit.

Once in New York, there was a pleasing mixture of sacred music, art and food to enjoy: a barnstorming Great Vigil at St Thomas’s, Fifth Avenue; a spectacular Raphael exhibition at the Met; and dinner at Shawnae’s House, a renowned neighbourhood soul food restaurant deep in Staten Island, where you can feel your arteries clogging as you eat their “Sugar Daddy Wings”—“chicken and waffles without the guilt of the waffles, smothered in a unique breakfast blend of syrups and spices.”