Following the tale of Oxford Brookes University vice-chancellor Graham Upton's bike ride to John O'Groats last week (last sighted crossing the Scottish border) comes news of another vice-chancellor out in the cold.
Just as relations started to thaw at Liverpool John Moores University, union officials found out that vice-chancellor Michael Brown was flying to Alaska. The university confirmed that he had gone on a whale-watching holiday - which has been in the diary since before Christmas. But he is in daily e-mail contact with his deputies to keep abreast of the latest developments - in between sightings of humpbacks and orcas.