They managed to time it for the period I'm teaching IGGI PhD students every day for two weeks in London.
In a similar vein, the email arrived today telling me I had to hand over the money for the departmental Christmas party by 28th November. Naturally, the next time I'll be on campus is five days after that.
On the positive side, I have a legitimate reason not to meet the students emailing me about doing my MSc projects, so it's not all bad.