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On Saturday we drove to Cambridge to meet up with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala. Britain is looking lovely at the moment, with spring rushing onwards. We went up through Devizes, giving a mental shout-out to karentraviss and then across the Lambourn valley, which is home to many of the UK's racing stables. Huge sweeps of downland, blue in the distance and a strange, watery green.
We got into Cambridge later than planned, so Elizabeth sensibly went punting and we met up at Magdalene's new Cripps hall of residence - very impressive, built along the lines of a Medieval tithe barn, but in modern materials. Elizabeth commented that it looks like the Californian fantasy version of a Medieval hall and that's about right. The porters are lovely and so are the rooms. I did not live in College when I was here (a slight disagreement about students entertaining gentlemen callers dissuaded me from living in. Since I was 22 at the time and in a committed relationship, this struck me as impractical), but I've stayed in the old part of College and it's pretty grotty, if atmospheric.
Having collected Elizabeth, we went for drinks in the Pepys library cloisters. I'd have liked to take T and E upstairs to show them Pepys' diaries: the college has the originals, inscribed in Pepys' crabbed pothook hand, but you need advance permission. Astonishment was expressed at the high, uh, turnover of the Pepys' household female staff. I am slightly surprised that Magadelene continues to honour Pepys, who was a vain, dodgy, over-sexed yuppie, whilst Corpus has been so sniffy about Kit Marlowe. But there you go.
Drinks were followed by dinner in hall. I forgot you had to stand before grace and crashed into a chair, bouncing up again like a yoyo. You can't take me anywhere. Magdalene is the last college to be candlelit (has to be, having no electricity) and for College, the food wasn't bad - crayfish, followed by beef and a raspberry dessert. This being the Magdalene Association's annual bunfight, the Master got up and made a mercifully terse speech on College achievements. This focused on the College literary festival and I was glad to note this, since Magdalene has always been very rugger-buggery and not exactly the most intellectually challenging institution.
The Master also remarked, in the proud-but-embarrassed tones of a headmaster commenting on Jenkins Minor's particularly strong performance in the school egg-and-spoon race, that an alumnus has been made Deputy Secretary of the United Nations, appointed by Kofi Annan. Oh, okay. I wrote a book! Does that count? Seriously, though, it does put one's own rather paltry ambitions into perspective.
We had a rather entertaining conversation with a nice woman sitting opposite (a microbiologist). T found himself sitting next to, dear Goddess, a Reverend, but any mention of witchcraft was forestalled by the discovery of a shared background in the classics. Within minutes they were onto translation issues from Homeric Greek.
Then we went to the bar, and Elizabeth managed to find the one person who also writes SF - the Rev's son, who has been in a Baen anthology. Blimey, guv, it is indeed a small world. Then we tottered back to Cripps, where my rib woke me up in a night with a loud yell (me, not the rib itself).
Sunday saw a large breakfast, followed by a visit to Corpus for Elizabeth's sake and a visit to King's College Chapel, which is always a joy. We took a stroll along the Backs, which are beautiful at this time of year, filled with crocus and daffodils, the pale bone-coloured colleges rising out of flowery meadows.
A friend of mine was a don at King's and had privileges, one of which was the keeping of a cow on the King's back lawn. He was always threatening to take the college up on this just to see what would happen.
We had lunch at a nice dim sum place and then I put Elizabeth on the train, unfortunately, the wrong train forfjm who had to collect her at the other end. Profuse apologies for this: I just wasn't thinking.
T and I went back via the motorway, but stopped off for an hour at Avebury where we went for a drink. Despite my rather low pain threshold, we've had a great weekend: lovely to spend time with Elizabeth, and good to reconnect with college. It is a small part of my life these days, as we're so far from Cambridge, but I retain dining privileges and it's good to keep in touch. I have to go back in the autumn for a book signing.
matociquala. Britain is looking lovely at the moment, with spring rushing onwards. We went up through Devizes, giving a mental shout-out to karentraviss and then across the Lambourn valley, which is home to many of the UK's racing stables. Huge sweeps of downland, blue in the distance and a strange, watery green. We got into Cambridge later than planned, so Elizabeth sensibly went punting and we met up at Magdalene's new Cripps hall of residence - very impressive, built along the lines of a Medieval tithe barn, but in modern materials. Elizabeth commented that it looks like the Californian fantasy version of a Medieval hall and that's about right. The porters are lovely and so are the rooms. I did not live in College when I was here (a slight disagreement about students entertaining gentlemen callers dissuaded me from living in. Since I was 22 at the time and in a committed relationship, this struck me as impractical), but I've stayed in the old part of College and it's pretty grotty, if atmospheric.
Having collected Elizabeth, we went for drinks in the Pepys library cloisters. I'd have liked to take T and E upstairs to show them Pepys' diaries: the college has the originals, inscribed in Pepys' crabbed pothook hand, but you need advance permission. Astonishment was expressed at the high, uh, turnover of the Pepys' household female staff. I am slightly surprised that Magadelene continues to honour Pepys, who was a vain, dodgy, over-sexed yuppie, whilst Corpus has been so sniffy about Kit Marlowe. But there you go.
Drinks were followed by dinner in hall. I forgot you had to stand before grace and crashed into a chair, bouncing up again like a yoyo. You can't take me anywhere. Magdalene is the last college to be candlelit (has to be, having no electricity) and for College, the food wasn't bad - crayfish, followed by beef and a raspberry dessert. This being the Magdalene Association's annual bunfight, the Master got up and made a mercifully terse speech on College achievements. This focused on the College literary festival and I was glad to note this, since Magdalene has always been very rugger-buggery and not exactly the most intellectually challenging institution.
The Master also remarked, in the proud-but-embarrassed tones of a headmaster commenting on Jenkins Minor's particularly strong performance in the school egg-and-spoon race, that an alumnus has been made Deputy Secretary of the United Nations, appointed by Kofi Annan. Oh, okay. I wrote a book! Does that count? Seriously, though, it does put one's own rather paltry ambitions into perspective.
We had a rather entertaining conversation with a nice woman sitting opposite (a microbiologist). T found himself sitting next to, dear Goddess, a Reverend, but any mention of witchcraft was forestalled by the discovery of a shared background in the classics. Within minutes they were onto translation issues from Homeric Greek.
Then we went to the bar, and Elizabeth managed to find the one person who also writes SF - the Rev's son, who has been in a Baen anthology. Blimey, guv, it is indeed a small world. Then we tottered back to Cripps, where my rib woke me up in a night with a loud yell (me, not the rib itself).
Sunday saw a large breakfast, followed by a visit to Corpus for Elizabeth's sake and a visit to King's College Chapel, which is always a joy. We took a stroll along the Backs, which are beautiful at this time of year, filled with crocus and daffodils, the pale bone-coloured colleges rising out of flowery meadows.
A friend of mine was a don at King's and had privileges, one of which was the keeping of a cow on the King's back lawn. He was always threatening to take the college up on this just to see what would happen.
We had lunch at a nice dim sum place and then I put Elizabeth on the train, unfortunately, the wrong train for
fjm who had to collect her at the other end. Profuse apologies for this: I just wasn't thinking. T and I went back via the motorway, but stopped off for an hour at Avebury where we went for a drink. Despite my rather low pain threshold, we've had a great weekend: lovely to spend time with Elizabeth, and good to reconnect with college. It is a small part of my life these days, as we're so far from Cambridge, but I retain dining privileges and it's good to keep in touch. I have to go back in the autumn for a book signing.
