Cambridge Revisited III
The short version: it's not really any better by car. So it's probably best just not to go back too often.
The long version: being a moste divers accownte of crosse-contrye procrastinnationne and soscial lepidoptery...
Friday Night:
Rather than do anything useful, I went on a not-entirely-necessary trip to Sainsbury's, spent an hour on the phone, cooked a risotto, and read some Terry Pratchett.
Saturday:
08:45
My brother, having been absent all of Friday, finally put in an appearance and noted that, if I was up this early, I was clearly going somewhere.
10:10
As indeed I was. But first I needed to buy petrol and check the tyre pressures. Which were correct already, which was nice. It's rather awkward though since I try to use BP petrol but have to go to Sainsbury's for free air.
12:30
I'll skip over the details of the driving; don't want to get started...
So, 12:30 found me at Tesco's in Bicester having bought the Guardian (haven't looked at it yet) and a cheese-topped loaf (32p well spent, I thought). Relaying text messages through Alex, I arranged to go and visit Sherry and Dan, and realised that I'd finally found a situation where sat-nav would be useful.
13:50
Rather later than expected, I arrived at Sherry & Dan's. They provided me with tea, shortbread and chocolate digestives, and very kindly offered 'proper' food but I thought I'd better not stay too long.
15:30
So I set off again towards Cambridge, deciding to continue on a novel route rather than go the 'normal' way via Milton Keynes. Which allowed me to discover such delights as Luton Airport (by 'discover' I mean an easyJet plane suddenly appeared over the car), and lots of those mundane-sounding Hertfordshire towns one rarely visits, like Hitchin, Baldock, Royston, and Letchworth Garden City (which looked like an interesting example in the history of town planning).
16:45
Having grappled with the Cambridge ring-road (which kept trying to deliver me into a bus lane when I took lanes that said 'straight on' - though a number of car drivers seemed to avail themselves of the bus lane anyway) I finally arrived at Stephen et al's, where we drank tea and ate chocolate digestives and watched Look Around You and Peep Show.
18:20
And then I set off again into town, dropping by the ADC to pick up my ticket for the Medics' Revue, and checking to see whether there were any sandwiches or such at Sainsbury's (there weren't). I spent a couple of minutes at Borders and then went to meet Stephen at college (wearing my college scarf to repel porters).
19:15
We visited the p'lodge and found Graeme (sp?), retired porter, on duty. Cue demands of "what are you doing here?" on both sides, and further banter.
19:30
To the chapel for a concert of Shakespeare-related music, which was cool. Also [at least as] cool to see musical people again. And John the porter, of Graeme & John. Inevitably, I felt slightly sad that I'm no longer a violinist; hopefully it might only be temporary, but I'm not going to go looking for an orchestra until I know where I'm going to be living and when. We found out what the Shakespeare-related snacks were going to be, too. One of the choir was celebrating her 18th birthday. I'm getting old.
21:50
Alex J entreated Stephen and me to go along to the CCMS AGM, so we did. I wouldn't have gone if not invited, since I'm probably not a member of the society any more, certainly not an active member. I enjoyed what we saw of the meeting - and was glad Julian suggested music society stash, though I suggested it to Rachel last year and she said nobody would be interested.
22:20
Unfortunately we had to leave before the election of officers (all running unopposed, as usual, I believe), because we had to meet Guy and Hannah for...
23:00
The Medics' Revue (newly apostrophised for this year, I believe). Which was nice.
00:20
A number of Christ's medics were there, including Tabi, whom I hadn't seen since graduation, so we stood talking for a while. It was very, very cold though. So naturally Stephen, Guy, Hannah and I went to the Van of Death and then hung around on King's Parade for a while, before going our various ways home. Stephen and I drank some more tea and watched Relocation, Relocation, and then, finally...
03:15
I went to bed. Hurrah for futons.
Sunday:
08:45
Then I got up again; watched My Parents Are Aliens; Chris arrived and we watched the Grand Prix build-up, and I drank some more tea.
11:10
Then I drove into the city centre (since I was in a bit of a hurry to get home and didn't want to add a half-hour walk each way) - which is something to be avoided when possible. Eventually...
11:30
I managed to find a place to park, and went to visit Alex. We drank tea and ate brownie-cubes, and I had a cheese & pickle sandwich, which you may note was the most 'proper' food I'd had for some time. After some discussion of management studies, graduate careers and modern housing policy, I had to rush off in order only to pay for two hours' parking.
13:30
So, I left Cambridge...
15:00
... and stopped off at Tesco's in Buckingham ...
17:00
... and finally, after a round trip of 300 miles, made it home. Not exactly as early as I'd hoped, given that I've been 'wasting' time for days when I should really be attending to applications. I reckon the cost in petrol was £20 - £25, which doesn't really approach the cost by train but at least on a train one can read and watch the scenery, and if one's iPod battery lasts long enough, can listen to something other than dreadful Sunday radio. Having tried it both ways, I'll conclude that neither means of getting to Cambridge is particularly pleasant, at least until the weekend engineering works finally end (which should mean it takes 75 minutes to get home from London rather than 200)...
At home I found my brother sprawled on the sofa watching Animal Park with the heating cranked up to 24. Whilst eating crisps and chocolate digestives I read Sherry's mention of bacon rolls and decided to cook an egg-and-veggie-bacon sandwich for myself. Which was very nice, especially as my brother had bought some of Tesco's Finest oatmeal batch bread so I didn't have to eat the low-range Sainsbury's "brown" bread I bought as a stop-gap on Friday.
19:00
So, that's all been very interesting I'm sure. I'd better try to get something useful done. And maybe eat a meal at some point...
The long version: being a moste divers accownte of crosse-contrye procrastinnationne and soscial lepidoptery...
Friday Night:
Rather than do anything useful, I went on a not-entirely-necessary trip to Sainsbury's, spent an hour on the phone, cooked a risotto, and read some Terry Pratchett.
Saturday:
08:45
My brother, having been absent all of Friday, finally put in an appearance and noted that, if I was up this early, I was clearly going somewhere.
10:10
As indeed I was. But first I needed to buy petrol and check the tyre pressures. Which were correct already, which was nice. It's rather awkward though since I try to use BP petrol but have to go to Sainsbury's for free air.
12:30
I'll skip over the details of the driving; don't want to get started...
So, 12:30 found me at Tesco's in Bicester having bought the Guardian (haven't looked at it yet) and a cheese-topped loaf (32p well spent, I thought). Relaying text messages through Alex, I arranged to go and visit Sherry and Dan, and realised that I'd finally found a situation where sat-nav would be useful.
13:50
Rather later than expected, I arrived at Sherry & Dan's. They provided me with tea, shortbread and chocolate digestives, and very kindly offered 'proper' food but I thought I'd better not stay too long.
15:30
So I set off again towards Cambridge, deciding to continue on a novel route rather than go the 'normal' way via Milton Keynes. Which allowed me to discover such delights as Luton Airport (by 'discover' I mean an easyJet plane suddenly appeared over the car), and lots of those mundane-sounding Hertfordshire towns one rarely visits, like Hitchin, Baldock, Royston, and Letchworth Garden City (which looked like an interesting example in the history of town planning).
16:45
Having grappled with the Cambridge ring-road (which kept trying to deliver me into a bus lane when I took lanes that said 'straight on' - though a number of car drivers seemed to avail themselves of the bus lane anyway) I finally arrived at Stephen et al's, where we drank tea and ate chocolate digestives and watched Look Around You and Peep Show.
18:20
And then I set off again into town, dropping by the ADC to pick up my ticket for the Medics' Revue, and checking to see whether there were any sandwiches or such at Sainsbury's (there weren't). I spent a couple of minutes at Borders and then went to meet Stephen at college (wearing my college scarf to repel porters).
19:15
We visited the p'lodge and found Graeme (sp?), retired porter, on duty. Cue demands of "what are you doing here?" on both sides, and further banter.
19:30
To the chapel for a concert of Shakespeare-related music, which was cool. Also [at least as] cool to see musical people again. And John the porter, of Graeme & John. Inevitably, I felt slightly sad that I'm no longer a violinist; hopefully it might only be temporary, but I'm not going to go looking for an orchestra until I know where I'm going to be living and when. We found out what the Shakespeare-related snacks were going to be, too. One of the choir was celebrating her 18th birthday. I'm getting old.
21:50
Alex J entreated Stephen and me to go along to the CCMS AGM, so we did. I wouldn't have gone if not invited, since I'm probably not a member of the society any more, certainly not an active member. I enjoyed what we saw of the meeting - and was glad Julian suggested music society stash, though I suggested it to Rachel last year and she said nobody would be interested.
22:20
Unfortunately we had to leave before the election of officers (all running unopposed, as usual, I believe), because we had to meet Guy and Hannah for...
23:00
The Medics' Revue (newly apostrophised for this year, I believe). Which was nice.
00:20
A number of Christ's medics were there, including Tabi, whom I hadn't seen since graduation, so we stood talking for a while. It was very, very cold though. So naturally Stephen, Guy, Hannah and I went to the Van of Death and then hung around on King's Parade for a while, before going our various ways home. Stephen and I drank some more tea and watched Relocation, Relocation, and then, finally...
03:15
I went to bed. Hurrah for futons.
Sunday:
08:45
Then I got up again; watched My Parents Are Aliens; Chris arrived and we watched the Grand Prix build-up, and I drank some more tea.
11:10
Then I drove into the city centre (since I was in a bit of a hurry to get home and didn't want to add a half-hour walk each way) - which is something to be avoided when possible. Eventually...
11:30
I managed to find a place to park, and went to visit Alex. We drank tea and ate brownie-cubes, and I had a cheese & pickle sandwich, which you may note was the most 'proper' food I'd had for some time. After some discussion of management studies, graduate careers and modern housing policy, I had to rush off in order only to pay for two hours' parking.
13:30
So, I left Cambridge...
15:00
... and stopped off at Tesco's in Buckingham ...
17:00
... and finally, after a round trip of 300 miles, made it home. Not exactly as early as I'd hoped, given that I've been 'wasting' time for days when I should really be attending to applications. I reckon the cost in petrol was £20 - £25, which doesn't really approach the cost by train but at least on a train one can read and watch the scenery, and if one's iPod battery lasts long enough, can listen to something other than dreadful Sunday radio. Having tried it both ways, I'll conclude that neither means of getting to Cambridge is particularly pleasant, at least until the weekend engineering works finally end (which should mean it takes 75 minutes to get home from London rather than 200)...
At home I found my brother sprawled on the sofa watching Animal Park with the heating cranked up to 24. Whilst eating crisps and chocolate digestives I read Sherry's mention of bacon rolls and decided to cook an egg-and-veggie-bacon sandwich for myself. Which was very nice, especially as my brother had bought some of Tesco's Finest oatmeal batch bread so I didn't have to eat the low-range Sainsbury's "brown" bread I bought as a stop-gap on Friday.
19:00
So, that's all been very interesting I'm sure. I'd better try to get something useful done. And maybe eat a meal at some point...
posted by Z31 at 5:33 pm
8 Comments:
Well you should've stayed for a proper meal (mothering instinct takes over here)! Now that you know (a) my telephone number and (b) where we live, you're more than welcome to drop by and eat more than biscuits and tea (I'd be flayed by my grandmother if she knew that was all I gave you).
Glad you got back ok.
Ah but I was actually quite pleased with the lack of eating - not that I feel any thinner! I've eaten now though so all's well :)
I spoke to Alex online after you left and he said I'd fed you more than you ate in a week and you'd burst in the car. He's a charming boy that friend of ours.
And a strange sense of humour he has: well he knows that I can (and do) eat enough biscuits in a day to feed a small family of antelope for three weeks. Or something. But then again I never used to eat three dinners at a time unlike a certain Petrean boatie I might mention. Hehe.
Sounds like everyone's going to Cambridge for a visit around this time! couple people from halls went this weekend, Katie's best friend went last weekend, maybe not everyone, but noticeable number.
Oh, and Hitchin's quite a nice town actually, much like Chippenham, but populated by people who commute to Cambridge/Peterboro'/London, as opposed to Bath/Bristol/Swindon/(Reading/London)?
Another mate from H/H grew up in Letchworth, and tells me you really want to avoid Stevenage.
I can't actually remember anything about Hitchin now, but I'm sure I drove through/past it... Spooky.
I suspect some people from Chippenham might commute into Wales too, and Oxfordshire (though that would presumably be by car). Did you know that (excluding any discounts for season tickets) it would cost about £500 per week to commute to London from Chippenham? And that's before you add tube fares, and car parking in Chippenham. I went to the station last week to investigate the car park, and the minimum charge there is £4.50 (24 hours).
When you say a mate from H/H, do you mean Hemel Hempstead or Hayward's Heath? Ah, or do you mean a schoolfriend?
(Just to clarify matters, although my commentator is called Alex, and has a girlfriend called Katie, it's not the Alex to whom Sherry is referring. Alles klar, hoffe ich.)
I meant a mate from school. Don't know anyone from either of the other places though.
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