(no subject)

[nineveh_uk]

I badly want to make a 1920s style evening frock out of this fabric. One of those straightish hanging from the shoulders tunic things, with a slip underneath. That said, I really ought not to be buying fabric at the moment; sewing is displacement activity that distracts me from important things like writing, and, at the moment, packing.

A week today I shall be moving to Oxford. Help! I fear I shall be spending this weekend in the office frantically tidying up. I feel as if I am being repeatedly hit in the face with a spade. Yes as I panic about the amount of stuff I have to do before I leave, it occurs to me that as I leave it, I finally have some nice things to say about Cambridge. So for once I shall say them.

- The climate. Oh! Those glorious summers. Yes, I know it's global warming, but they haven't been having weather like that in Leeds. And anyone who complains about the cold east wind in Cambridge has never lived on even a small hill.

- That in certain months of the year locally-grown asparagus and strawberries form the basics of a cheap meal.

- The Haunted Bookshop. All your Chalet School needs fulfilled. Also Galloway and Porter, which sells off damaged stock from publishers. I shall miss them both; my purse won't.

- Friends, some colleagues and not others.

- The fast train to London and going to the theatre after work. Fortunately there’s a fast train from Oxford to London, too.

- My walk to work. Not only do I not have a car (though I can drive), I don’t have a bike. I therefore have a 25 minute walk twice a day, and it is beautiful. I go past the Botanic Gardens, where I am still entranced by mistletoe (we don’t have it in the north) and where the wildlife provides endless entertainment. Which leads me to,

- The urban wildlife. No doubt there are places in Canada and Norway where elk and bear roam the streets (and don't have rabies). However whilst I’ve only ever seen one hedgehog and one fox in all my years here, I have also seen deer, kingfishers, followed the progress of many a duckling and moorhen chick (like little black pom-poms), identified the furry beastie swimming in the drained college swimming pool as a watervole, spotted a swimming grass snake on a hot day walking home, and last week, a hare on my way back from the supermarket (no it was not a rabbit). Not a bad haul.

- The University Library. It’s horrible inside; fortunately it allows borrowing.

Comments

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

I lived in Newmarket for a little while, so I've visited Cambridge a few times. There's a little museum of aerial photographs tucked into one of the back streets that's a lot of fun. Pictures of most of Britain from the air, in all four seasons, with explanations of how archeological remains can be identified by light or dark streaks in plowed fields, differential growth in near-harvest crops, and the like.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I am ashamed at how few of the museums in Cambridge I have managed to visit. Saturday afternoon will also include a mad dash to the Scott Polar Museum, so I can regain a little self-respect.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

You never go to museums in the places you live, only in the places you visit. My British sister-in-law was going around London with my brother when he first moved there, and she was the only Brit in any of the tours they took. Most of the places she'd never been too, outside the occasional school trip.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

You never go to museums in the places you live, only in the places you visit
It's one of those Rules of Life, isn't it?

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

I do like "Being repeatedly hit in the face with a spade". A very apt description.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

If only the apt description were "being cossetted amongst feather pillows" how much easier things would be.

[marciamarcia.livejournal.com]

You post just made me horribly nostalgic for university libraries, with all their dark, dingy corners; delightfully antiquated elevators; and whole floors you didn't realize existed until two years into school.

Minneapolis has a bright, spanking new library, designed by a major architect. It's beautiful and well-organized. But there's no place to just take a book and escape and, after you've been there a couple times, no new parts to discover either. :(

[aerama.livejournal.com]

I don't like new libraries either. I like the ones with floor-to-ceiling scarred wooden bookshelves in narrow rows, and sunlight pouring in through a skylight high, high up in the ceiling to illuminate a huge dictionary on a stand, and the particular bookly aura that old books have.
The city library here used to be that way, but then they rebuilt it. Metal shelves. Wide-open spaces. Great view of the lake, but...where are the hidden nooks & crannies? Plus they are constantly selling off 'old' books. At least they're not throwing them away, I guess...

[marciamarcia.livejournal.com]

Precisely. I think it boils down to the fact that I like my libraries looking like set pieces from Indiana Jones movies, rather than set pieces from Star Wars prequels.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I am torn. I like libraries that do not give me the feeling that I am liable to be burned to death at any moment, but which have lots of nooks and crannies and decent lighting. But this one is dark, cramped, probably inhabited by vampires, and when I had to use it as a student, did not have the fire door-protected stairwells it now owns. On the other hand, it’s a legal deposit one that has a lot of open shelves allows borrowing, and that I shall miss.

THe Indiana Jones library would be very nice, as long as it had central heating and was regularly dusted!

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

I liked the UL - I think because I was doing Chinese I always had that part of the stacks to myself, and was surrounded by all these desperately obscure books that looked like they'd never been opened. Just finding the place was part of the adventure - and as for the Chinese card index... well, I never did get the hang of that. Ah, my salad days... (actually not much regretted. But the library I did like).

Good luck with the move - these things are always traumatic, but consider the excitement once you arrive at your new place!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

New place would be more exciting were it not a university-owned flat located on top of the maths department. But it _is_ in the centre of town, cheap but not grotty or with a dodgy landlord, and will prove an incentive to me to try and buy somewhere of my own (less for the property ladder and more because I’m fed up of not having space really identifiable as _mine_).

[tree_and_leaf]

I do wish that the Bod allowed borrowing....

[aerama.livejournal.com]

Ach, buy the fabric while you have the chance. You'll only think of it mournfully if you don't. Then pack. And write. Sew later. I am sure this plan will work.

That walk does sound marvelous. I can't imagine anyone walking to work around here, but then we have an ugly downtown and maniac drivers. We're next to the lake, but it's, you know, "over there," and mostly hidden by buildings from every aspect.
A watervole! Oh my. I've only ever seen a field!vole, who fell asleep.

I'm coming in late to this - so from Cambridge to Oxford, wow - all I can think of now is "Oxbridge" and vague mentions of rivalries therein. Of which I haven't delved into at all. *mass ignorance* But then, I also don't pay attention to rivalries between Yale and Harvard and Princeton and for all I know, Brown. Not having gone to any of those is a huge contributing factor. :)

Hope your move is done smoothly and you have no lingering regrets!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I love walking to work. It's a drag in the rain, of course, but the climate here is pretty dry and temperate, and it's wonderful in summer. I have given up denying to my colleagues that they have seen me talking to myself as they drive past. I get all my fic ideas on the way! The watervole was very cute, like an oversize hamster with a furry tail.

Academic rivalries are amusing. When asked where I am going, I say Oxford, which gets the response “Oh, the Other Place ”. In a fortnight’s time when asked where I worked before, I shall say Cambridge and get exactly the same response.

There are things in life that I regret (Joachim, the Canadian MA student, why did I turn you down because I thought you were not serious enough about your MA? I was only in my second year – what did I know of post-graduate reality? Leaving Cambridge, however, is not one of them. I really don’t like East Anglia, and have rather a complicated relationship with the university. The place I'd never go is Warwick - they work their administrators to death!

[tree_and_leaf]

Good luck packing, and may you find the transition to the Other Other Place smooth and straightforward. Which part of Oxford are you moving to, btw?

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Little Clarendon Street - it's a small and wierd university flat, but will do nicely while I try and sort out something permanant.

[tree_and_leaf]

Little Trendy Street's quite a convenient base, at any rate, and the flats IIRC aren't bad by university standards (once nearly lived there, but got back into college instead).

Little Trendy Street?

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Ow. I am indeed more or less upstairs from the ice-cream parlour. But it _is_ very convenient, even if I'm going to have to join a gym in order to get some exercise (or just take the stairs a lot).

a hare!

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

Never has my default icon been more appropriate! I never saw one in Oxford (in fact the only wild mammals I saw might well have been a rat or two. Oh, and a couple of foxes who stole our cheese on a midnight picnic...) but there is a goodly supply of water-fowl, never feel. And of asparagus and strawberries. Hope the move goes smoothly. Must get there myself in the near future, and will be sure to get in touch when I do.

Re: a hare!

[dolabellae.livejournal.com]

Never fear, that's meant to be. Not some injunction not to caress Oxford river birds. Gah...

Re: a hare!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I shall definitely not be caressing river birds. That's illegal even in Denmark, you know.

We have rats, too, they're just less cute/interesting, so I didn't mention them.

[white_hart]

*Waves*

I thought I'd wander over and check your journal out, and it would appear that we are in fact shortly going to be (probably distant) colleagues...

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

(probably distant) colleagues

*Waves back, and scurries over to look* So we are. This explains your dress code post (my own personal dress code is "smarter than the academics") - hope you're enjoying it.

*returns to frantically writing hand-over notes*