Nice weekend

[yrieithydd]

When caliston visited me three weeks ago (when we went to the seaside :-}) we decided that I'd visit Cambridge in three weeks time. Then MethSoc Garden Party and Overnight Punting were advertised for the Thursday and Fitz MCR End of Year Dinner for the Monday so I decided to come for Thursday to Monday and do both. I didn't tell people I was coming as I wanted to surprise MethSoc!

After a slightly hectic morning I made my train at Cathays and had an ept journey to Cambridge. caliston met me around 3:30 at the station and we stupidly didn't go via Shelford and took 45mins to get back to Trumpington. After a rest/faff we drove to outside Waitrose and bought veggie stuff for the barbecue* on the meadows. We then caught the park and ride into town. By this point we were a bit late for the 6pm photo so caliston texted naomir to say he was running late so they'd wait. We got there before the camera which was useful! People were duly surprised at me turning up! The garden party was good and then it was time to wander scudswards. caliston, naomir and I headed straight there whilst the others faffed via Sainsbury's. Punting was good. I took us down to Dead Man's and then swapped with Steve H who got us to the meadows. I dropped the pole a couple of times, once losing it completely which was careless. The thing was I'd asked for a wooden pole as I prefer them especially at night because the aluminium ones are horribly cold, but there was a slight splintery bit so I was not running my hands down them. After a couple of hours barbecuing 4 of the 13 headed back to Cambridge on foot whilst the rest of us headed up to Byron's pool. caliston and I went with them up to the pool and then were dropped off at the Grantchester bridge to walk back to the car and go home and sleeeeeeeeeeeep. The only glitch was the fact that some rotten insect had bitten the inside of the back of my right knee just as I started punting. Being Cambridge, I reacted to the bite and the next morning it was swelling and cycling was awkward.

I was a bit slow the next morning and it was gone nearly 11 by the time I got into the library (I'd bought some Benedryl on the way in) but I typed up my abstract which I'd handwritten on the train the day before (after battery expired) as I needed to have this to start the process of appointing examiners (aaaaah scary!). Then I went to Mass and lunch and spent the early afternoon chatting to naomir in Peterhouse herb garden/deer park which was lovely. Then back to the library and emailed Paul the pdf of my abstract. The library shut at 5 so I went up to grad workroom for a bit. Then it was to the grad pad to meet Dan and co (including wackydave as Dan was in Cambridge that evening. I'd only found this out because I'd bumped into wackydave just before punting the day before. It was good to catch up.

Then home to caliston's and a chat to him and then bed. Saturday was the feast of the nativity of John the Baptist so there was Mass at 10am. My leg by now was horribly stiff, so when caliston appeared I asked whether he was awake enough to give me a lift which he was. This was useful. Mass was lovely as ever and afterwards I headed back to naomir's for a bit while we waited for caliston to come and pick us up to have lunch in Trumpington. This we did (eating the left over burgers and sausages from Thursday) and then we picked the cherries from caliston's cherry tree and sat in the garden for a bit (eating some of the cherries). We then decided to show naomir the allotments and the footpath so we wandered to a pea field where we proceeded to spend the next few hours just chatting, with me resting my head on caliston's lap. I hope we weren't too nauseatingly couply. They were irrigating the field and there was a lovely rainbow effect in the spray but by the time caliston retrieved a camera it had vanished which was a shame. Eventually, we realised it was getting late and moved. We decided to take naomir home via Waitrose and have supper at hers after which we let her go to bed and headed home.

Sunday was Mass and then after going home and having lunch, caliston spent the afternoon stoning cherries in order to make jam. Then we went to evensong at Trumpington and had an interesting conversation with the vicar who turned out to be a geologist. Then home to make jam (bounce) and edit my latest covering letter.

Monday I worked during the day, mainly faffing with my abstract. Paul had emailed asking for an editable version on Saturday morning which I didn't read until Sunday evening having (shock) not spodded at all on Saturday, so I'd sent him raw .tex. I got it back as a word document with comments (mainly removing detail) in read and scored through. I edited and faffed with .tex to make it all fit on one page as requested by the faculty. I sent the edited version to Paul at lunchtime from the ASNC Common Room, commenting on my location so he suggested I came up to see him later on so we could talk about stuff. This was useful. When the library shut it was back to Trumpington to shower and wash my hair for the dinner that evening. This was pleasant although a couple of those I wanted to catch up with weren't around.

As we headed back, caliston told me about the fire nr King's Cross, so when we got in we faffed with websites to try and find about trains. I was on a Leisure Advance C** (i.e. with a specified train (1315) from Paddington to Cardiff because it is cheap) and so we wanted to know whether I was still expected to meet that train despite potential doom with the first bit of my journey (for which the 1128 was suggested although I'd been planning on the 1145 because it gets in only 3 mins later and I think 42 mins KX to Pad is perfectly feasible). Rail enquires said yes. To be sure though we decided to phone First Great Western in the morning. I did this around 0930 and after a lot of effort got an affirmative from the woman. Having looked at the emergency timetable to Finsbury Park we decided by best bet was the 1132 to Liverpool Street which was due in at 1242 giving me 33 mins from there to Paddington. I reckon half an hour is fine from KX but LS is 4 stops further on the H&S/Circle lines so that was pretty tight. We made that train. There were lots of people in flurescent yellow jackets at the station advising people on what to do who agreed with us re LS. We were bit later in LS because of a hold up before a level crossing north of Whittlesford where the barrier was pointing down the road, but I got to the westbound platform of the circle/metropolitan/H&S lines to find and H&S due in a minute. We got to Edgeware Rd around 7 mins past one and I was thinking will I make it. It must have been 12/13 minutes past by the time we got into KX. At least the H&S is nearer than the circle.*** The Cardiff train was on platform 2 so I walked quickly that way. They were checking tickets, but I still had a minute. I was mildly confused because it was an adelante not an HST so it looked wrong, and being only 5 carriages not 8 meant it didn't reach the stairs which was frustrating with little time. Anyway, I dashed towards it and got on in carriage B**** despite the fact my seat was on C because I wanted to be on the train when it left not walking down the platform. I eventually made it down to my seat which annoying wasn't 16F as promised but 16A and going backwards which meant I couldn't work as I didn't trust my computer on the silly pull-down tably thing. I should have tried on the first leg but thought it would be easier on the Cardiff leg and with only 45mins battery these days I can't do much. So I read ++Rowan instead. At least I had caught my train so didn't have to worry about explaining to guards! I in fact go to Cathays early because the 15:26 to Merthyr was late so I caught that from Central rather than the next one to Cathays and wandered up to the library outside which I'd parked by bike and cycled home and did a bit of work whilst watching Wimbledon.

*I'm a veggie because I don't really like meat and Sainsbury only do fake meat barbecuable stuff which I'm not keen on (Quorn is bearable but not great) for veggies whereas Tescos do a lovely been burger and Waitrose had some interesting stuff.

**They've just changed ticketing!

***Two women had boarded the tube at KX and were being confused by the two Paddingtons on the diagrams so I explained the layout to them and which line we were on.

****A was at the front and not enterable until the rear so it was as easy to get on at the front of B

Comments

[yrieithydd.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I've never seem them in town Sainsbury's and their website didn't give me details of them either. Actually, no, I think I saw the vegetable waffles. Though cauliflower cheese burgers sound like they might disintegrate on a barbecue which is always a danger with good stuff.

[atreic.livejournal.com]

How amusing! I always go into the town Sainsbury's to get them because they seem a more reliable source than the Tescos!

[yrieithydd.livejournal.com]

Very odd. Though Big Tescos here were out of bean burgers today.