Palaeography

"The MSt in English Literature is a very intense course." They say this a lot.

This week, I had my first assessed assignment (yes, I've been back in school for the past 7 weeks). It was for my palaeography course--i.e., early modern handwriting. We look at manuscripts (well, photocopies of manuscripts but we've got access to the manuscript holdings in the Duke Humphries library of the Bodleian so we could branch out if we choose) written in the 17th century, mostly in secretary hand.

It gives me a bit of a headache because the writing's cramped and difficult but it's weirdly satisfying. You know how when you work out a math problem and you just get this perfect, gorgeous number at the end and you feel like somehow the Universe works? It feels like that when you stare and stare at these squiggles on the page and then they suddenly resolve themselves into words.

We had two passages to transcribe. One was pretty straightforward. The other one was...difficult. But this is essentially a pass-fail thing, so I think this won't be the end of my career in English Literature. It's still too early in the game for that.

The Party

Everyone knows AR throws awesome parties. In Montréal, they were legend. Now in London, she's finally gone international.

On Friday, we went hors-d'oeuvre shopping at Marks & Spencer's in Wimbledon. Armed with frozen Indian nibblies and sausage rolls, we then hit the Bromley-by-Bow Tesco for chips, juice, beer, jello, and a large jug of rubbing alcohol cleverly disguised as vodka.

Saturday, the jello shots were released from their ice cube prison, the apartment was cleaned, David and I defected and went shopping (you should see the jeans he bought), and then we waited. I was sent on another mission to Tesco's to buy some destressing cigarettes for the hostess. It was the first time I'd ever bought cigarettes in my life and I felt a little bit badass.

Guests began to arrive a little after nine. The numbers were very respectable. There was a large Canadian contingent and a large Swedish contingent. Hockey was not discussed.

Kudos to AR, hostess with (yes, I'm going to write it) the mostess.

The Tourist

I had most of my London Friday to myself because David and Ariana were off to work, being the responsible citizens that they are.

Left their flat in Bromley-by-Bow in the morning and took the tube to Tower Hill, where I strolled around the outside of the Tower of London and took some boring pictures of that big old...Tower. Walked down to the water and looked at Tower Bridge. The day was windy and sunny, the tourists weren't overwhelming. A Japanese student asked me to take a photo of him in front of the bridge. He had a fancy camera.

I walked along the Thames path, heading west (I think) towards Embankment. In Oxford, I live next to the Thames path, which is quite different from its London incarnation. The Oxford Thames path is gravel, goes by fields, has joggers and cyclists and kids and geese and dogs. Also, in Oxford, the Thames is called the Isis. No, I don't know why.

So, with Tower Bridge at my back, I walked and walked. Through apartment buildings, past churches, past tourists, past Londoners taking their lunch by the river. Past the Monument. Past St Pauls. Past...hang on, past Shakespeare's Globe! Yes, I spied the faux-Tudor theatre across the river as I walked and decided to cross over on the Millennium Bridge (which faces St Paul's) and take a look. It was really neat. Didn't tour around inside, though. I'll have to go back one day to see a play there. Not as a groundling, though. I don't think I'd want to stand for the 2 hours' traffic of that stage.

Back across the river, I walked along and saw the Egyptian obelisk, the London Eye and Big Ben off in the distance. I then veered away from the path at Embankment and soon stumbled across Trafalgar Square. The first thing I spotted there was Canada House. Aww.

Back on the tube, then, to Oxford Circus, prime shopping location (and still in London, not Oxford, despite the name). Things were bought: tights, t-shirt, jeans. I was pleased.

I wrapped up my London day with a trip out to Wimbledon to collect Ariana at work. Didn't see the tennis courts, no. Just the local Marks & Spencer. We had party shopping to do...

Now go to Flickr and see some photos of my walk. The link's on the left sidebar.

At the Royal Albert Hall

I haven’t been blogging lately because I’ve been “studying” (and, therefore, dull) but Thursday afternoon I bussed to London to see The Be Good Tanyas play at Royal Albert Hall... David met me at Victoria station and we headed out to Kensington on the tube from there. The walk from the station to the RAH was a little on the chilly side. Yes, things are finally cooling down in England! It’s not quite tuque weather, but scarves are definitely de rigueur. David and I blew along the street in the unseen shadow of Kensington Palace, past posh apartments and illuminated monuments. And then: the Royal Albert Hall crept around the corner.


Beautiful, beautiful place. We had an interesting time finding our seats, which were the cheapest there were and, therefore, in the most awkward place in the theatre. Fortunately, when we reached the nosebleed section (aka “Obstructed View, Circle”), the ushers up there offered us better seats in the “arena” on the ground floor. Yes, please! So, we ended up with awesome seats and we also got to see the theatre from the top and the bottom. Excellent.

The opening act, Kathryn Williams, was really good. A sweet-voiced English folkie girl. Gin and tonic in the interval. Then: the main attraction--The Be Good Tanyas (sweet-voiced Canadian folkie girls). Very, very good. Except....they didn’t play their One Big Hit: Littlest Birds. It was a little heartbreaking. But, all things considered, it was a fantastic evening. Here’s to escaping Oxford!

New Blog Spot

Hi Everybody,

Welcome to my new blog space. I'm very sorry for being confusing and getting a new address...It came time to pay for the previous site and it turned out that the good people at Apple wanted rather a lot of money from me, so I've turned to Blogspot, who are happy to help me out for free.

So, welcome to the new space!

oxc