Cambridge

Finally, the family have managed to get rid of me :). I've enjoyed a very comfortable, relaxing time for the last week and a bit with Philip Baddeley, (also the same generation as me, but only slightly younger than my parents).

After arriving in Cabmridge with Rob and Richard Jefferies. (waiting for a lift up with them was what kept me in Cornwall.... not the amazing place and other people...) I met Phillip, a rather eccentric entrepreneurial type of guy. He thought he was suffering from food poisioning as a result of some prawns, and wasn't too well for the whole time i was with him..., as it turn out, it looks more like he is suffering from gall stones. That night we headed out to Katie, (Rob and Richard's sister)'s place where all her friends were getting ready for a good night out on town... a last drinking session before graduation. The company was good, the booze was good (apart from the bottle of old sherry we pinched before we left Philip's place. ) and the Baileys-chocolate slice was delicious! We then headed out to “Secret Disco”, a funky little soul music bar in the middle of town. When we arrived, at about 11:00, the floor was all ours(about 10 of us), so the dancing began. by the time i left, at around 3 there were 6 of us and 80 other people. a great bit of fun, with the standard Baddeley/Jefferies dance moves going strong.

Back at Philip's place, there was a certain lack of space in beds, so a permanent challenge was laid down to try to find somewhere else to sleep for any given night, although i won't comment on anyone's success.

The next day Katie took us punting on the river., a very traditional experience, On the way down the river, Richard gave a wonderful demonstration of why you don't attempt to just get that last push in before you reach the bridge, with a spectacular lifeguard-like swan-dive/belly-flop into the murky water, gallantly rescuing the pole. When we got to the downstream end, I suddenly found it was my turn, to punt upstream.. but a lot of bank-hugging and a couple of doughnuts later we were back where we started, I was still dry, and we hadn't made too many enemies in the other boats. Sarah arrived that afternoon, and of course, we went into town again that evening.., although it wasn't nearly as exciting as the previous night.

The graduation day itself was a spectacular celebration of a lot of hard work by a lot of people. Naturally, i was the most under-dressed person present, but running around all day with my camera made me feel like i was meant to be there, even if most of my photos were kinda average. The ceremony itself (which i didn't have tickets for) was a very formal, yet quick affair when compared to Auckland University graduations. Only one college at a time (Cambridge graduates in it's residential colleges, not faculties), and with only 80 people in the college, no clapping, no singing, etc. the whole formal ceremony is over in 30 mins.

After the ceremony, there was a lunch in the garden of Katie's College, the highlight of which must have been Rob's parachute,
we then walked on to a lovely garden cafe, (Someone email me if they know the name of it)... where we enjoyed scones and Pims..,. after the walk back through many kissing gates we were ready to head back into town for dinner with the families of some of Kate's close friends..., which, of course, was followed by heading to the pub for our last night out in cambridge, Any rumours of brothers splitting generations are purely hearsay, I assure you.

The following day, after helping Katie move the last of her posessions out of her room, we headed up to wales., and since I'm nearing the end of this bus trip, Wales can wait for my next blog post.