Rest of the week

[liv]

So, apart from the job interview craziness, I managed to cram in quite a bit of socializing.

Thursday I went shopping with Mum and Granny, and picked up a nice summer skirt that is very much to my taste (calf length, flared, purple and blue splotches) and very much needed.

The parents like to collect tokens, and passed on to me and jack some which entitle you to a £10 set menu lunch at various Cambridge restaurants, so we tried out Graffiti out towards Girton. The restaurant is very pleasant, light and spacious and modern without being bleeding edge. The food was not terribly exciting, for the most part; though they had a veggie option it wasn't very interesting, just ravioli with ratatouille, piled up into one of those trendy pyramids in the middle of the plate. Decent wine (ok, I have a soft spot for Loire whites) and a rather good fig tart for dessert. I expect it's probably more exciting if you have the fish or meat, and the lunchtime set menu is £13 for two courses even without the tokens, so by Cambridge standards it's not too bad. Also it's far enough out of town to have hints of rural, we went for a little walk through a field on the way back.

Met redaloud for tea at my old haunt, Clowns. jack came with me to say hello, and she kindly invited him to join us. It was very nice to catch up, and the potentially awkward conversation between me, my Beau and a very old friend he barely knows went generally smoothly.

Then back to Shelford where the parents had invited Thuggish Poet for dinner. It was really great to see him, and his life seems to be going particularly well. He's living with his gf, and has landed a plum teaching job after years of messing around not getting his vast experience acknowledged because he didn't have the right pieces of paper. Yay brother.

On Friday I got to dabble in the glory that is Cambridge at its most Cambridgey. I had a bit of sitting in the sunshine on the Backs with jack, then teeeeeeea with rochvelleth in Kings tea room / bar. It was ever so lovely to meet her in person after a year or more of failing to make that happen, and she's possibly even more likeable in the flesh than online.

Then I went to an egal service at lavendersparkle's invitation. It was just lovely, a few dozen people, most of whom were enthusiastic and familiar with the liturgy. A very good sha''tz, and a whole lot of spontaneous four-part harmony. Plus, we were using the new Reform siddur, which for various reasons (mainly to do with being out of the country) I had never actually seen, and I am completely and utterly in love with it. I glanced out of the window at the setting sun and caught sight of a girl performing some impressive poi for her fellow students. Just about my ideal religious experience, spiced with the essence of Cambridge.

I managed to introduce forestofglory to lavendersparkle and the three of us stood in the entrance to Kings chatting for a while until blue_mai showed up. She took me to Efes, thinking that a Turkish restaurant might have halal food. There was no indication that it does, but they have some very good veggie stuff. Very generous portions and interesting flavours; I think I prefer it to Anatolia, though it's less upmarket. The atmosphere was noisy and crowded but in a way that felt lively rather than annoying. And it's always wonderful to have a chance for proper conversations with blue_mai.

Saturday I actually managed to get some time to chill and hang out with jack after all the rushing around. Definitely much needed. Then he brought me to PoohSoc, who are a delightful crowd, and very welcoming to a newbie. I hid in the bathroom and changed into my party dress, the black gothy one, which got some very flattering reactions from the assembled group!

We then headed to the Pembury with pseudomonas for doseybat's graduation party. On the way we had one of those wonderful conversations about everything from maths to theology, even attracting what I thought was a random stranger to join in, though it later turned out he was on the way to the same party and knew us slightly. The party was very much fun, though the Pembury was overcrowded and noisy and had run out of food by 8:30 when we arrived. A bunch of us went out for Chinese just round the corner, which timeplease kindly allowed us to consume in the pub. I had a very good conversation with khalinche and got to hug deborah_c and ewtikins and timeplease himself, and ran into hmw26's little sister whom I hadn't seen in decades.

Crashed at doseybat's place for a few hours, and then I had to leave stupid early in order to catch the only plausible flight back to Sweden. Although pplfichi helpfully looked up travel information on his fairy laptop, in fact the tubes didn't start up until too late in the morning to be useful to me, so I ended up taking a taxi to Paddington *sigh*. But anyway, I caught the flight from ridiculous Birmingham to ridiculous middle of nowhere southern Sweden, and made it home exhausted by teatime.

Comments

[doseybat]

pplfichi says its name is fairiee. I should comment with some more meaningful content but am flying tomorrow morning and procrastinating from finishing packing as I type.. *waves*

[doseybat]

argh no, faeriee.

[hatam_soferet]

Nothing to say, but teahugs and missing the sort of thing you describe rather tremendously.

[emperor]

We passed through Cambridge this weekend too, but only on the Monday.

[khalinche]

I really enjoyed talking to you too, and am very flattered that you thought likewise! Looking forward to you getting a job closer to, and having more conversations.

[rochvelleth]

Thank you for saying such lovely things!

And hello from Dreamwidth :) I think it looks quite shiny over here.