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07 April 2016 23:14


A pleasant three-day week this week – I had a day off on Monday, and tomorrow is a non-working Friday.

Last weekend, CGF and I went away for our traditional* Easter break. You may recall that last year we went to Oxford. Because we are well-balanced individuals, this year we went to Cambridge.

* Well, this is the second year – that’s makes it a tradition. If we do it again next year it will be an ancient tradition

Why Cambridge? [part 1]. Presumably there are several bridges over the River Cam. So what was so special about the one that gave rise to the name of the settlement?

On our way (not that it was really on the way, but never mind) we spent a night with The Ageds. I was able to leave work early, having done loads of hours over the previous two weeks, so we were able to miss most of the Friday evening traffic and arrive in time for dinner.

The Ageds had had a minor disaster* in the week. Something had got stuck between a pan and the hob and the heat had “melted a hole” in the brand new ceramic hob. I was a little dubious; I’ve had a ceramic hob for five years and burnt all sorts of things on it (including a steamer). And from my experience, ceramic hobs are indestructible to pretty much anything short of a skilfully wielded sledge hammer.

*A “disaster” to the Ageds includes such tragedies as “unable to buy a replacement lid for the ceramic marmalade pot”. So I took a look. “That’s not a hole, it’s a bump” I declared. A combination of low heat, razor blade, detergent and elbow grease soon had the hob looking like new. And won me some brownie points (which I converted to a glass of whisky). See – all cleaning is a combination of temperature, time, mechanical action and chemical action.

Saturday morning CGF and I were proper parkrun tourists* and visited a parkrun near The Ageds. “How long will it take to get there?” I asked. “40 minutes”, I was told, “or 30 if there isn’t much traffic”. I looked on GoogleMaps. 20 minutes. It probably takes them the extra 20 minutes to get from the house to the car.

*Although I have done the Southampton parkrun a couple of times, this has been because Eastleigh was cancelled so not proper tourism. Just over-keenness.

The parkrun was at a county park which looked quite interesting as we ran round, so after breakfast we all went back for a visit. There was loads there, and we could have easily spent all day. Inside were exhibitions on pollution and the environment; generating electricity; and flora and fauna. Outside were walks and obstacle courses and high wires and low wires and treetop trails and ponds and loads of other things to provide amusement. We will go there again – possibly with the sprogs

Later in the afternoon we left The Ageds and drove the 90 minutes or so to Cambridge. The receptionist greeted us with “Good afternoon Mr Barefoot”, which was a little surprising until she explained that we were the last people to check-in that day. In an innovation since I last stayed in a hotel, the receptionist wasn’t allowed to read out our room number – we had to read it ourselves from the book-in card. Which is a bit difficult when you need to remove your glasses to read.

Why Cambridge? [part 2]. Cambridge University was founded by exiles from Oxford who had upset town and/or gown. So why did they go to Cambridge, as opposed to anywhere else of a similar distance? Maybe they just headed east until they suddenly realised “hang on, there is nothing beyond here; let’s set up camp and call it a day”

A day in Cambridge on Sunday where we did lots of touristy things – though slightly inhibited by the fact that many museums are closed on a Sunday. We walked round a college (Trinity), went on punt*, ate a chelsea bun at Fitzbillies, climbed the tower of St Mary the Great, visited the Fitzwilliam museum, and generally wandered around the city. We would have stayed in to the evening (possibly visiting The Eagle for dinner) but then found that the last Park and Ride bus was at 1830 so headed back to the hotel.

*we debated whether to take a guided tour punt or self-drive but opted for self-drive. But from time to time we sailed close enough to the guided punts to hear what they were saying. Newton discovered gravity at Cambridge, and St John’s College (when viewed from The Backs) is perfectly symmetrical apart from one small feature.

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