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Riding home on Ye Olde Oxforde Tubee now, a little bird[*] informed me that it was time for another Week-in-Review post! So run! Hide! Flee whilst you can!
Monday: At work, one of my students had just returned from Japan. This was good and allowed us to get some progress on neutrino flux constraints made very quickly, in a face-to-face environment. After work, I rang bells at St. Aldates Church in the Oxford city centre. This is a new church for me -- my eighth in Oxford and ninth overall. The practice, on six very well-hung bells, was geared to learners at about my level, so that was very well. I shall ring there again!
Tuesday: At work, there were many meetings. So many, in fact, that two were at the same time... and I had to go late to one when the other ended! The most important meeting went well, which is a clear success! After work, I had a nice double date: First, I got to spend some quality alone time with my beloved![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cheshcat. That was very nice, indeed! Then the beautiful bunnypip arrived in Oxford and, after some nice group time together, she and I retreated for the night to -- what's the word? -- "reconnect".
Wednesday: After work,cheshcat and I went to go see a production of My Fair Lady at the Oxford Playhouse. This was already written about in my previous entry. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain. 'Nuff said.
Thursday: The main event on Thursday was a trip to the British Museum to see artifacts from the Staffordshire Hoard. Discovered in July, this collection of Anglo-Saxon treasure -- with the most A-S gold ever found in one place! -- is a bit of a mystery right now. Where did it come from? Why are there ornaments for weaponry... but not a single blade? Why are all the objects masculine, unlike at other finds (e.g., Sutton Hoo)? Only the day before, the assessment of the hoard had been completed; it is valued at £3,285,000. We also bought a book about the hoard, published that very day. This is all very new stuff! I took many photographs of the items on display, which I shall feature in an upcoming post. Of course, once we were done viewing the Staffordshire Hoard pieces, we had to pay a visit to the room with the Sutton Hoo artifacts, for comparison.[**] We stayed at the museum for an evening lecture about the treasure, given by the National Adviser for the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Being me, I had to ask a question of the speaker afterward, of course!
Friday: In the evening, I met the lovely [Bad username or site: miss_amaranth" @ livejournal.com] at the Oxford Rail Station. There, I was treated to nearly an hour of her undivided attention. It was, to say the least, a most pleasant experience! We walked and talked until we reached the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, where a parade was about to take place as part of Oxford's "Christmas Light Night" celebrations![***] The parade was fun and, along the way, we met up with the charmingamuletts and the adorable pinkoi. There was also hot chocolate and donuts to be had! Huzzah!
The parade ended at the Oxford Castle, where I wasaccosted interviewed by the BBC about how horrible it had been to have the word "Christmas" omitted from the title of the event last year. Oi! Believing the whole matter to be a storm in a teacup -- and a year old storm, at that! -- I don't think I gave my interviewer what she wanted... and I doubt that the footage of me made it onto the air. Once that was done, we joined the dashing xmakina, my darling bunnypip (with three leverets in tow), and uberredfraggle at Cafe 1071. Together, the ten of us explored the events of the evening! We saw splendid ice sculptures, silly fake snow, and sweet bubbles. We went to the Ashmolean Museum, where the brass band Decibel returned for a second year... complete with their signature hit: YMCA. Somehow, though, their performance was not as fantastic as it had been last year. I horrified L5 and made her go screaming for Mummy when I told her that a stone she was looking at was 2500 years old.
Eventually, we ended the evening at the Brewery Gate, where I spent some time cuddling and talking to somebody who is becoming increasingly important to me. It was a very good evening, indeed!
Saturday: Shortly after waking up,cheshcat and I made our way into London, where D&J were throwing their fourth annual Thanksgiving-for-expats feast! Oddly enough, circumstances force these two to move every year... so we were seeing their latest flat for the first time. It was lovely, with huge windows and a balcony overlooking the Thames, and views of the London Eye, the Millenium Dome, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Gherkin, and more! We were the first to arrive; when more people had accumulated, some of us went out to throw an "American football" around for a bit. Not sure I have ever played "American football" -- and I am certainly not a natural -- but it was fun! The feast, of course, was beyond words... with some very delicious faux turkey for the vegetarians in the crowd. I ended the evening believing that I would not eat for another week. TH was present, and we started planning another outing on his narrowboat for the Spring; I am already excited about the prospect, as we had such a good weekend back in June. People got a bit tipsy, leading to some very interesting conversations.[****] Eventually, folks started to leave and we had a nice chance to catch up with D&J before everyone passed out around one-something in the morning.
Sunday: Returned to the British Museum, where we met up with the lovablebunnypip to see the exhibition on Moctezuma. It was good! Not as good as the exhibition that we saw with darkfloweruk in February on Babylon... and certainly nowhere near as good as the First Emperor exhibition of Chinese terracotta statues that we saw in March 2008! But good, nonetheless.
And that, dear friends, is the news in brief! Tune in next time, when we hear Nomad say: "Of course the dolphin will be happy in the bathtub!" Till then, merry Monday to all... and to all, a good night!
[*] Or maybe it wasda_pupdetz; I get the two confused sometimes!
[**] We had, of course, seen these before... but viewing the two in sequence was very interesting.
[***] Don't you dare call it "Winter Light" -- oh, no no!
[****] In the interests of good taste, I will not say more here.
Monday: At work, one of my students had just returned from Japan. This was good and allowed us to get some progress on neutrino flux constraints made very quickly, in a face-to-face environment. After work, I rang bells at St. Aldates Church in the Oxford city centre. This is a new church for me -- my eighth in Oxford and ninth overall. The practice, on six very well-hung bells, was geared to learners at about my level, so that was very well. I shall ring there again!
Tuesday: At work, there were many meetings. So many, in fact, that two were at the same time... and I had to go late to one when the other ended! The most important meeting went well, which is a clear success! After work, I had a nice double date: First, I got to spend some quality alone time with my beloved
cheshcat. That was very nice, indeed! Then the beautiful bunnypip arrived in Oxford and, after some nice group time together, she and I retreated for the night to -- what's the word? -- "reconnect".Wednesday: After work,
cheshcat and I went to go see a production of My Fair Lady at the Oxford Playhouse. This was already written about in my previous entry. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain. 'Nuff said.Thursday: The main event on Thursday was a trip to the British Museum to see artifacts from the Staffordshire Hoard. Discovered in July, this collection of Anglo-Saxon treasure -- with the most A-S gold ever found in one place! -- is a bit of a mystery right now. Where did it come from? Why are there ornaments for weaponry... but not a single blade? Why are all the objects masculine, unlike at other finds (e.g., Sutton Hoo)? Only the day before, the assessment of the hoard had been completed; it is valued at £3,285,000. We also bought a book about the hoard, published that very day. This is all very new stuff! I took many photographs of the items on display, which I shall feature in an upcoming post. Of course, once we were done viewing the Staffordshire Hoard pieces, we had to pay a visit to the room with the Sutton Hoo artifacts, for comparison.[**] We stayed at the museum for an evening lecture about the treasure, given by the National Adviser for the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Being me, I had to ask a question of the speaker afterward, of course!
Friday: In the evening, I met the lovely [Bad username or site: miss_amaranth" @ livejournal.com] at the Oxford Rail Station. There, I was treated to nearly an hour of her undivided attention. It was, to say the least, a most pleasant experience! We walked and talked until we reached the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, where a parade was about to take place as part of Oxford's "Christmas Light Night" celebrations![***] The parade was fun and, along the way, we met up with the charming
amuletts and the adorable pinkoi. There was also hot chocolate and donuts to be had! Huzzah! The parade ended at the Oxford Castle, where I was
xmakina, my darling bunnypip (with three leverets in tow), and uberredfraggle at Cafe 1071. Together, the ten of us explored the events of the evening! We saw splendid ice sculptures, silly fake snow, and sweet bubbles. We went to the Ashmolean Museum, where the brass band Decibel returned for a second year... complete with their signature hit: YMCA. Somehow, though, their performance was not as fantastic as it had been last year. I horrified L5 and made her go screaming for Mummy when I told her that a stone she was looking at was 2500 years old. Eventually, we ended the evening at the Brewery Gate, where I spent some time cuddling and talking to somebody who is becoming increasingly important to me. It was a very good evening, indeed!
Saturday: Shortly after waking up,
cheshcat and I made our way into London, where D&J were throwing their fourth annual Thanksgiving-for-expats feast! Oddly enough, circumstances force these two to move every year... so we were seeing their latest flat for the first time. It was lovely, with huge windows and a balcony overlooking the Thames, and views of the London Eye, the Millenium Dome, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Gherkin, and more! We were the first to arrive; when more people had accumulated, some of us went out to throw an "American football" around for a bit. Not sure I have ever played "American football" -- and I am certainly not a natural -- but it was fun! The feast, of course, was beyond words... with some very delicious faux turkey for the vegetarians in the crowd. I ended the evening believing that I would not eat for another week. TH was present, and we started planning another outing on his narrowboat for the Spring; I am already excited about the prospect, as we had such a good weekend back in June. People got a bit tipsy, leading to some very interesting conversations.[****] Eventually, folks started to leave and we had a nice chance to catch up with D&J before everyone passed out around one-something in the morning.Sunday: Returned to the British Museum, where we met up with the lovable
bunnypip to see the exhibition on Moctezuma. It was good! Not as good as the exhibition that we saw with darkfloweruk in February on Babylon... and certainly nowhere near as good as the First Emperor exhibition of Chinese terracotta statues that we saw in March 2008! But good, nonetheless. And that, dear friends, is the news in brief! Tune in next time, when we hear Nomad say: "Of course the dolphin will be happy in the bathtub!" Till then, merry Monday to all... and to all, a good night!
[*] Or maybe it was
da_pupdetz; I get the two confused sometimes![**] We had, of course, seen these before... but viewing the two in sequence was very interesting.
[***] Don't you dare call it "Winter Light" -- oh, no no!
[****] In the interests of good taste, I will not say more here.
