Musings from Bath

So. I'm here. I've moved in, and although starting in a new place has its ups and downs I am actually quite enjoying it.

In some ways it is only now that it has hit me how much I miss Oxford and how much I took for granted, but life would be dull if it remained static. Life without formal hall and poncing around in a gown will take some getting used to, as will the fact that 10 minutes walk is no longer a long way. Some things on the other hand I will get used to too easily. Like the dishwasher, the proper kitchen and the TV. Nice.

Bath, like another great city I could name, is not short on hills. I might attempt to join the few who cycle on occasion but in the last couple of days I've had the joy of sussing out the buses. I hate buses, but some things I might just have to get used to. It could be easier said than done though - I found out to my cost yesterday that the X39 express bus stops at the number 14 stop I walked passed and then sailed past the number 14 stop I waited at.

Oh dear, I've started writing bus stories to complement my railway anecdotes. What's more, the above isn't interesting in the slightest (except perhaps to Mugford, for whom I shall resist the urge to delete it).

Fortunately I have decided not to ramble about my visit to the computing services earlier. It was probably only funny because I'd been queuing for so long that my brain had melted. Besides, it's late, and I need to get some sleep.

Tomorrow is course induction day. Time to get to grips with the main reason for being here. It is also time to find out if my eyesight will hold when it comes to reading and lectures, but at least if I get a timetable tomorrow I can set about making appointments with the specialist.

Incidentally I was amazed by the number of comments on my previous post. I wouldn't have had a clue about HMC Schools; I was going to suggest the H (that's "aitch" not "haitch") stood for Haberdashers but just as well I didn't. Sam would have disowned me and that would be that as far as further invites to the East India Club go.

Thank you very much for reading, bye for now.

Comments

Anonymous said…
If it's any consolation, I'm back in Oxford now and it's all rather drearily depressing. In Trinity it's at it's best - and to go from that blissful term to rainy afternoons, sunset at 6pm, no walking on lawns, no croquet, no pimms, freezing college rooms with useless heating, chilly libraries, and billions of foreign and cramming students still staying here (for term doesn't get going for another 10 days), is profoundly disheartening. Traffic to make London blush; enough Japanese tourists to start a new country; the Ashmolean all bright and garish after its renovation; college empty except for grad students; the meadows and parks closing early - one can't do much more than say "Oh dear" to it all, and knuckle down to some distracting reading, which helps but slightly.

Of course it's still exhiliratingly beautiful, and the atmosphere often to die for - but take comfort in the fact that Bath can scarcely be much worse!
Thu Sep 28, 12:39:00 AM GMT
Anonymous said…
Much appreciation of bus banter. Keep up the good work.

Your assumption is that Oxford life remains static. It does not. I've walked three times alone this week to Morning Prayer and Gertie's will be without jacket potatoes. The arrogant cocks are likely to have loud gatherings below my flat and I'm having traumas of a lack of instantly hot showers. The doom of collections still remains though. Alas.

(However, I'm actually loving Oxford and have seen loads of people since I've been back and am so happy to be settled and have freeview and ... you can imagine)
Thu Sep 28, 07:14:00 AM GMT
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

the purpose of religion

One of the things which featured in the recent debate on this post is the idea that “religion should be about improving oneself”. This has got me thinking; ‘religion’ of course takes many forms, but in the vast majority of cases I disagree with this. To paraphrase MarkC, religion is certainly something which as a by-product might help with “improving oneself”, but however you measure self-improvement it is not the sole point, certainly not in the Judeo-Christian case. In fact, if your sole aim is to “improve yourself”, why waste your time playing around with the trappings of religion? Most religions are based around the idea of faith in God, and that, surely, is the point. Considering Christianity specifically, Jesus said “ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself ” and so ‘religion’ should not be in danger of becoming all about wo
Read more

atheism is a matter of faith, not science: the debate continues

Following the letters page in last Wednesday's Metro and the follow-up comment on this post I’m pleased to see that the beginnings of a debate are brewing, and I intend to use this post to pick up the baton again. Unsurprisingly, I’m going to start by responding to the aforementioned comment. I apologise if my tone was deemed to be a bit sharp, but I have no hesitation in defending the point I was trying to make. According to dictionary.com , faith can be defined as “belief that is not based on proof.” As there is no proof that God does not exist, belief that God does not exist (i.e. atheism) must be faith. Now, I take your point that “as human beings we are always revising and fine tuning what we hold to be true based on the evidence to hand, what we discover and our ability to determine what is probable or improbable.” To digress slightly, that is why switching on the Large Hadron Collider is going to be something of a milestone, as it could either serve to prove a theory or
Read more

och, I'm back

Well, I've been back from Bonnie Scotland for a week now, actually, but I've been a bit busy since then. As my mother discovered when she visited a while back, Scotland is not as wild or backward as one might think ("they have a Marks and Spencer's in Inverness!") and Sam and I had a wonderful few days. We spent the first two days in Edinburgh staying with our great aunt, which was fantastic. I think I've paid tribute to her before in this corner of the blogosphere, and her legendary status was confirmed when it transpired that the random Edinburgh couple who sat next to us on the journey North actually knew her (I kid you not). On arrival she took one look at my Grade 2 'style' and exclaimed "what's with the hair?!", and it was nice to see that all was well. Edinburgh, I have decided, has JP's seal of approval and I did enjoy seeing the sights. We packed quite a lot in, including an exhibition on tartan which turned out to be re
Read more