Mind the Gap!

Monday, 20 Nov. 0929, Greenwich Mean Time

I am sitting in a wonderfully quiet first class train cabin, on my way to Oxford. Now this is the way to travel! I had a horrid time getting on the train though.. there were awful tube delays in London due to major line closings or backups. I made it on the Oxford train with about :20 to spare.. quite exciting, really, running through a busy train station ;) Or not. But hey, I'm on the train.

So just to update.... I arrived Saturday morning around 0815 London time. Lisa and Cat picked me up and we drove back to Stortford. After a nice relaxing afternoon resting (and catching up on Grey's!), we met some of Lisa and Darryl's church friends for an American-style Thanksgiving meal. It was quite humorous, actually. The food was good.. however, the highlight of the evening had to be watching a room full of Brits trying to learn line dancing... fun stuff!

Sunday, we went to church at King's College in Cambridge. It was so lovely.. the choir.. the architecture.. goodness, I wish we had churches like that in America. After church, we had lunch with some other their friends, and then wandered Cambridge for the afternoon. I found the old music shop I had visited before and got some fun stuff. We returned to Bishop's Stortford for a quick dinner and then off to sing at Evensong, which, even though I had never seen the music before we were actually singing it in the service, was quite enjoyable. We did sing Rutter's "For the Beauty," which I have sung, so that was nice.

**Side note: I am looking at the most lovely rainbow outside the train window.. how beautimous!**

Then home again. Lisa and I had tea and scones (and a lovely little nightcap of Bailey's on ice! ;) ), and then watched tv and talked for a while before going to bed. And then I got up at the crack of dawn, got on a train to London, bought a tube card, fought my way through several tube changes trying to get to Paddington, before finally making the aforementioned mad dash for the Oxford train. And here I sit. It has now started to sprinkle, and I've realized that I haven't brought an umbrella.. oy. Oh well. Alright then.. I should turn this off so I have enough battery to last me in Oxford. More later! Cheers!

**Another side note: Currently sitting in the train station at Slough looking at a Coke machine.... £1.20 for a Coke!! Seriously? Seriously.**


Monday, 20 Nov. 1658 Greenwich Mean Time

WHAT a day. Once again, I am sitting in a first-class train cabin, but this time, returning to London/Stortford. I had a rather fun day. After arriving in Oxford around 1015, I wandered Oxford for a bit before walking into the Admissions Office at THE Bodleian Library. Oh my gosh! So yes. Aside from being treated like a stupid American for wanting to do research while they were still in term, (just by the reception desk.. the lady in charge was rather nice), I got in and out pretty quick, Reader's Pass in hand. Quick trip to the main desk to validate, and next thing you know, I'm turning in requests from the stacks. All a rather tedious process, although an interesting one. Then a quick run by the Music Reading Room (where my books would magically appear in an hour or two to turn in some paper requests for sheet music, and then it was back to the main street to piddle some time before my books were called up. I got an Oxford shirt (of course), some postcards, a shot glass (from the Bodleian bookstore.. how awesome it that??), and a few other miscellaneous things. Grabbed a water and soft pretzel (lunch), browsed the Blackwell music store (it's like.. Pender's.. on steroids!), and headed back to the library.

I had the BEST time looking through some of these things! There was an edition of Nocturnes that was inscribed 'Celia Mendelssohn Barthody' in Felix Mendelssohn's own hand! Also, some decently old (early to mid 1800's) editions of both the Field and Nocturnes. Also looked through their selection of reference materials and found a few more useful leads on my research/thesis topic. Fun stuff. It was so neat just being there and walking around like I belonged there! My library pass can pretty much get me to any area of the library.. I wish I could stay longer! Sort of. I'm kind of ready to relax for a day or two before I spend the rest of the weekend locked in a room working on my project :/

After leaving the library, I strolled over to the Eagle & Child Pub (a.k.a. The Bird and Kid, famous watering-hole of C.S. Lewis' Inklings) for some chips and beer (dinner. ha. how's that for nutrition?). And made it back to the train station with about two minutes to spare to get on the train bound for London. Perfect timing! So now I'm beat.. but it was a productive day. About 12-13 sources ready to annotate, with another 10 possible leads in historical periodicals to pull either when I go to the BL on Thursday/Friday or when I get home.

Well, the train should be pulling in any moment now, so I should pack up. More to come! Tomorrow... Canterbury!

Cheers!