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| Welcome champagne (the real thing!) |
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| Club Class |
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| Mark on aisle, Diane by window |
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Sunday, January 4: After being bummed about the fact that our flight was late, we were happily surprised to be called up to the counter to be given a mysterious upgrade (Happy Christmas she said) to club class. After a quick web search, we were even more excited when it seemed that club class was British Airways speak for business class with seats that turned into flat beds. As can been seen from the photo, it was awesome. So much room, a good night's sleep, French champagne and cocktails and good wine and decent food (well, the breakfast did remind me of coach). We were actually disappointed that our flight was an hour shorter than scheduled due to strong tailwinds!
Monday: Our car service was there to take us to Cambridge to pick up the key to our mystery flat. Let's just say the upgrade in the air was balanced by the downgrade in the flat, which reminds us of dorm housing. When we were here in May we were in a professionally serviced flat that was practically brand new. This flat is in a house owned by Emmanuel College ("Emma") of Cambridge University and my fellowship comes with free use of the flat. You get what you pay for. The majority of the house is graduate student housing with rooms and shared facilities. We are in our own self-contained basement flat on the lowest level. We have a kitchen (washer but no dryer, no dishwasher, half-size fridge), "lounge" (living room with a small table to eat on, and a twin mattress stored along the wall in case of guests), bedroom, and bathroom. Pretty basic and thin walls (the person above the lounge loves to sing) and the walls/ceilings show prior water issues just like home. In another reminder of home, it is good we are not big tv watchers. Some previous visitor apparently bought a non-flat screen television and an antenna, although we can't seem get any broadcast signal. There is a DVD player that sort of works although the color is way off. But the heat works and the shower has hot water and good pressure and the wireless internet works well. And the location isn't bad, about a 20 minute walk to either my office in Engineering or the heart of town, and even closer to the train to London. Like everywhere in the UK, we are also close to many pubs, one of which we tried for dinner
(The Cambridge Blue).
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| To purchase at the Panto |
Tuesday-Friday: Still getting our bearings. Although the Lent term started on Monday, the undergraduates haven't shown up yet so the town is still quiet. It gets dark here early and has been largely raining (although being on an island it is extremely changeable by the minute), but it sure beats the Polar Vortex. Friday was 55 degrees. And it feels like spring. The snowdrops are blooming, other bulb greenery is out, and the open-air market has forced as well as cut bulbs. On Wednesday we went to see a "panto" (
Aladdin), a holiday art form that we had been introduced to in Edinburgh when Noah's school went on their annual expedition. We also tried out a vegetarian restaurant near the theatre (
The Rainbow Cafe). British pantomines are quite bizarre things (cross-dressing "dame" with amazing costumes, slapstick, innuendo, audience participation) but with ancient roots, Wikipedia has a great article. Just like in Scotland, they sell ice cream in the the theatre during the interval, and you don't get any sort of free program. Before the Panto I joined the public library and took out Season 5 of Downton Abbey on DVD. Although it just started broadcasting in the US (so we will miss it by the time we get back), it was shown in the UK last year. We watched episode 1 tonight.
