Cambridge

CC site, Cherry Hinton

February 24-28

Here we go again. I had intended to start at Oxford, but the C & C Club site was very near the Thames and I can't swim. Decent drive up here, around 100 miles, via the M25 and M11.

The site is in an old chalk pit in the side of the only hill in Cambridgeshire. It's pretty much ideal, 3 minutes walk from a bus stop with a bus into the city every 10 minutes, loads of cycle paths in every direction and a massive Tesco a 10-minute bike ride away.

Have made a few trips into the city and walked all over it, including along the Backs. All of the colleges present a closed face to the world, of course. You can walk round any of them if you pay £5, but I demurred. Peering into the little doors let into their massive front gates, I got a strong sense of how Jude the Obscure must have felt as he walked around Oxford; Jude the Excluded. Beautiful architecture, though, especially Kings College chapel. I do struggle a bit, though, with the yellow brick; it reminds me a bit, especially when blackened by usage, of LNER railway architecture.

A high proportion of young oriental people here ( could it be the numerous language schools?) and, on the one seriously dark rainy day, I was reminded of “Blade Runner” by the swarms of bike-riders.

 

King's College

 

Took a picture of ”The Eagle” (formerly “The Eagle and Child”), a boring stone building worth a wonderful history. The plaque outside mentions Crick and Watson, but didn't the Cambridge Five (or is it the Cambridge Ring) booze in here? I didn't go in (what a hero you are, Rog) but I can't imagine they had framed pictures of Burgess, McLean, Philby and Blunt on the walls.

 

The layout of the streets is very eccentric and rather cunning. Streets seem to meet at right-angles but they are slightly off, so, when you imagine you are walking a square you are,in fact, walking in ever-increasing circles.

Walked over Christ's Pieces (3 Hail Marys) but not Parker's Piece as Parker asked me very kindly to leave well alone.

On Wednesday I sat outside and read my book – the First Sit-Out of the year! Just to make up for it, however, we had a gale and a torrent in the night and I had to get up to re-peg the awning more securely.

  

Thursday went to see “The Book Thief” at a very modern Vue cinema in a massive shopping centre. Very sentimental film, but enjoyable story. A sprinkling of wrinklies (including me) in there and the most inappropriate adverts and trailers for them. Spiderman 2, “Noah”, which seemed to be a massive punch-up between Russell Crowe's gang of savages and Ray Winstone's gang of savages (I must re-read my bible) and a really mindless-looking comedy with Emma Thompson, who should know better. Marketing is so sophisticated now you'd think they would know their audience and match the blurb to it. One of the adverts encouraged us to play a quiz game on our smartphones, even though we had been told to switch them off when we entered the auditorium. As for myself, I certainly turned-off my smartphone.

Saw Rory McGrath on his mobile outside Boots. He's even scruffier than me. In fact, HE asked for MY autograph. Just kidding. Also saw Charles Clarke (Home Secretary, I think, for a short while in Gordon Brown's circus)

Now, what about this. I was de-cluttering the van on Wednesday evening and came across a note saying “Brian Aldiss – Supertoys last all summer long”. It jogged my memory that this was the work on which the film “AI” was based. I was going into the City in the morning, so I thought I'd look for it then. In the morning, I turned the radio on to Radio 4Extra and there was a preview of readings next week from................. short stories by Brian Aldiss including “Supertoys last all summer long”. Amazing!