Good things

In the spirit of feeling incredibly cheerful lately, I'm giving you a quick survey of some Good Things from the term so far.

Choir stalls at Peterborough Cathedral

Right at the beginning of term, the Trinity Hall Chapel Choir sang evensong at Peterborough Cathedral.  This big, beautiful, historic place -- oh hello, Katharine of Aragon's tomb -- was a far cry from our usual digs.  We put in a lot of rehearsal time to blend our voices into the kind of sound that should hang in the air between 800-year-old arches.  The results were good.  And being early evening on a Wednesday, there were maybe 8 people there to appreciate it.  Oh, well.  In Tit Hall, that would have seemed a healthy crowd.

Bursts of summer weather.  A few weekends ago, it was absolutely gorgeous!  While our rowing outings were sadly cancelled due to races on the river, I took the free time to walk to Fen Ditton, an unbelievable picturesque little village just down the river.  My destination was The Plough, a pub with a beer garden right on the river.  I row past it all the time, and that day I could sit and observe the various crews racing past while trying to mitigate my ridiculous sock tan.  The following day, the MCR had a barbecue.  Since then, the weather has only gotten better, and today I could easily imagine that I'm back home.

A field outside St Ives (Cambridgeshire)

Taking advantage of the warmth, a friend and I asked George, my favorite porter, where we could go on a day trip.  He recommended St Ives -- not the famous one in Cornwall, the village in Cambridgeshire.  We reached said spot after a half-hour ride on the guided busway -- a bizarre transformation of an old rail line into a dedicated bus path, distinctly lacking in charm or much of a view.  We saw one of the few statues of Cromwell that are around (he was local to the area), though it dated from the early 20th century.  We also poked inside an unusual chapel built mid-bridge over the river Ouse (pronounced "ooze").  But as usual with these kinds of things, the best part was unplanned; having spied people walking across a neighboring field during lunch, we decided to have a wander and ended up sitting by the river listening to the birds go crazy in the humid air.  Sigh.

Meanwhile, W1 has gelled nicely in terms of rowing together.  There are still enough adverse circumstances that I don't think we'll do well in bumps (sigh), but the outings are a real pleasure, in terms of both the sunshine and the feel of the boat.  And when I manage to make it to cricket practice, my atrocious bowling has become mostly passable now!  We just got our new kit, adding yet more sporty clothes to my swelling collection.

Here's hoping the upward trend continues for another week and a half, so I can get my final chapter in shape by the deadline I gave my supervisor.  He said in so many words that I can't miss any more of them, and it should be possible.  Fingers crossed that it will be another Good Thing for this magical month.