On Friday, we had our first 6:45 am rowing water session. Meaning that I had to get up at around 6:00 am and pedal my way through the dark and empty streets of Oxford down to the freezing cold Isis/Thames. Luckily, the bike ride woke me up enough to where I could notice how incredible the river looked at 6:30 am. It was extremely foggy that morning, and the Isis/Thames runs right along Christ Church meadow, which had even more fog billowing across it and into the river. Yes, I realise I don't know the science of how fog works, but the point is that there was A LOT of fog on the river. And it was very, very, VERY dark out, which meant that all the boats practising (you'd be surprised how many teams practise that early) had to have lights on. It was so dark and foggy that all you could see were these boat lights and as the boats drifted closer to you, all you could see would be the boat and very, very dark figures in it. IT WAS PROBABLY THE SPOOKIEST YET COOLEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN A LONG TIME. It certainly reminded me of how I would imagine the Japanese Obon Festival (the festival where you bring the dead home and then send them back out again via candles in paper boats) to be like or the River Styx. Probably more like the River Styx actually. Anyway, by the time the entire team got to the boathouse, the sun had started to rise, and I had to wear my somewhat ridiculous pink Cher sunglasses with my usual coxing hat. Needless to say, the combination of the two accessories brought many weird stares in our boat's direction. And that is the story of my first 6:45 am rowing water session.
On Saturday, we had our first head to head race in the Nephthys Regatta. Again, I was a complete bundle of nerves for this race, and our start was rather frantic and messy, but we WON. =D Unfortunately though, there was a bit of a mix-up with schedules so we didn't get to race our second race and were disqualified. =( But that only means that we have to save all our energy and hype for the upcoming Christ Church Regatta this Wednesday through Friday. And I see a future where Nutmeg will once again be running on very little sleep.
Then that night, we had Karaoke night at HM College. No, I didn't sing, but I took a bunch of pictures and videos of others singing. I think we all had a great time, and kudos to the people who had the courage to get up and sing ridiculous Glee and Pop songs. ^_^
And today (Sunday), an extremely kind and generous Blackfriars alumni invited a group of us to have Sunday lunch at her gorgeous house in the Cotswolds. First off, her English country house is probably one of the most beautiful houses I've ever been in. It was a little too big for me to feel comfortable in, but she had decorated and arranged it to feel extremely cosy and quaint. Secondly, the food was DELICIOUS. We had a roast, Yorkshire pudding, fresh baked rolls, tomato soup, fried? potatoes, a potato-carrot mixture, lemon meringue pie, pears in red-wine sauce and of course, tea/coffee and cake. I don't even want to think about the amount of calories I consumed today, especially with Thanksgiving around the corner. After all the food and conversation, we went for a walk around her town (Cirencester, Gloucestershire), but it was too dark to do much sight-seeing. We agreed that we were going to have to come back during the day to revisit everything.
Anyway, all the pictures I took from this adventure are on my flickr account, which can be found via that link or the one on my sidebar. It was a fun adventure, and I am definitely going to have to send her and her family a thank you card of some sort.
Well, I think I've procrastinated long enough, and I should get to that reading I've been putting off.
Cheers and Happy Early Thanksgiving!
Nutmeg
3 comments:
There church looks sooooo unnerving, haha!
Also, I realized as I was reading your description, I was imagining everything as if it were Victorian England. That's basically the only England that exists in my mind, lol.
WOOO MY COMMENTS ARE FINALLY WORKING this is so exciting.
You should add my blogspot btw.
Love that picture of you and the flowers in the church! Also love your titles...
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