(no subject)

I am back from Oxford! As I am what is generally known as Crap at organisation, I was aware that I was going to be Down South over the period of Thursday-Sunday, but I had no plans. And by Down South, I actually meant London, as I had train tickets, and er, nothing else.

(Incidentally, I can organise other people's lives. Just not my own.)

Anyway, after some minor miracles, I managed to successfully spend a night in London and two in Oxford with only one minor disastor. SCORE!

So, on Thursday morning I drove, fairly early, to the train station, crossed my fingers that no one would steal my car over the weekend, and headed on down to London. Unfortunately, I spent the entire train journey sat next to a rather pungent man who wouldn't stop bloody talking. I don't mind talking on the train, as it happens - excuse me, sorry about that, goodness, the train is running late today, so on and so forth. This bloke was basically harmless, but I just wanted to sleep. I didn't want a life story, or to be offered sushi, so I told him I had to read this book by Monday and it was a bit tricky. He took the hint.

As a result, I spent a train journey getting friendly with Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. This book is banned in several countries across the world. The author was placed under a fatwa and several attempts were made on his life. I believe the fatwa is officially lifted, but he still lives under fairly stringent security, and there was regular book burnings at the time and so on and so forth. To be honest, it's okay. I liked the bit in the middle where it went all mad and supernatural, I liked the surreal bits about pilgrims and the city and stuff, couldn't really be arsed with most of it though. Please remember this part, it's relevant.

Anyway, I made it to London, freed myself from the smelly man, and met up with Richie, who was in London those few days, and I started a fine tradition of freeloading, i.e. nicking half of his hotel room. Hey ho. We went to see Les Miserables, which I sort of only managed to keep track of as I've read the book, but I quite enjoyed it.

The next morning, I hauled myself through the rain (indidentally: it is warm in the South, please never complain to me about being chilly if you live below Birmingham, it is still frosty out even now) and got onto a bus to Oxford, where I managed to lose The Satanic Verses and trust me when I tell you that even without various bannings etc etc this is not a book you want to wander around and ask people about. "Oh, right, what book?" "Er... The Satantic Verses? By Salman Rushdie?"

Anyway, quite apart from all that, I met up with emmysuze, who I haven't seen for far too long! She has fabulous hair in the style of Alice, and we chatted and caught up. Okay, we mostly talked about Twilight and the woes of getting a job. These things happen. She bought me lunch at Nandos (I love freeloading) which was absolutely delicious, but alas! all too soon she had to go back to the lab to sort out the mysteries of the universe. Or taunting her labmates. Bit of both, I think.

Anyway, not too long after this, I met up with the always fabulous loneraven, who was a. having natal day celebrations and b. was kindly allowing me to share her bed. Also, I haven't seen Iona for a MILLION BILLION YEARS (okay, since August) since we are incapable of being in our hometown at the same time. We caught up on pretty much everything, except for when we went for a meal and we fell silent, listening to someone talking about children with "common names, but not common, if you know what I mean" and was rhapsodising about a child called Frank, and how she'd name a baby Stanley, and about the Guardian family section. It was beautiful to listen to, it really was.

The rest of the night continued with the Star Trek trailer, and Merlin, and good things. I like catching up with people.

Woke up late the next day - a relief for both Iona and I, I think - and went for lunch into beautiful Oxford, and met up with Shim, who is as lovely as I remembered. We bought cake, and I nagged Iona into buying food. I spend my life doing this, I really do. We ate crumpets, and played with her cat, and I met two of Iona's housemates, who were also both lovely.

Anyway, before long, we went out to the ub. The last time I was in Oxford, I got absolutely slaughtered whilst dressed up as Madame Palm (and her five lovely daughters) from Discworld, which explains why I was occasionally greeted with "Ah, nice to meet you" and once "I know you, you're wrong about Sylvester MacCoy!" This sort of explains the night, really; I was made very welcome by some very varied people, and we talked about the extreme pornography bill that came in today, six prehensile penises ("Dad was mostly telling me about the Napoleonic imagery for the Centauri, to be honest, that never really came into it"), Merlin, Star Trek, and a myriad of other things. The night ended with ice cream and laughter, and that's the best way of things, really.

The next day was full of travelling, and sleeping on public transport. I came home, showered, and stayed sleepy and quiet all night, watching X-Men 3. Good fun.

Now it's Monday, and I am back in St Andrews. Tomorrow I have to go to work. I am unbelieveably looking forward to this, as I totally need reasons to leave the house. Also need to ask for overtime. Oh, yay. But yes, it was a good weekend indeed.