An academic memory

I have been watching pictures of my British alma mater, which made me feel quite nostalgic of the time. This picture is the building of the Senior Common Room, which is where I used to go when I was a PhD student after a paper. Like all universities, we had plenty of common rooms, but this was my favorite one, as it was theoretically reserved for academics, or aspiring academics, as I was at the time and staff. Junior common rooms, or JCR, were basically glorified bars, lesser bars in fact. The SCR was situated in an older building in a cedar surrounded part of the campus. The beers on the tap were real ales and this much better than what one could find on campus, and they were offering a menu that was actually quite decent. I remember especially a chicken and bacon lasagne (with garlic bread on the side) that I used to eat for supper every other Thursday, right after a guest lecturer (usually a medievalist as it was my field of studies) had given us a paper about something or other. As I usually did not have lectures or classes on Friday, it was my treat before the weekend: chicken and bacon lasagna and beer. I also had tea there, but this was more occasional. I used to walk to there via a small trail that used to get quite muddy. Some of my French friends, who were into Lord of the Rings, had nicknamed it the Hobbit's path. With the pseudo-medieval look of the building itself, my own field of studies, I have to confess the whole place and its surroundings reminded me of a Dungeons & Dragons setting.

Little tiger in Cambridge

My wife and I spent this weekend in Cambridge to see the brother-in-law and family (his wife and our niece), and I made myself a new feline friend: their house cat. I knew him from before, but he got really friendly this time. Not only with me though: Frankie (that's his name) is almost as affectionate as a dog (it's because he is a Burmese cat, said my brother-in-law). Anyway, he is such a beautiful cat, he moves like a tiger and his fur is almost the colour of a tiger. I once made the comparison to my niece (who wasn't my niece then), and she said "He is a little tiger really". Smart child. She is right too: Frankie is a hunter and often brings dead birds he caught. He is friendly with kittens but does not accept any competition in the house. he scared one of his little friends like this on Sunday morning: he was playing gently outside with him, but the kitten (a black furry cat) got in the house and tried to be friendly with us. Frankie made him go away and chased him down by the cars, keeping the kitten at a distance. Then he rubbed against my wife and I, as if he was saying "those humans are my property". I love cats.

Anyway, we had a nice time with the family anyway. It was a weekend of eating excesses: lasagna for dinner (the best lasagna I ever had, bare none, I will try it here and give the recipe on this very blog), gulped down with delicious red wine, salad to have something green and healthy with it (and lots of vinaigrette to make it not so healthy), apple and lemon pies for dessert, then next morning breakfast with croissants (I had three, including two chocolatines, because I love being excessive during weekends, especially when we are away). I love croissants, and I suspect somebody tipped them about my breakfast preferences. Then we went to town and we book hunt for most of the morning. I got a new Calvin & Hobbes (will write more about it) and my wife got the usual cookey books (she will not use them much I suspect, but we bought them in a second-hand bookstore so they were cheap). Cambridge has a great Borders with lots of choice, I was like a kid in a candy store. So was the niece, but she was more interested about the teddy bears. I tried to get her interested about Calvin and Hobbes, to no avail. (I am always on the lookout for future gifts, it makes my life easier on birthdays). Anyway, who needs teddy bears (and she has plenty) when she has a beautiful cat? Especially a cat as cuddly as he is.

Well, all this to say that we had a lovely weekend in Cambridge. And that cats are sometimes little tigers.