A pink weekend really. Today was Pink Punting, unrelated to yesterday’s Pink Festival. Simon, Peter, Michael and I met up with about 18 others to punt to Grantchester: brave considering the weather forecast (which as I write is delivering the forecast downpour).
Shared our punt with Steve and Adam, who were good fun. The river was quite fast flowing and amazingly clear (clearest that I’ve ever seen it), so with the strong current it took us a while to get to Grantchester. There were a few little showers that had us reaching for umbrellas.
We had a lazy picnic under the tree in the photo above, and didn’t follow Richard’s example of a swim (that left his teeth chattering for a about 15 minutes).
Headed back to Cambridge about 3, and Peter had a go at punting for the first time. He tried a precarious mid-river change with Adam, that reminded someone on a passing punt of a game of ‘Twister’. The river bottom was very sticky today: I lost the pole once, Steve managed to loose it three times! Michael excelled at reversing the punt to retrieve the pole.
Met Simon and Peter in front of the main stage at the Pink Festival in Cherry Hinton Hall. It’s the fifth year of the festival and the weather was great! I enjoyed Futureproof before Simon and Peter arrived (I had no idea that Futureproof were a TV sensation) and Adora was also good. We listened to The Debretts, Tamaki and KTP, who I enjoyed less. Enjoyed a beer in the sun and worried about burning (luckily avoided). Headed over to see Victoria & Jacob at the Alternative tent and enjoyed the mix of things they did with instruments from the Early Learning Centre and synthesizers. Might go to their next gig at the Portland Arms in October if I can.
Met Graeme and Bruce from Ipswich when we headed back to the main tent. The music by then was pretty heavy going and the five of us left about half past six to head over to our house for a BBQ. I’d had a few beers by then, and the sun and then some wine added to me ‘good cheer’. BBQ’d a little mountain of food and it was lovely and warm enough to sit in the garden till after 9, when Graeme and Bruce had to get the last train back to Ipswich.
Here is a snapshot of my position:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=52.187258,0.164430
(click link to open in Google Maps)
Captured 30/08/2008 14:32 (sender’s local time); accurate within 17m
(56 ft).
Caution: Position and accuracy are estimated and are not always
reliable.
Sent from my iPhone using Breadcrumbs!
This is an interesting book: it contains the full text of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, with lots of marginal annotations. I didn’t learn as much as I thought I would: there were some really interesting insights into Victorian expressions and culture, some of Carroll’s maths, and quite a few speculations from readers of the earlier editions of the book about what things meant. Some of these were a bit tortuous and the author was happy to point this out!
“Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition” (L Carroll)
Had an interesting meal at the Free Press, the first of their European Wednesday menus; a menu from Friuli. Steered clear of the barley and cabbage soup, and enjoyed the plates of antipasti and whitebait to start. Michael had a very flavourful goulash, and I had prawns wrapped in parma ham with a nut sauce on polenta: very yummy. Pudding were prune-filled dumplings (gnocchi di susine). There were eight things on the menu, which was ambitious for the kitchens to make as a one-off. Hopefully it was good fun for them too. The pub was full, so that aspect seemed to work well. The Friuli cuisine is quite rich!
Lounged in bed till almost midday as it is a Bank Holiday and then took a train to Great Chesterford (on the Liverpool Street Line) to have lunch in the Crown and Thistle, which is a lovely pub with pargeting. We had a tasty Woodfords Wherry and then a great lunch, cooked to a high standard. After two pints of beer (and no breakfast!) it was a wandering route back to the train.
