I had a totally fabulous work day with Karen. We sorted the journals, Banff, and made a good start on solving the ills of the world. Lunch at the Tate was lovely and we walked, talked, walked, talked and talked some more. By the time I hugged Karen goodbye at Euston, we were as the Brits say, completely knackered.
I worked in bed for a while, as have had three PhDs to examine while I have been here, but then headed to platform 9 and ¾ for my train to Hogwarts. Well almost – Cambridge has that Hogwarts feel about it.
My time in Cambridge was completely packed so really had little time to do much but work. I caught up with the lovely Sarah, and good British fish and chips at the pub on Monday night was a real highlight.
I was lucky to stay in the very swish Cohen Court at Churchill College. Cohen Court has a Grand Design feel to it and has won British architectural awards. The architectural websites state that it was designed to ‘pay homage to the “picturesque Brutalism” of the original 1960s campus architecture’. Wikipedia tells me that Brutalism comes from the French notion of raw, and I guess there is something raw about the brown brick and concrete that is Churchill. There was nothing brutal about the lovely lined timber box around a treed central courtyard that was my home for a few days.
I did manage to fit in a late night soiree at my favourite, The Eagle. The Eagle is Cambridge’s oldest pub and pretty amazing to sit sipping wine in a pub that dates back to 1667. The graffiti done by World War 2 airmen is still intact on the ceiling and we had a lovely night drinking far too much wine and then staggering to find a cab past the oh so quiet King’s – pretty incredible I think that people have been doing the same stagger for 350 years. 
Sleeping under the stars 