Daily life begins



Walking into town down the lanes near
Trinity College



Today it was down to making the first steps into "real" life in Cambridge. First stop the public library. Brendon walked with us into town so that he could get us borrowing cards at the bountifully stocked library. The boys piled up the books. They've had a deficit for some time now and I'll be glad to hear something other than facts from Horrible Histories.

   Brendon set off to work and the boys and I to a Newcomers meeting at the University. Unlike a university in Australia, all neatly contained in one place, Cambridge University is organically sewn into patches throughout the town.

  We managed to track down the right building but, alas, could not find the group. Never mind. We sat warmly  in the cafe on the third floor looking out its big glass windows over the green banks, weeping willows and a canal full of punts .



 View from the bridge near the Backs
and Trinity Hall

Did I say 'real" life?  Of course it must include more books so next step was to find the ADC theatre where we bought tickets for some of the sessions for this weekend's Cambridge wordfest literary festival.  (See http://www.cambridgewordfest.co.uk/ )  

    I'm looking foward to hearing from Virginia Woof biographer Alexandra Harris and to attending a celebration of Angela Carter's work. We've also booked a children's session for the boys and Brendon and I have recruiteed a babysitter so that we can attend a session by writer Geoff Dyer  together.



View of our building complex, built around a central courtyard. We are on the far side. Very peaceful

 

Aaah, the weather. I can't do a post without mentionng it. It changes minute by minute. We set off in late afternoon sunshine to the park only to be waylaid halfway there by a small hailstorm. None of this seems to peturb Mother Nature who continues to push daffodlis and tulips into bloom in careless patches across the grass. The trees seem more reticent, holding tight to their tips of green till they feel more sunshine.