1. Got up early (yes, woken by John Humphries and the Today programme) this Saturday morning. 9am I had an appointment for an overdue haircut. One of these days, I might be brave enough to change the style, but for now I went for a trim and tidy-up. Then I headed on into Oxford…
2. Delivered a film (yes I found one of those quaint old-fashioned rolls in my 35mm camera the other week) into Boots to be developed, and in the course of going into and out of the shop several times during the course of the morning succeeded in setting off the alarms on every occasion. Nobody seemed too concerned that this was happenign, but when I asked, they asked me if I had bought anything from Virgin or HMV because sometimes their tags can set them off. I hadn’t bought anything when that happened. Managed to get myself another single-cup tea strainer to replace the broken one I’ve been using at work. You can get the one’s on chains everywhere, but I wanted another one like the one I have which works like a pair of tongs, but with the mesh ball on the end. Now I have one. I also picked up the book I ordered from Blackwell – the Four British Fantasists book by Charles Butler. I’ve had a little read of it on the bus back to the Park&Ride and it looks very interesting. I also got a copy of Rachael Wing’s new (first) book, Star-Crossed. She’s the 16 year-old Oxfordshire girl who’s just got published. Time to see what she’s got that I haven’t (well apart from being a 16 year old school girl!).
3. I was due to meet Kirsten from work (and fellow SSC’er) at the Bodleian Library to ‘case the joint’ as a possible venue for the next Summer Party. I was a bit early, so I found a step in the corner of the entrance way under the tower where we agreed to meet, and started working in my Moleskine on edits to my novel. I know where where I was roughly, and the new linking section that I had to write. I also worked on a bit where Eleanor is sleeping in the cave and Gunnlaugr is mixing up the mead to give her. Kirsten arrived at this point and we went in…
4. The venue is great. When we first stepped into the Divinity Hall, I thought, this is no way big enough, but actually I think it’s about right. We could have tables at the front of the hall, and a dance floor down the far end with seating and dj in the stalls. Then the bar could go in the far room, which could be a bit of a ‘quiet’ as there are also benches for sitting. There’s a space a separate adjacent room that we can use for caterers to prepare/store anything and a car park that delivery people can use. Anna, the library person who was showing us round, was very helpful and understanding about what kind of party we would be looking to have. The concern that we heard about concerning high-heels was nothing at all about damaging floor but just that there are metal grills in the floor down which narrow heels might go a-falling(!!) but a solution to that might have been found by then. There’s even a quad outside which we could use if the weather’s good.
As an added bonus, we got given a private tour up into the Duke Humphries Library – an option that we could also have in the party – which is just amazing. With all the books and the ladders and balconies to get to all the books I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven. There are even still the little request canisters that you used to (and still can) put into the messag pipes that in just 29 seconds can go down the building, underground and down under Broad Street to the New Bodleian.
Both Kirsten and I are sold on the idea. And what’s more, we would need very little in the way of decorations because the 16th Century building is decoration enough for a party. Some table decorations and that would be it. As we left, we were discussing themes, and decided that it would have to be a Masked Ball – the setting deserves it, and entertainment could be in the form of jugglers, and other circusy people. All we have to is to convince the rest of the committee…
5. After checking out the Bodleian, Kirsten and I went for coffee at The Buttery on Broad Street (I say coffee, but Kirsten had a smoothie, and I, hot chocolate – and a good, and good-priced one at that!) and chatted for a bit, not just over parties but this and that. She’s a new recruit to the SSC and I haven’t really had a chance to speak much to her before, but she seems really nice, and friendly and intertesting and fun. After coffee, we headed back to Blackwells so that Kirsten could make use of my staff discount (as she hasn’t got one yet being a relatively new starter) before we lose it at the end of January to buy a book of Michael Foreman illustrated fairy nursery rhymes for a friends new baby. We departed at the end of Broad Street, me to get the bus home and to work on my novel, which I’ve done a spectacularly good job of not doing! Very bad Me!!
