Walking tour of Cambridge February 14, 2008
Posted by faranaaz in Uncategorized.Tags: Cambridge, Queen's College
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On Monday afternoon, the Sainsbury peeps (and I) got taken on a short walking tour of Cambridge by Roger Morgan, their supervisor at the Institute for Manufacturing. I was just too lazy to blog about it until now. 
Here are some highlights from the tour.
We started off at Queen’s College, which is just opposite the Institute. Here’s Roger pointing out an interesting sundial in one of the court’s.
Here’s the sundial. Also note how the bricks in the wall are really thin compared to modern bricks. This was how they used to make bricks in the mid-1400s, when the college was founded.
One of the court’s in Queen’s contains this interesting gallery, which used to be the Master’s Lodge. It was built for the Master of the college and he used to live their with his family. Apparently, it’s a good indication of what a rich, manor house would have looked like in the late 1400s and it’s still standing and in use today. The heavy wooden beams that you see also date from that time. If you look at the bottom where those arches are, there are covered corridors that you can walk through, and there are doors at random intervals that lead to rooms for the professors.
Here’s an example of a more modern building in Queen’s. This is where the students stay these days. It has central heating. Tee-hee. They say the long, narrow windows on the building on the left are supposed to look like tree trunks when viewed from across the river, through a stand of trees but if you ask me, they still look like glass bits in a brick wall on an ugly 90s building. I think the architect dropped the ball a bit on this one.
And, here’s a picture taken from the Mathematical Bridge, which is part of Queen’s. (Remember that picture I took of it from my first day at Cambridge?) This is the view to the right, looking up the Cam to the next college over.
Then we crossed the Cam, and walked along the Backs, and came across this idyllic scene.
Then we went to St John’s and Trinity but I think I will leave that for another post!
Workaday-Naaz February 6, 2008
Posted by faranaaz in Uncategorized.Tags: Cambridge, round church, Wolfson College
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Here’s just a quick quick post for the day, since I haven’t had lunch yet and I’m starving.
I worked at the Legal Services Office today. I don’t know if it was just that department or if all of the university runs this way but it was fantastic. I think Laragh, Eskom, and a host of companies could take a leaf out of their book.
I was temping – for FIVE hours – and I got the person who’s post I was filling take me on a tour of the building and give me a detailed booklet on exactly what I was supposed to do. It was a handover document that had been compiled by previous temps in the position. It was about 12 pages long and separated into headings like “Communication”, “Ordering Office Supplies” and “Filing”. It told me exactly what to do. Like answering the phone, it said “Press this button, then punch in this extension, then press this button.” It told you where to save your documents and exactly how to navigate there. It was so useful and I know it would be indispensable to anyone filling a post for short periods of time.
Then the Health and Safety Officer for the building came to introduce herself and she took me around the building to show me the main exits, the emergency exits, the muster point in case of a fire, the best route to it, and the locations of the First Aid kits. Then she gave me a sheet with a list of emergency numbers, including hers, the numbers of the Safety Officers in the surrounding buildings, and the details of each of the First Aid providers in the building. (Sharon, Ethne, you’re probably both shaking your heads and making tsk-tsk sounds at this point, I know!) They were so organized!
Anyway, then I signed a confidentiality form and the IT Help desk sent me my username and password. Sorted! Sharon, the woman I was filling in for, even showed me how to use the fancy coffee machine. Let me reiterate people – five hours!
For those five hours my main responsibility was answering the phones and taking messages, which I did. I kept having this panicky moment because everyone’s phone sounds the same but not everyone was in, and not all the workstations where in line of site, so I kept having to think “Who’s phone is it? Should I pick up the call?” and then I just felt silly for letting it ring while I was thinking this. Six phone calls later, my supervisor signed my timesheet and I left.
I cannot stress enough how great everyone was. They all smiled, said hello, and made me feel welcome. (five hours) They set me up with a computer, access to the network, and detailed instructions on what to do. (five hours) They gave me a full tour concerning the safety procedures for the building. (five hours) Did I mention that they did all this for someone who came in to fill in for only five hours? It was phenomenally professional.
Also, can I just say that it was the least work for the most work I ever did? Okay, I was slightly bored and would have liked to have done more but I figure that the lawyers who worked there wouldn’t have wanted someone who just came in to file their important documents and such. They mainly wanted to ensure that they didn’t have phones ringing on end or miss any important calls.
Anyway, so yes. I hope I get more work soon. And that’s about it for me. Now I must have food. Oh, I have a few pictures.
These pictures were taken Wolfson College. The first is taken from a path that leads to the Lee Library and the second is just standing at the beginning of that path looking out towards the garden, where there are a number of benches in shady spots. It’s very pretty, even in the winter! I can only imagine what it must look like in spring, when the flowers start to come up. (The groundsmen have been busy planting and pruning and doing all sorts of creative things.)
Then a picture of the Round Church, actually the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was really pretty. I didn’t go in coz I was supposed to be meeting Sameer soonish but I was wandering around the town and came across it so I took this picture. I’m hoping to go back for a closer look.
And then I went further down that road and the street looks like this, which was quite pretty. I think it’s the bottom end of Sidney Street, though I’m not sure. Anyway, I hadn’t been there before and it had a couple of interesting looking food places that I’d like to visit again. You know, try to escape the monotony of college food. Speaking of college food, I must have some asap! Laterz people!
Jobs and Books February 4, 2008
Posted by faranaaz in Uncategorized.Tags: Cambridge, job
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Well, unfortunately I don’t have any pictures to share today. I took a few of the gardens here at Wolfson but they were a bit tame and I haven’t got them off the camera yet.
Today, as I was preparing to leave for town, I got a phone call from the Temporary Employment Service. They had a sit in job to offer me and I said yes. So it’s five hours of office admin, between 12 and 5 on Wednesday at the University’s Legal Services office. The pay is £9.80 per hour which is pretty nifty I think! So obviously, I jumped at the opportunity. Then I headed off to town to spend money that I hadn’t earned yet. Of course, at the time I didn’t realise that that’s what I was doing. But in retrospect, it’s pretty clear.
It felt as if I was cycling for the first time in days but actually the last time I cycled was Saturday when we went to the Grafton Centre. Anyway, off I went. Although it had rained earlier in the morning, the sky was clear and the sun was putting a golden glow on all the roads and pavements. It was lovely. There was barely a breeze and so it felt quite exhilirating to be out and speeding along on my bike with it’s rattling front basket. (It is so irritating – I must make a plan to get some cable ties for it.)
As usual, I parked my bike at St Mary’s and made my way to the market. It took me a long while to find something worth buying. For a moment there I thought I was going to end up getting Cold Mountain or something by Kazui Ishiguro, books that know you really should read but can’t actually be bothered with. I was saved by Ian McEwan’s Atonement, brand new and only £3. And around the corner, in the Speculative Fiction/Horror section (because I know I will ‘hit a wall’ with Atonement at some point) I got a collection of short stories called The Mammoth Book of Monsters for only £4, again brand new. Be still my heart. It has contributions from authors such as Joe R. Lansdale and Clive Barker. On the whole, I was quite happy with my purchases.
After browsing through Next and wanting to buy absolutely everything and then Marks & Spencers and wanting to buy pretty much nothing, I was saved by the bell. The hubby called to ask where we were meeting for lunch. Cafe Indigo was the answer.
Now, I really wanted to take pictures of Cafe Indigo but firstly the place is so small, you could back all the way up to the wall and still not get everything in. And secondly, well it just didn’t feel right to so obviously take pictures of random people. So you’ll have to use your imaginations and picture the Coffee Bean, before it moved and upgraded. But with creaky wooden doors and floors, and walls that are a lot more colorful, purple, blue, and orange.
So we sat there on a couch and spent way too much money on sandwiches and coffee. They were good though. And we chatted for a bit about this and that. Okay, it was about our hopes and fears for work and living in the UK but it sounds cheesy when you say it that way. Then Sameer had to go back to the institute and I decided to leave town before I spent any more money. Well, I almost succeeded.
The little road that you take to get from the Indigo to Kings Way opens out right next to a books and art supply shop. Originally, I just meant to go in and look. Well, I almost ended up buying an entire pack of oil paints, brushes, linseed oil, turpentine, and pallette knives (trowels). Then I came back to my senses and decided to get a set of charcoal pencils. Then I put it down and stepped away slowly. I was almost out of the shop when I saw an inconspicuous staircase and a sign that said “Sale”. I gave in to temptation.
Downstairs everything was on sale for less than half price. Sameer’s lucky I got out with just one book – The Complete Book of Drawing Skills, £4. After that, I left, walking quickly with my eyes downcast lest I be drawn in by any other Sale signs. I unlocked my bike and cycled home without further event. And here I am.
Formal Hall at New Hall February 2, 2008
Posted by faranaaz in Uncategorized.Tags: Cambridge, Wolfson, New Hall, formal hall
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Yo ho, me hearties, you ho!
It’s Saturday evening. Sameer is off to the big TV room/combination room thingy (I must take pics) and I am here in W105 updating my blog after having a 47 minute video chat with my parents over Skype. I think it totally blew their cap but maybe, just maybe it was worth it. Kudos to Razia for letting me have that light bulb moment, and to the Magic Peeps for giving me incentive to get it sooner rather than later. Not that we ended up using the webcam to chat to them, since we unexpectedly ended up going to formal hall with Janine at her college. Also, I hear there was that pesky blackout in Cape Town as well.
Oh, so about my parents and the Skype video call. I smsed them and told them to log on to Skype but I didn’t tell them that I had a webcam, then they called and I started the video stream and they were SO shocked! It took about five minutes to calm my dad down. You should have heard them. They were going “I can see you! I can see you jaan! I can see Sameer too! What’s this? What’s going on? I can see you!!!” 
It was so great. They were SO happy. They couldn’t get over it. My dad kept saying that it was such a miraculous thing and he couldn’t believe it, it was as if I was there with them. So yes. I like technology. 
Anyway, formal hall. Right, it’s a tradition here at Cambridge and at Oxford and some other older universities in the UK as well. Wolfson has it twice a week – on Tuesdays and Thursdays – but we haven’t gone yet, although Dianne Quarrie (Sameer’s liaison person) has really encouraged us to go. They say its formal so I was always worried about what to wear. And at Wolfson, they are quite traditional and wear robes to formal hall, so it’s been quite daunting. We’ve just opted for the usual dinner in the clubroom on those nights.
So Janine asked us to go to her college’s formal dinner last week already and we said yes but then she got ill and we forgot. Well, she forgot too but anyway, she remembered on Friday afternoon and called us up. We did a hurried dress up – Sameer in his suit and me in my black pants and top – and got a taxi for New Hall. (Ferzana, you’ll be happy to know, I wore both the taupe pumps and the foetsek earings as well.)
When we got there, we were sort of milling around the New Hall entrance hall, near the porters’ desk, and saw lots of young people who looked like they were going out to party. The girls were wearing short, shiny dresses and high heals, and the boys were all in dark suits. Janine and Mervin arrived and she whisked us off to one of the rooms. I think it’s the grad room or something. Think of a parlor, with carpets and chairs upholstered in floral prints, dark, heavy furniture and low lighting. There was a waiter looking guy offering people juice, wine, port, and sherry. People were standing around and chatting for a long time. Janine introduced us to more of her MBA friends. Then the waiter guy knocked on the door to get everyone’s attention and made an announcement. “Ladies and Gentlemen, dinner is served”.
We were lead to the dining hall, a large round room with artwork hung at intervals, a brightly lit dome of enormous proportions, six long tables laid with silverware. Someone rang a gong and everyone stood, then they said a short prayer in Latin, and we sat down. People started pouring wine from special bottles labeled New Hall and chatting. After a while, the waiters came out to serve us.
Like wow! Okay. It was totally different from anything I’ve been to before. I so wish I had taken a camera with but I’d read that it’s not allowed at formal hall so I didn’t take it with. I was so upset afterwards because there were loads of people taking pictures there. Of course, nobody was wearing robes and there was no “high table” (reserved for senior academics) either so I guess New Hall has a very informal formal hall and that’s why they let you take pictures. *sigh* Oh the regret.
Oh, and the food – fantastic. Well, I’m sure my mum, Nadia or any one of my aunts and cousins could have cooked the same but it was such a sight better than the Wolfson food!
The more mature tables – like ours with all it’s MBA people – were fairly subdued in our conversation. We talked and laughed quietly. But there were tables with younger students, and lets just say, they were smashed. I think the 30 people at our table drank about six bottles of wine between them. At the next table over, a group of ten girls polished off the same amount. Towards the end, the lights dimmed, and people started catcalling. Then the waiters came out with a birthday cake that had a huge sparkler burning in the middle. Everyone cheered, and then a slightly drunk woman got up on her chair, tapped a knife against her wineglass and gave an incoherent speech. People laughed and clapped. It was funny but it also gave you this feeling that everyone there knew each other and that there was a sense of community among the students.
When dinner was over, we retired to the Middle Common Room, that being the common room reserved for post grad students. (It’s all about the hierarchy here.) We had to walk through the building to get there and again, there was just more and more art everywhere. Janine said yes, New Hall has a really impressive art collection and they’re really proud of it.
The Middle Common Room is like the big TV room here at Wolfson, just a lot more modern. Leather couches everywhere, wooden coffee tables, a TV, and a kitchenette with posh, silver appliances. Everyone mingled and chatted. Sameer and I felt a bit odd because we didn’t know the people that well but they were all really nice and good spirited. Though maybe that had to do with all the port they were drinking.
Apparently what usually happens after formal hall at New Hall, is that everyone drinks copious amounts of port and then they play Sing Star. (Yes, there’s a PlayStation attached to that TV and all – I mean all – of the Sing Star editions.) Well, Sameer and I had coffee and for some reason Sing Star didn’t happen (awwww) and then they ran out of port and decided to go to the New Hall bar to find more alcohol. So, facing the prospect of standing around and watching people get more drunk, we said our goodbyes early and called a cab for home.
Well, I must say all the traditions surrounding formal hall are very impressive. It’s almost like being in a movie or a fantasy novel, I tell you. What was also nice about it was that we got to see more of another college other than Wolfson and got to see what the traditions at New Hall were like. But I also think we got kind of a one-sided view of it. There really were very many young people there and most of them were there to party. From what I’ve seen of people coming out of Wolfson’s formal halls, there’s less drink and more talk.
Mpumi, one of Sameer’s classmates who did his Masters at Cambridge, says that formal hall isn’t actually about the food (or drink) but about the company – you get to meet the fellows of the college and all the serious academics. I’m told that if you sit next to people you don’t know, you’ll get to meet and engage with some very interesting people that you wouldn’t normally talk to. I guess like most things here at Cambridge, it’s all about networking with the right people. So, in light of that, we’re quite excited about going to formal hall at Wolfson.
Rainy Thursday January 31, 2008
Posted by faranaaz in Uncategorized.Tags: bike, Cambridge
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It rained today in Cambridge, and I had to cycle through it. That was an adventure. I think the wind was worse than the rain. You get all wobbly on your bike when a strong gust comes along. The rain just makes you soggy and you get this steady drip, drip off the tip of your nose. I was off to temporary employment agencies to see if I could get some on and off office type work to fill my time with ’til we go to Chicago. The proficiency tests took a while but by the time I got home they called to ask if I was interested in doing some office admin for the council in Bar Hill so it was worth it. We’ll see how that turns out.
Anyway, I’ve been storing up some pics for the past few days and meaning to post them when I had some time at the computer, so here they are.
Okay, remember in one of the previous posts I mentioned the cornerstones at Wolfson? Well, here are some pictures. At Cambridge, they always make a big deal about not stepping on the lawn. People just don’t walk across the grass, so it always grows thick and green. Now, according to one of the porters, who gave Mpumi a lecture when he set one foot on the lawn, the university has found that though they don’t walk across the grass, people always cut corners. They don’t like to walk in straight lines with 90 degree angles. If there’s a corner, the will cut it and with repetition that usually kills the grass, like this. (See the corner of the lawn.)
So, anyway, their grand solution to this was the following – a triangular shaped paving stone, placed on the corners of each patch of lawn, or wherever there is a 90 degree turn in the path. With this in place, people can cut corners, and not affect the lawn. Maybe not such a great story but the way the porters tell it, it’s a really big deal!
Anyway, more pictures. Here’s one of a squirrel that lives in the grounds of Wolfson College. Well, I don’t actually know if it’s the same squirrel each time but I somehow think it is. This one is really brave and a bit nonchalant about people. I’ve seen him sit near the bike racks and watch as you struggle to unlock you bike, or sit in the path and watch as you go by. I got this picture only after following him up the path and towards the tree. He’d scamper forward a bit, stop to look at me, then scamper forward again. He eventually climbed about a meter or so up the tree, and then just stood there, vertical and Spiderman like, watching me until I walked away. I was only a few steps away from him at the time.
Oh, and then last night (or was it the night before?) we went to the clubroom and played Scrabble with the Sainsbury peeps. Except for Molebaleng, none of them had played Scrabble before so we had to explain the rules and so forth. Well, Sameer played and I just watched but it was fun except when we knocked a juice bottle over the board, that wasn’t so good. Now it has a distinctly mangoey smell when you open the board. And then we played pool for a while.
Here’s one of Kings Way in the late afternoon. I had to pull my bike over to the side of the road to take it and even then it didn’t come out so good. It was all just so golden and glowy that I had to take a shot.
I also took some pictures of the market because, well I really like it there. The first is of a mum, with one kid in a baby seat on the back of her bike (don’t know if you can see it so well) and another kid cycling alongside her on his little bike, with a big flag sticking up from the back of it so cars can see him. It’s amazing how families get around on their bikes here. I’ve seen mum’s cycling with a toddler in the kiddy seat at the back and the baby in a baby seat in the front. It’s hectic! I’ll try to get a picture of one of those bikes if I see one parked anywhere. They also have this other mechanism where the kids bike attaches to the back of the parent’s bike so it looks like a tandem bicycle with a big and little part. And they also have this thing, it looks like a motorcycle sidecar except that it’s attached to the front or back of a bicycle, and usually a parent rides the bike, and they put two kids in the sidecar, which has a plastic cover with little windows in it. That’s also quite nifty. But, I keep thinking, that this only works safely in a place where people who drive cars respect and give way to cyclists and pedestrians.
Anyway, here are more pictures of the market. The first is of the little stalls in the square that constitutes the market. There are real shops, chain stores and such, on the streets that surround this, and even a little indoor mall. But the market stalls offer anything from fresh bread to flowers and plants, second hand books and clothes, spices, bags, and bicycle repairs. The second picture is of some bicycles (including mine) parked against and chained to the bars that surround St Mary’s Church, which borders the market on one side. When I took this picture, I’d had my first experience of having to ride in circles looking for parking for my bicycle. That was novel. I couldn’t help being amused by it. Also, another thing I find really interesting is the posters that people tie to the church gates with bits of string. They go all the way around the church, just like the bikes, and they mostly advertise plays, operas, or music recitals put on by the students at venues around town.
So anyway, here we are. I’m all out of pictures. The weather says it will be a minimum of -2 tomorrow and a maximum of 2 degrees. So Sameer’s decided to stay in all day except to go to Jumuah. And I’ll probably do the same, lie in bed with my book, a cup of coffee and copious amounts of biscuits.
