Oxonmoot 2008
So I’ve finally gotten round to my post-Oxonmoot post, which was so late last year it still hasn’t been written.
I arrived in Oxford on the Thursday night after a nice easy drive from the Fine City (2 ¾ hours + stop), booked into my guest house - run by a miserable sod with a framed picture of Basil Fawlty over his desk - and headed up the High Street to ChCh. Registered I made my way straight to the Undercroft bar where I met up with jason_finch, The_Marquis, Alex_Downunder (no longer down-under), and my first pint of rubbish beer.
Of all the objectionable things about the Undercroft bar, I think the price was what I objected to most. £2.80 for a pint of 3.7 ABV, very average beer, served with a ¾ inch head. I forced down 3 ½ pints of it, while chatting with various people about such things as the Iceni Village at Cockley Cley, and Swaffham wind turbines and then wandered back to my guesthouse.
The following morning I had breakfast, grabbed a coffee from Star[brandy]bucks, and attended the 9:00 lecture. Which is an amazingly ‘together’ way for me to start an Oxonmoot. Admittedly I missed the first 10 minutes of the lecture because I managed to go to the wrong room, which was a shame because the talk - ‘Teaching Tolkien, Tolkien Teaching’ - was actually pretty interesting.
After a circuit of the Dealers Room and Art Show I decided to go and have a look at the Cathedral. While I was touristing round I saw a notice for a free Monteverdi concert at lunchtime, so after another lecture and a pastrami and c.c. bagel I headed back there (the price being right, unlike at the bar). I enjoyed the concert overall, the chorus numbers were nice - I was joined temporarily by megamole, but he was less prepared than me to tough out some wayward intonation on the part of a couple of soloists and disappeared again.
As I’d missed the beginning of TN’s slide show I decided to catch it the next day instead and continue being touristy so I went and joined the Potter spotters in the Great Hall. I also took a quick trip through the Art Gallery. I’m not an authority on art - I have to admit that not many of the pieces in the gallery grabbed me, but for the record, my favourite was a Titian-influenced (according to the card) Christ Crowned with Thorns (in case anyone else saw it). I did wish I’d had a little more time to study the sketches in their special exhibit, but I had to get to the next lecture.
When the days schedule was finished I went and serviced my internet addiction in Hospitality for a couple of hours, succumbed to the lure of a G&D Waffle Sundae, visited KFC in town and headed back to the bar. I assume they must have been on a new barrel by now, but it didn’t taste any better. I was rescued from the beer after 2 pints by a room party (yay!).
Saturday morning didn’t really happen, as it so often doesn’t. I’d had every intention of going to AS’s lecture on the Hobbit, but the intention didn’t managed to translate itself into any kind of action. I did eventually drag myself up, swallow antacid and ibuprofen and make my way under sunglasses back to G&Ds (salmon and c.c. today).
I spent most of the afternoon in slide shows. Ted’s commentary was interesting, but he could have done with a better visual set up. Most of the slides had to be corrected in the imagination to remove the perspective distortion from the projector angle. It’s always interesting to hear Ted talk about the progress of his art though. LS’s slide show as always was very funny, and as always contained twice as much material as could be fitted into the time available.
Barnsley 0 - 0 Nowich City. Meh.
On my trip to KFC I had discovered The Mission, so I went back there for dinner to be confronted by a burrito stuffed full of lovely fresh food of just the right heat and a cylindrical 3 ½ inches in diameter and 7 inches long. If this sounds like an advertisement it is. I’m going again next year.
Saturday night is Ents night, and the star attraction this year was the final part of the Lord of the Goons trilogy as presented by the CTS. What a marvellous tour-de-force it has been, making us laugh/groan in dismay (I’M ON THE TERRAIN) and cry (well almost. I can’t have been the only person there with a lump in my throat during the inspired credits filk). The CTS seems to have the ability to make me blub for all the right reasons (specifically last year’s read-through). Well done to all involved. Next year’s Sound of Mumaks is being hotly anticipated, certainly from this quarter.
The costume parade was very good this year. I’m always impressed by the hard work and imagination that goes into the masquerade. I made my usual commitment to lose weight and sort myself out a costume for next year, so be prepared to see me at next year’s party fatter than I am now and in jeans. As usual.
I didn’t see much more after that, as I was forced to flee my seat at the Slytherin table by an onslaught of poetry. That’s not necessarily a reflection on the poets - I have a general poetry allergy and consequentially my tolerance level is quite low. It only takes a few lines before I start to feel all uncomfortable and itchy and I have to leave. So I stayed mostly at the back of the hall out of the range of fire, or in the bar after that.
Later the following morning I arrived back at Fawlty Towers, a little the worse for drink and made my way up to the room I’d stayed in the previous two nights. The one I had a key for. I opened the door and flicked the light on, and then the couple in the bed that I’d just woken up and I went through a little round of WTFery while I cast round the room looking for my stuff. I was just about to start protesting that this was my room (see! I have a key and everything! Where’s my stuff!!), when my brain thankfully got control of my mouth and shut it while I GTFO of there.
When I woke up the night shift he explained that I’d been moved to another room, a single, instead of the double I had been in. Oh, and here’s the key. Well OK, I understand, it’s not a problem for me but huh? You couldn’t pin a note to the door or something? I mumbled a protest about having woken some poor couple up in the middle of the night but he didn’t seem that bothered. Luckily I didn’t run into them as I was checking out.
I actually got to Wolvercote cemetery, coffee in hand (needed so that other people could differentiate me from the residents), in time for Enyalie (which was very nicely done by Emperor). It was a lovely late September day. There was some discussion about the placing (during the previous week, apparently) of a number of pens into the soil of the grave, but I actually found it a little affecting in its simple humanity.
After saying goodbye and see you next year I headed off to the Bird and Baby for my annual Mushroom Pepperpot. Which they no longer do. I voiced my dismay [vader!noooooo], drank my tea and left, too disheartened to order anything else from the menu. I went to the FeedNosebag instead and had a large quantity of chicken salad. Ahead lay the journey home and the inevitable week of flopping about being useless.
In no particular order:
Highlights
‘Only I’m Left’ - Probably the highlight. I hope this was recorded by someone, or at least that the words might be published somewhere at somepoint.
The sing-alonga-room-party.
OMGasfgtwfqv!!1! It’s Hogwarts!
The close proximity of ChCh to G&Ds Ice Cream and Bagel parlour.
On the same theme - The Mission’s burritos.
Emperor’s first Enyalie.
Sitting on the steps in Tom Quad in the early evening sunshine listening to Anime [Azumanga Daioh, Tenchi Muyo!, Prince of Tennis etc.] and Gyakuten Saiban soundtracks, reading Nintendo Magazine. Why yes, I R sad weeaboo.
Hover-Don is Hovering
Lowlights
The beer.
No Mushroom Pepperpot!! (I’m starting a Facebook group dammit)
Too short again. I didn’t manage to get round all the people I wanted to talk to.
Getting stuck behind a rolling 2-lane roadblock on the M40 for 20 minutes.
Reading on LJ that some of my friends didn’t have such a good time. :( Hope it's better next year for you all.
I arrived in Oxford on the Thursday night after a nice easy drive from the Fine City (2 ¾ hours + stop), booked into my guest house - run by a miserable sod with a framed picture of Basil Fawlty over his desk - and headed up the High Street to ChCh. Registered I made my way straight to the Undercroft bar where I met up with jason_finch, The_Marquis, Alex_Downunder (no longer down-under), and my first pint of rubbish beer.
Of all the objectionable things about the Undercroft bar, I think the price was what I objected to most. £2.80 for a pint of 3.7 ABV, very average beer, served with a ¾ inch head. I forced down 3 ½ pints of it, while chatting with various people about such things as the Iceni Village at Cockley Cley, and Swaffham wind turbines and then wandered back to my guesthouse.
The following morning I had breakfast, grabbed a coffee from Star[brandy]bucks, and attended the 9:00 lecture. Which is an amazingly ‘together’ way for me to start an Oxonmoot. Admittedly I missed the first 10 minutes of the lecture because I managed to go to the wrong room, which was a shame because the talk - ‘Teaching Tolkien, Tolkien Teaching’ - was actually pretty interesting.
After a circuit of the Dealers Room and Art Show I decided to go and have a look at the Cathedral. While I was touristing round I saw a notice for a free Monteverdi concert at lunchtime, so after another lecture and a pastrami and c.c. bagel I headed back there (the price being right, unlike at the bar). I enjoyed the concert overall, the chorus numbers were nice - I was joined temporarily by megamole, but he was less prepared than me to tough out some wayward intonation on the part of a couple of soloists and disappeared again.
As I’d missed the beginning of TN’s slide show I decided to catch it the next day instead and continue being touristy so I went and joined the Potter spotters in the Great Hall. I also took a quick trip through the Art Gallery. I’m not an authority on art - I have to admit that not many of the pieces in the gallery grabbed me, but for the record, my favourite was a Titian-influenced (according to the card) Christ Crowned with Thorns (in case anyone else saw it). I did wish I’d had a little more time to study the sketches in their special exhibit, but I had to get to the next lecture.
When the days schedule was finished I went and serviced my internet addiction in Hospitality for a couple of hours, succumbed to the lure of a G&D Waffle Sundae, visited KFC in town and headed back to the bar. I assume they must have been on a new barrel by now, but it didn’t taste any better. I was rescued from the beer after 2 pints by a room party (yay!).
Saturday morning didn’t really happen, as it so often doesn’t. I’d had every intention of going to AS’s lecture on the Hobbit, but the intention didn’t managed to translate itself into any kind of action. I did eventually drag myself up, swallow antacid and ibuprofen and make my way under sunglasses back to G&Ds (salmon and c.c. today).
I spent most of the afternoon in slide shows. Ted’s commentary was interesting, but he could have done with a better visual set up. Most of the slides had to be corrected in the imagination to remove the perspective distortion from the projector angle. It’s always interesting to hear Ted talk about the progress of his art though. LS’s slide show as always was very funny, and as always contained twice as much material as could be fitted into the time available.
Barnsley 0 - 0 Nowich City. Meh.
On my trip to KFC I had discovered The Mission, so I went back there for dinner to be confronted by a burrito stuffed full of lovely fresh food of just the right heat and a cylindrical 3 ½ inches in diameter and 7 inches long. If this sounds like an advertisement it is. I’m going again next year.
Saturday night is Ents night, and the star attraction this year was the final part of the Lord of the Goons trilogy as presented by the CTS. What a marvellous tour-de-force it has been, making us laugh/groan in dismay (I’M ON THE TERRAIN) and cry (well almost. I can’t have been the only person there with a lump in my throat during the inspired credits filk). The CTS seems to have the ability to make me blub for all the right reasons (specifically last year’s read-through). Well done to all involved. Next year’s Sound of Mumaks is being hotly anticipated, certainly from this quarter.
The costume parade was very good this year. I’m always impressed by the hard work and imagination that goes into the masquerade. I made my usual commitment to lose weight and sort myself out a costume for next year, so be prepared to see me at next year’s party fatter than I am now and in jeans. As usual.
I didn’t see much more after that, as I was forced to flee my seat at the Slytherin table by an onslaught of poetry. That’s not necessarily a reflection on the poets - I have a general poetry allergy and consequentially my tolerance level is quite low. It only takes a few lines before I start to feel all uncomfortable and itchy and I have to leave. So I stayed mostly at the back of the hall out of the range of fire, or in the bar after that.
Later the following morning I arrived back at Fawlty Towers, a little the worse for drink and made my way up to the room I’d stayed in the previous two nights. The one I had a key for. I opened the door and flicked the light on, and then the couple in the bed that I’d just woken up and I went through a little round of WTFery while I cast round the room looking for my stuff. I was just about to start protesting that this was my room (see! I have a key and everything! Where’s my stuff!!), when my brain thankfully got control of my mouth and shut it while I GTFO of there.
When I woke up the night shift he explained that I’d been moved to another room, a single, instead of the double I had been in. Oh, and here’s the key. Well OK, I understand, it’s not a problem for me but huh? You couldn’t pin a note to the door or something? I mumbled a protest about having woken some poor couple up in the middle of the night but he didn’t seem that bothered. Luckily I didn’t run into them as I was checking out.
I actually got to Wolvercote cemetery, coffee in hand (needed so that other people could differentiate me from the residents), in time for Enyalie (which was very nicely done by Emperor). It was a lovely late September day. There was some discussion about the placing (during the previous week, apparently) of a number of pens into the soil of the grave, but I actually found it a little affecting in its simple humanity.
After saying goodbye and see you next year I headed off to the Bird and Baby for my annual Mushroom Pepperpot. Which they no longer do. I voiced my dismay [vader!noooooo], drank my tea and left, too disheartened to order anything else from the menu. I went to the FeedNosebag instead and had a large quantity of chicken salad. Ahead lay the journey home and the inevitable week of flopping about being useless.
In no particular order:
Highlights
‘Only I’m Left’ - Probably the highlight. I hope this was recorded by someone, or at least that the words might be published somewhere at somepoint.
The sing-alonga-room-party.
OMGasfgtwfqv!!1! It’s Hogwarts!
The close proximity of ChCh to G&Ds Ice Cream and Bagel parlour.
On the same theme - The Mission’s burritos.
Emperor’s first Enyalie.
Sitting on the steps in Tom Quad in the early evening sunshine listening to Anime [Azumanga Daioh, Tenchi Muyo!, Prince of Tennis etc.] and Gyakuten Saiban soundtracks, reading Nintendo Magazine. Why yes, I R sad weeaboo.
Hover-Don is Hovering
Lowlights
The beer.
No Mushroom Pepperpot!! (I’m starting a Facebook group dammit)
Too short again. I didn’t manage to get round all the people I wanted to talk to.
Getting stuck behind a rolling 2-lane roadblock on the M40 for 20 minutes.
Reading on LJ that some of my friends didn’t have such a good time. :( Hope it's better next year for you all.