Coffee, snow and a Friday night out

A few weeks ago I managed to spill a cup of coffee rather spectacularly. I was on my way across the Graduate Union building to present a paper on language (available here) to the CHAS (Christians in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences) group. Perhaps unwisely, I had a newspaper in one hand which I was reading and a large cappuccino in the other. I think perhaps I tripped. Somehow half the contents of my cup of coffee flew up into the air. I had dressed up slightly for my presentation so was wearing cream/beige coloured trousers, which were then nicely decorated with coffee and foam all the way down one leg. The newspaper I was holding was made soggy with coffee. There was also a pool of coffee on the floor which looked a bit like someone had been sick, and coffee dripping down one of the new wooden chairs (the GU having had a recent makeover). I was rescued by the PA to the GU president, a lovely Texan lady with whom I have some acquaintance.



A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a pub crawl for a friend’s birthday. I was running a bit late so tried to catch up with the crowd. The plan was to try to find where they were, and if I couldn’t find them by my own ingenuity, then to ring them to locate them. Unfortunately, my phone was out of battery so I couldn’t phone them. I ended up wandering the streets for two hours before giving up and going home. I think it's quite impressive in some ways that I managed to spend a Friday night meandering aimlessly between pubs without the aid of a drop of alcohol.



I also managed to leave a bag with some of my thesis work and library books in it in Sainsbury’s, but retrieved it later in the evening, since they kindly kept it safe for me.



In other news, it snowed.

“Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.” (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)