CUSFS

[altariel]

Just come back from a smashing evening with the brilliant folks at CUSFS, who gave me a slap-up dinner, and then I gave them a talk about reading SF, and writing fanfic, and writing profic, and loving B7. Then lots of fun discussion about new Who and old Trek. I was a member of CUSFS *cough* nineteen years ago, so it was lovely to be asked to go and talk to them.

The room where I gave the talk was at my old college, so I took ten minutes beforehand to dash up to my old room where I had a chat with a couple of young women now living there, who rather sweetly didn't mind having a complete stranger pop into their kitchen on a Sunday evening and blather about living there nearly two decades ago.

Comments

[carl-allery.livejournal.com]

and blather about living there nearly two decades ago.


Did it make you feel old? :)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Old and envious!

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

The present president of the Oxford University Doctor Who Society lives in the room which was mine seventeen years ago, though I had stopped being vice-president by that point.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

That's a lovely coincidence!

[glitterboy1.livejournal.com]

It sounds a good evening, and enjoyable for both you and them. I'm glad it went so well.

I was back in my old College for a meeting on Friday evening. I didn't go up to my old room, but I did have a nostalgic look into the library. It seems a long time ago!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Our library has been extensively remodelled recently; it was already a good library, now it's superb.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! I'm glad it was such a success, and hope it inspires them to go forth and do likewise.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'd like to think so :-)

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Don't count the years, it gets scary after a while!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It really does. I don't know if you've been up there recently, but the huge wooden cupboard has gone, and they've remodelled the bathroom so that you can no longer get in from the roof. It felt bigger and airier. The kitchen is still an inch square though!

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually been up there in years, but I've wandered through the grounds more recently.

That wooden cupboard was a fixture! How wrong to remove it :-(

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I know! No respect for tradition. And the piano in my room has gone too.

[uitlander]

Dang. You did tell me about this and I should have put it in my diary. I'd have been interested to hear you. And as for the room... yeah, I've been tempted to do the same thing but haven't as yet.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Darn! Hopefully will see you at the lecture on Thursday (depending on how my cold is shaping up).

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Glad it went so well!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

A really lovely evening.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

It sounds like a very good evening. Looking at the CUSFS link, I see that what we all already knew is now official: you're wonderful. :)

[altariel.livejournal.com]

*blushes* Thank you! And it was a really lovely evening.

[trixieleitz]

That sounds like a jolly good evening :)

...having a complete stranger pop into their kitchen on a Sunday evening and blather about living there nearly two decades ago.

Now I'm wondering if this ever happened to you!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

LOL! Not that I can recall!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad it went well! And lovely to see you, by the way...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

It was a lovely evening. And it was so good to see you and Mr EA!

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad it was such fun, and who knows what it might inspire one or two of them to?

I went to a college reunion do for my year last summer, and although it was lovely it was also WEIRD - I lay in bed (not in my own old room, thank goodness, I think that would really have freaked me out) listening to people being thrown out of the bar at closing time just like I used to, and while drifting off to sleep had a massive almost-Proustian flashback to being 19-20 (the good, the bad and the ugly, much of which I thought I had forgotten) and sat up again shaking - it was so emotional. Your kitchen chat sounds rather cosier and less freaky, which is good!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I know just what you mean! I stayed in college once for a reunion, deeply odd experience!

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

I've never been back to any of the rooms I had in College - but they've remodelled the interior of First Court since, to put in sanitation, so I don't think that room exists as I remember it (the baths were two courts away...), and also remodelled the room layout in New Court.

[altariel.livejournal.com]

Two courts is a bit far for a bath...

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

It is alleged that when baths were first installed at my college (end of 19th C), one of the Dons remarked "What do the undergraduates need baths for? They're only here for eight weeks at a time!"

[altariel.livejournal.com]

:-D

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

I always used to chortle when visiting friends in John's when the fire alarms went off and people had to emerge from those subterranean bathrooms in Third Court hopping about on the cobbles with only a towel on, because of course their rooms were out of reach.

Wasn't so funny when staying overnight there from time to time I needed the loo at 3 am and had to trek MILES...