Today is moving-to-university day for Alex. Austen has hired a car or van and is taking Alex and all her stuff up to town. Maybe I should glossarise that for non Brits. When we say 'going into town' we mean going to the town centre of wherever we already are. When we say 'up to town' we mean London.It has been a bit of an odd time for Alex since she got back from Canada. The waiting for the results, then the results arriving, then the confirmation of university places. And then the time, neither here nor there. And friends trickling off right from the beginning of September. And then today, the day she has been waiting for, when she moves into the Halls of Residence and suddenly she is amongst strangers, strangers who will become some of the closest friends she will have.
Alex has been very wise in her choice of uni. London is of course one of the oldest and finest universities in the country, this may mean nothing to non-Brits, but we rank everything. We will ask each other,
'What university did you go to?' and make a judgement based on that, then 'and what did you get?' Another judgement. Afterwards, several weeks later in fact, we will endeavour to find out whether they are a nice, trustworthy person.
Yeeees, of course I'm exaggerating. Slightly.
But London isn't so far away that Alex can't get back for the weekend, hell, for the evening if she wants, and of course, people will be very motivated to visit her.
The college she has chosen has a reputation for excellence in her subjects so good choices have been made.
'Police pursuit crash victim named' says the headline in the Guardian. It doesn't specifically say high speed car chase or anything like that, but nonetheless it leads you to think that the police pursuit of this maniac was in some way connected with the fact that the idiot knocked down and killed a 32-year-old woman and injured her daughter. The truth was that a police car simply followed a Jeep which was being driven erratically, but they lost it until they came across the scene of the accident. For some reason, someone thought it appropriate to ask the Police Complaints Commission whether there would be an investigation, to which they replied no. Must have been hard for them not to use heavy sarcasm. They haven't really got enough staff to investigate every example of officers doing their job.
I love buses. I have to admit that, no, I love public transport in general, just that there isn't that much here. I like the coming and going, the people watching opportunities. I do some of my best thinking on the bus. Of course, if we had trains I could do even better thinking. I love trains even more than buses, they have toilets and coffee, hell they even have alcohol. Fabulous, so British. And you can't miss your stop unless you go off to sleep.
Here, you can buy a book of bus tickets from certain shops and then you have to put your ticket into the little machine by the bus driver. This is like the French 'composter' to validate the tickets. I am a bit crap at this.
If you put the ticket into the machine the way round that it says on the ticket 'put in this way', it doesn't work. You turn it round. One day this week, mine still wouldn't go in.
'Put it in more sideways,' said the driver. Most bus drivers are lovely and helpful, but they don't all have a good grasp of the English language. Of course the bloody thing wouldn't go in sideways, it's too wide. She meant at an angle I later discovered by watching more bus-ticket-adept passengers than I.
This is quite a good system, but then so is paying the bus driver and allowing him or her to give you change. No change given here. Too dangerous.
On the way back from my friend Gail's yesterday afternoon, I had to change buses. I struck up a conversation with an elderly Chinese woman. I offered English, but she used the language of smiles, nods and hand signals, nice lady, I felt I bonded with her.
To my friend Eve, a very Happy Birthday.
To my Jewish friends and half Jewish friends and my Jewish inclined friends, Happy Rosh Hashanah.
2 comments:
I don't think we really have a university system in Canada. Mainly people who went to university feel superior to people who didn't although it's usually the non-uni people who are making better money in a trade. I wish I had the skill to be a refrigerator mechanic, the money would be rolling in. People go to BCIT for all of that (in Vancouver I mean).
uh yes the buses. I like the buses in London, although I think Ann said they are getting rid of the double deckers. Buses in Vancouver don't run all night, which really doesn't affect me since I'm in bed by 10, but still.
and finally, I finally picked up that free tv stand advertised on Craigslist but then I had to pay her $5. Didn't make sense that. It's ugly and particle-boardy but my god my tv is my life so now I have a stand for it. This is all apropros of absolutely nothing.
i feel a cold coming on.
- Karen
It is the Routemaster buses in London that are going. These are one type of double decker but not all double deckers are Routemasters.
So that's one thing you don't have to lie in bed worrying about at night.
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