Goodbye Cambridge

“I am a passenger
I stay under glass
I look through my window so bright
I see the stars come out tonight
I see the bright and hollow sky
Over the city's a rip in the sky
And everything looks good tonight”

I took the train to catch the plane this morning. I don’t like early morning train travel, the hordes of commuters with their early morning rituals are strangely depressing figures, and I really don’t like airports. I tend to sit and people watch and it’s not long before I’m judging those around me, usually in a not very positive way.

But today I’m going to take inspiration from my old physics teacher, Alan Davies. He was an enthusiast. He was an expert physicist, an renowned authority on the pre-Raphaelites, a computer game designer, an incredible Bob Dylan fan and impersonator, and no mean songwriter in his own right. It’s very easy (and remarkably good fun) to be cynical, cool and aloof about life and those around you, but AD was always positive, enthusiastic and curious about everything around him.

In that spirit, I’m not going to let the airport, and its incredibly annoying choice of background music, get me down. The last few weeks have been great fun and I’m sure the next few are going to be just as exciting, even if they are likely to be somewhat stressful.

 It started off with Sonya and Rob’s wedding which was held in beautiful surroundings with lots of good friends. Ice cream, croquet, home-made gin, Sparkling Pemberlinis, a parade of sparklers and loads of funk made for a great weekend. Then Meg and I went to Harry Potter studios tour which was very impressive; the sets were incredibly detailed and it’s surprising what they have kept from 10 years of movies. My last Superhall was the usual mix of weird food (“Tastes of chocolate and beetroot” for dessert) and inappropriate conversation and then a slightly less grand dinner at my place with a great mix of Sawston and college friends. I went to see Dredd with Luke, Ben and Kelly which was surprisingly violent but remarkably good fun and then watched The Long Good Friday with Alan where I managed to blow a smoke ring of raspberry tobacco from his Shisha (total fluke).

However, the highlight has to be Friday night. After dinner and drinks I ended up in ‘spoons and got a hug from the guy who owns Nanna Mexico. When you are greeted so enthusiastically by the owner of a local fast food restaurant then you know it’s time to move on.

I promise to be less sickeningly nostalgic and positive about everything in my next blog post (well, it will be about Toronto) but I’m genuinely sad to be leaving Cambridge. It’s been a great 4 years and I’ve been very lucky with the friends I’ve made and the experiences I’ve had. With all this unbridled sentimentalism in mind, please excuse the following video. I had no job and nothing to do for two weeks!