up and down

[hermionesviolin]

Blessing of the Day:

The weather. I did some errands around noon/one and was comfortable.

Also:

As it grew dark last night, blue lightning bugs came out -- a charming and fitting addition to the Midsummer production.

Complaint of the Day:

Slow moving pedestrians. Who take up the whole width of the sidewalk.

I remember learning in elementary school to stay to the right. It means traffic can flow in two directions. It also means people can pass you. While i know little about British driving protocols, i know that the escalators in the London Underground ask you to stand to the right.

Also:

I had to go to Borders to purchase V's Adam Bede (Oxford World's Classics edition -- i previously tried Waterstones, Blackwells including the secondhand department, and the Oxford University Press Bookshop).

Lots of colleges say "closed to visitors." I suspect if i told the Porters i'm studying at Trinity they would let me in anyway. I feel weird, though.

I dislike when the cloth on the bottom of the inside of a shoe begins to detach. (What's that part of the shoe called, anyway?) Would that cease to happen if i bought better shoes than Payless? (This is not a rhetorical question.)

I must have been more hungry than i thought because i just about inhaled lunch. And now i find i'm still hungry. Will i get any work done today?

I wish this were a more balanced list.

[edit: Michele just e-mailed me and i'm working 3 more hours the week i get back. And despite the bads outweighing the goods on this particular list, i'm in a good mood, so really, there's no problem.]

edit the second: Yes, there was indeed another positive item i had forgotten. The bus dropped me off on High Street at 1am and i made it back to Trinity without incident. Wahoo!

Comments

[hedy.livejournal.com]

May I suggest trying a vegan shoe place-shit expensive, but I'm happier buying shoes every couple of years than every month or so...try veganstore.com...they have leather-free docs and birks...

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

shit expensive, but I'm happier buying shoes every couple of years than every month or so

Word.

I'm not a fan of online/catalog shopping for clothes because it's so difficult to find stuff that fits, but i'll definitely check out veganstore.com

[akronohten.livejournal.com]

i once asked a friend from magdalen about which side brits normally walk on. i assumed left, since that's how they drive. she replied by saying that they walk wherever they walk. although the tourists are probably your biggest problem in oxford.

i generally just walked into the college, although that might be harder to do out of term time. don't try that at baillol, though (plus their grounds aren't too nice). i'm sure you could get into hertford if you paid off the bill i own them ;-). also, you can probably get in without paying, if you're nice. mark insisted that i not pay when i tried to get into trinity after term was over, but then again, he knew me. the reason a lot aren't open over the summer is folks like you, i'm afraid. it's how the colleges make their money (espically the ones that don't charge), so they keep the riff-raf out then.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

i assumed left, since that's how they drive. she replied by saying that they walk wherever they walk.

Exactly. I thought the same thing as you, but then i saw escalator signs saying to keep to the right which made me wonder if in England they do the same thing we do with multi-lane highways (slow moving traffic on the right), and i decided that it makes so much more sense in the States where one is ALWAYS supposed to keep to the right.

And yes, the plethora of tourists means that no one knows what they're doing. Sigh.

Yeah, i could probably get away with just walking into colleges (the first time i went to Corpus Christi i asked for directions because i didn't know where my class was being held, but after that i've always just walked in -- though maybe the Porter knows and remembers us, as there are only 5 of us) but i would always be worried that i would get caught and yelled at and i really don't feel like upsetting people. I figured if i just asked the Porters nicely i would be fine, so that's what i'm gonna do.

[akronohten.livejournal.com]

They do pass (or overtake) on the right, just as we overtake on the left. Trains are on the left, too, and if I remember correctly, the esclators are on the left for the way you're going. And I do recall other keep left signs in subways in the tube. I asked Patrick what he does, and he said "generally on the left", and that's the best I can find - general.

The only time I got yelled at was Balliol, but it's not fun. But just ask, and you'll be fine. And if you're not, then it will be a stuck up college, like Balliol.

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

Ah, i never pay that much attention to details -- like which side the escalators are on -- though i definitely didn't notice any "keep left" signs in the Tube. And it's nice to know my instinct (keep left) was (generally) correct.