So far, you've seen the exceptional things that happen here at Wolfson. This blog provides an insight into a typical day here. Above is a picture of the desk. On it are our most essential items: one of two computers (blog central), the projector, the printer (for printing Bill's typescript for his latest book), and the electric hob (teapot). A new addition to the room since our last visit is the mini fridge. My computer is physically linked to the internet cable; this umbilical cord means that I must sit at a desk to blog. Bill normally uses the wi-fi but frequently has to re-enter the code. The circular white object on the left is the collapsible laundry bag for toting clothes to the laundry; it is several buildings away from ours but still on the site. Wolfson College members use their cards to pay for things, like laundry, meals, and drinks in the club room. Periodically, Bill tops off the card. Since I am not a member, I do not have a card, and therefore, I cannot do our laundry.
We generally wake up between 7 and 8. Bill often wakes up first and can be found sitting in the comfy chair (on the right, above) working on his computer. He usually makes us instant coffee and kindly brings my first cup to my side of the bed, which is really sweet of him.
I am including a snapshot of an electrical outlet. Here in the UK, they have on-off switches. That seems like a smart idea to me.
This is our "showlet." Bill coined the term, made up of shower + toilet. Everything gets very wet. While I don't particularly care for showers, having a closed toilet seat is particularly useful when it comes to shaving legs. (I realize this may be TMI--too much information--for some, but showers without seating make the task both awkward and dangerous. Besides, showlets generally fail to garner high marks in user appreciation, so I just wanted to point out that they are not as bad as they seem.) Fortunately, I brought along several washcloths. I must admit that I am squeamish about sitting directly on a wet toilet seat lid. One must draw the line somewhere!
The glass panel doesn't make much sense to us residents at Wolfson. The panel is probably only about 12"-14" wide and doesn't extend to the floor. You can just see the drain behind the metal support bar for the glass. Good thing I brought slippers with rubber soles!
Our breakfast consists of either granola or crumpets, plus several cups of Nescafe's Alta Rica instant coffee. The Cambridge Library doesn't open until 9:30 am, so Bill has plenty of time to do his exercises and clean up in the showlet. He comes home for a late lunch between 2 and 3 pm. In the meantime, I usually blog, read, or work on some needlework. After lunch Bill might do either of the following: walk into town with me (about a 25 minute walk) for provisions or take a power nap. Afterwards, Bill returns to work.
This is our queen-sized bed. We are looking forward to getting back to our king-sized one at home. Here are our fresh towels (note, no washclothes). We get fresh towels three times a week and clean sheets/general cleaning once a week. At Cambridge the cleaning staff are referred to by the students as "bedders." Oxford refers to them as "scouts."
There is a kitchen next door with a larger fridge, an oven, and a sink. The oven was added since our last visit. It's nice to have, but one tenant, in particular, leaves horrible messes. We call him "stew-man" because he makes large pots of stew, which he then places on the windowsill to cool. He may not actually be the real culprit, as we have no eyewitness account of him leaving a mess, but that's how we like to imagine him (or her).
At night, we reverse our pillows so that we can watch a show on our widescreen "headboard." Here in the UK, one must have a license to watch online most of the interesting TV shows. Since we don't hold such a license and since our Netflix contract isn't licensed here either, we signed up for Lovefilm. It is a Netflix-like selection of TV shows and films from Amazon. There was a free 30-day trial, but the trial period left us a week short of continuous coverage. At less than 5 pounds (BPS) per month, we're treating ourselves this last week to coverage. We've watched all the Jeeves and Wooster series, plus a few good movies, too. As you can see, Bill is multi-tasking, playing solitaire while he watches the film.
As for dinner, we eat most meals in the kitchen next door. Our favorite bill of fare is Sainsbury's Indian dinner. Oh, how I wish we could get those meals back home. They have two varieties, and both packages contain enough food to feed us two dinners. Our British friends are aghast at this declaration, but they are really good meals. This week we went a little wild and bought a Thai dinner.
When we don't eat in, Bill's food of choice is pub food. Bangers and mash is his favorite meal. Bangers is just a fancy way to say sausages here. It is served with an onion gravy over mashed potatoes. Not light fare! I think this explains why, after all our walking about town and up mountians, we will not be returning to the States with svelte figures.
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