After our London trip we've managed a few days lazing in the garden, reading books, doing Sudoku, reading more books, doing a jigsaw puzzle. The pattern of the day is getting a little tedious. So yesterday we had a change of scene - a day by Lammas Land paddling pool in Cambridge, not far from Ridley. I exercised some brain cells by exchanging a few books in the college library and saw a couple of familiar faces for a chat - the ways in which the summer holidays are being filled is as varied as the number of ordinands! Some students are about to embark on an MA course and consequently have just had an intensive 2 week summer school, with a full-on program of lectures and reading. That's a bit too extreme a contrast to my current lifestyle for my liking, so I'll stick with 'predictable-if-a-bit-dull' for a few more weeks.
Today was a return to familiar territory - the Milton Maize Maze, where we were hosting SPICE (the partners group). Looking back I find an article I wrote about the Maize Maze on Sept 5th 2008 a few weeks after we arrived, where we were the new family meeting the old hands. Fast forward a year and we 've switched positions. We spent a couple of hours meeting Jodie and her family, and Mark sent his family even if he couldn't be there. Jodie arrived in Cambridge earlier this week and needed the break from unpacking, and Mark will be arriving soon. Us former first years are beginning to realise that people will be looking to us as their seniors in a few weeks time.
Some of us wandered around the maize maze while others sat and chatted about life as an ordinand('s spouse). The maze is planted with a different pattern every year, and is a fleeting temporary thing - in a few weeks it will be harvested and turned into animal feed.
Ridley too has a different set of people each year - we were constantly being told that our year was 'more lively' and 'less serious' than the previous first year - and in a few months we too will be turned out and fed to the waiting masses!
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