The dawgs are back in town....
While walking in the dead of the night hoping to procure a wretched tootbrush, it occurred to me that Cambridge girls seem a little less prettier than Oxford lasses. Hmmm, perhaps I can add that to my list of reasons for defecting to the Dark Side.
In many ways, Cantabrigia devirginised me and I was a very willing slut.
While cursing because I could not procure said wretched toothbrush because every store was closed, it also dawned on me that I have yet to graduate from Cambridge. Oh well, maybe in the next couple of decades. Gives me an excuse to come back. Maybe the next time, they'll have sorted out the admissions procedure and the students would begin looking like Rachel Weisz, at the very least, again.
I showed His Royal Orangeness Karl Willem and PA/PR Gromit some of my old haunts and in the process opened up some wounds. Ah, the memories.
I lasted two days in the land of Newton and Plath. Cantabrigia will still be first in my heart and I will always root for them in the Boat Race, but for now Oxbarrio is home.
Funny how time flies. Back in the middle ages, I was fabricating, with the guidance of my hardworking supervisor, fantastic 30nm transistors that trapped one electron at a time. It took me weeks to get just ONE that worked. Now, Intel is churning them out like lollipops. (In terms of the 30nm dimension I mean. So far, no one has made single electron transistors in the commercial scale.)
Who would have thought that a scrawny boy from the mean slums of Baguio would be doing this commute?
HRO Karl Willem and PA/PR Gromit at Sidney Sussex Hall. That's Lady Sussex behind and on the side is Cromwell. It used to have a curtain which is used to cover his face when a toast was made to the Queen. Underneath the entire length of the hall is an impressive wine cellar.
HRO Karl Willem and PA/PR Gromit and The Nashman's old room in the background. (Upper right.)
Oliver Cromwell was long rotting in his grave but when the royals regained power, they had him exhumed and his body quartered. It took some time for the college to recover his skull. The housekeeper often puts me up in the room above where his head is buried whenever I'm home. I love the spookiness.
HRO Karl Willem and PA/PR Gromit at the cloisters of St. John's College.
HRO Karl Willem and PA/PR Gromit in front of St. John's.
HRO Karl Willem and PA/PR Gromit and The Bridge of Sighs.
HRO Karl Willem and PA/PR Gromit at the alien-invasion looking Newton Institute. (Stephen Hawking holds court here.) It was while attending a lecture by Fields medalist Witten, that The Nashman gave up on String Theory. That theory is whack and my coconut could not cope.
The Nashman had 24 hour access to this library. If you don't know/care to know who Moore is, shut down your computer. I did not come to this library to study though. I just liked the fact that they have on display the original script of The Simpsons episode where Stephen Hawking is mistaken by Homer for Larry Flynt. It also has the Star Trek episode with Hawking playing poker with Spock. How fucking cool is that?
PA/PR Gromit's favourite book is Electronics for Dogs (Aardman Studios confirms this if you doubt me.) and so it was natural for him to bark in delight when I brought him to the Engineering Department. This beautiful glass and steel intelligent building is a far cry from the dark halls of Otto Han where I learned my chops. I made my first ultrathin film transistor at Engineering. The leakage current was as bad as an incontinent grandma and I gave up on it.
A self portrait of The Nashman. I don't play any computer game but five years ago, I had lunch with two of the senior developers for Xbox. Back then, they revealed that the PSP was way better.....I don't know if that's still true.....
This is another intelligent building. It's heated by the banshee-like acoustic energy emitted by developers whenever the blue screen of death popped up. For this, it won an architecture award. I like it though as inside it has Japanese meditation gardens. Bill shows up once in a while. And on a weekday, you'd see how overpaid computer programmers are as the bike shed is barely used and there are lots of supercars, including a Lamborghini Murcielago, in the parking lot.
HRO Karl Willem and PA/PR Gromit enjoy the view during afternoon coffee at one of The Nashman's favourite people watching spots. In the summer, students go swimming naked in the river. (Including the un-endowed Nashman.)
This road is very memorable. My girlfriend broke up with me the night before and I was walking down this road feeling all shitty and beside myself. On the radio, Coldplay does an acoustic version of "God, put a smile upon my face....." I have hated Coldplay ever since.