Saegerts Come to Oxford, Visits All Round
It's been wonderful having the Saegerts over the past few days as they dropped by Oxford for a couple of days before setting out on a choir tour that includes performances in St Paul's Cathedral, Edinburgh, Westminster and Wales. It was quite delightful and wonderful to see them after such a long time - it was probably 10 years since I had last seen them when I went over to Texas during the winter of 1995, and even longer since they had lived that year in Singapore. Altogether, Joel and Merry hadn't really changed all that much to my mind, Merry her usual bright efferverscent self, and Joel still possesing that quiet, dry wit. Elise seemed quite different, but that probably goes without saying - we have both matured a great deal since we had last seen each other obviously, but this still serves to underlie how much one changes over one's adolescent years, something that it taken for granted but not really reflected upon, at least till old friends come to visit.
I invited the Saegerts to formal hall on Tuesday because I was busy that afternoon with lunch at the Old Parsonage Hotel with Jim Reid and Neil McNamara who had both come down to Oxford to speak with the head's of houses. Lunch was the usual lovely affair, the Old Parsonage definitely being one of the classiest restaurants in Oxford. I had a delighful soup, flavoured just so, and grilled mackarel, which is tad too bony for my tastes. The usual suspects were there - Rebecca, inspite of her impending finals, Janet and Bianca, and also a welcome surprise in the form of Wendy Tng, who happened to be in town. Janet and myself are considering making a trip to Amsterdam to stay with the Reid's in 9th week. After formal hall, me and Elise went off to the Turf, while her parents went to watch the President's concert in the chapel. Tuesdays at the Turf is turning into a bit of an institution for me. I bumped into Daniel Trott at the Turf who was there with a couple of his friends, who then went on to underline how ridiculously small the world is. One of his friends was an American who hailed from North Carolina - really near to Duke which was where Elise and Laurel were studying. Another of his friends was French American and studied at the Lycee International, which was the same high school that Laurel went to. It was a startling set of coincidences considering that Laurel was coming to the pub that same evening as well. I just love the total inexplicability of it all, the random things that life manages to conjure up.
Elise stayed the night and it was pretty much a quiet Wednesday not aided by some ghastly weather. Some Hwa Chong students came to visit Oxford and I helped to show them around Trinity in the midst of a drizzle. Owing to the inclement weather we brought them over to Blackwell's where they for the most part managed to entertain themselves. Seeing that they were humanities students, that was probably not too difficult, but still its refreshing to see that they are still quite a number of Singaporean students with a passion for reading and a predeliction for books that I share. Later on, myself and Elise braved the rain to go to St Catz to listen to Patrick Marber interview Cate Blanchett. It was quite an interesting experience as Cate was a wonderfully candid speaker and she touched on everything from how she started out on her acting career, her views on critics and whether she reads reviews of her work, how she handles fame, her eclectic choice of roles and so on. She was definitely as elegant in real life as she is on screen, though it was interesting to hear her speak with her slight Aussie accent, as one had grown accustomed to hearing her in a whole plethora of accents in her film roles.
Later on in the evening, I had dinner with the Saegerts and their friend whom they had been staying with in Oxford. Dinner was at the Oriental Condor, which I definitely enjoyed as it is one of my favourite chinese restaurants in Oxford. I had been a couple of times to the extent that the staff members recognized me as I went in. I definitely enjoyed the food, but perhaps chatted away a little too much - one must never forget the rule with chinese meals: its a free for all, so grab it while you can! Altogether, I greatly enjoyed talking to the Saegerts and their guests, and it was with a twinge of regret that they as well as myself, had to bid our farewells.
I invited the Saegerts to formal hall on Tuesday because I was busy that afternoon with lunch at the Old Parsonage Hotel with Jim Reid and Neil McNamara who had both come down to Oxford to speak with the head's of houses. Lunch was the usual lovely affair, the Old Parsonage definitely being one of the classiest restaurants in Oxford. I had a delighful soup, flavoured just so, and grilled mackarel, which is tad too bony for my tastes. The usual suspects were there - Rebecca, inspite of her impending finals, Janet and Bianca, and also a welcome surprise in the form of Wendy Tng, who happened to be in town. Janet and myself are considering making a trip to Amsterdam to stay with the Reid's in 9th week. After formal hall, me and Elise went off to the Turf, while her parents went to watch the President's concert in the chapel. Tuesdays at the Turf is turning into a bit of an institution for me. I bumped into Daniel Trott at the Turf who was there with a couple of his friends, who then went on to underline how ridiculously small the world is. One of his friends was an American who hailed from North Carolina - really near to Duke which was where Elise and Laurel were studying. Another of his friends was French American and studied at the Lycee International, which was the same high school that Laurel went to. It was a startling set of coincidences considering that Laurel was coming to the pub that same evening as well. I just love the total inexplicability of it all, the random things that life manages to conjure up.
Elise stayed the night and it was pretty much a quiet Wednesday not aided by some ghastly weather. Some Hwa Chong students came to visit Oxford and I helped to show them around Trinity in the midst of a drizzle. Owing to the inclement weather we brought them over to Blackwell's where they for the most part managed to entertain themselves. Seeing that they were humanities students, that was probably not too difficult, but still its refreshing to see that they are still quite a number of Singaporean students with a passion for reading and a predeliction for books that I share. Later on, myself and Elise braved the rain to go to St Catz to listen to Patrick Marber interview Cate Blanchett. It was quite an interesting experience as Cate was a wonderfully candid speaker and she touched on everything from how she started out on her acting career, her views on critics and whether she reads reviews of her work, how she handles fame, her eclectic choice of roles and so on. She was definitely as elegant in real life as she is on screen, though it was interesting to hear her speak with her slight Aussie accent, as one had grown accustomed to hearing her in a whole plethora of accents in her film roles.
Later on in the evening, I had dinner with the Saegerts and their friend whom they had been staying with in Oxford. Dinner was at the Oriental Condor, which I definitely enjoyed as it is one of my favourite chinese restaurants in Oxford. I had been a couple of times to the extent that the staff members recognized me as I went in. I definitely enjoyed the food, but perhaps chatted away a little too much - one must never forget the rule with chinese meals: its a free for all, so grab it while you can! Altogether, I greatly enjoyed talking to the Saegerts and their guests, and it was with a twinge of regret that they as well as myself, had to bid our farewells.
posted by Caleb Liu | 11:58 PM
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