Reviews, Reflections, Recollections

Just a blog filled with my usual irreverent observations about life and all that.

Name:
Location: Singapore, Singapore

enjoys reading and is perpetually trying to find space for all of the books he owns in his room. He also enjoys films, and in particular, going to the cinema. Although a self-confessed trivia buff, reports that he is an insufferable know-it-all are completely unfounded. He enjoys a nice glass of tipple now and then, be it a pint of beer, a glass of wine or a single malt whisky.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Tour Guide Caleb and Starting Anew

I have commented in the past about my love of playing the tour guide to visiting friends in Oxford, and I had ample opportunity today, which I seized perhaps too enthusiastically, when I met up with Timothy Tay and his parents in Oxford. Tim had arrived the day before and sent an email round seeing who was around, and I finally was able to get him in his room on Saturday evening, so I offered to meet with him for lunch and a tour around Oxford.

I think bringing people round does play up to my ego in two very fundamental ways - it allows me to spout all sorts of random historical facts, which appeals to my love of random facts and history, and it also allows me to be the center of attention and to flaunt my hidden urge to be a showman, with all the wit and charm that I can muster.

All in all, I had a pleasant afternoon, first having lunch with his parents and a friend from London at Brown's - reknown as the restaurant that everybody brings their parents to and proceeded to bring them around Trinity as well as a rushed tour of Oxford.

I am afraid that I was very much my useful (overly) outspoken self - but I find that I really can't help it. Being able to hold forth on all and sundry is something that I just seem to enjoy, and expressing and arguing my viewpoint is something that I really do love, perhaps to too great a degree. My only hope, as always, is that I did not shock them to too great a degree.

In many ways I envy Tim his first arriving in Oxford, the sense of beginning, of ample opportunity and discovery; of hundreds of people to meet and friends to make, the sense of being able to do it all. This stems in part from my melancholy comments of recent times about the so called social ossification that has happened, so I do envy him this clean slate. It is perhaps the most natural thing to wish for the chance to be able to do things anew - the what ifs and the might have beens always do tend to weigh heavily on one's mind.

But I admit that sense of discovery most of all - the chance to fall in love with Oxford and all it has to offer. And in a more positive note, a chord of hope so to speak, I realize that this sense of discovery isn't after all lost to me completely. There is still much to find, and much to try, new people to meet, new challenges to face, and I should do so with a general inclination towards enjoy whatever time I have left here, and whatever surprises Oxford still has to throw at me.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home