It’s Christmas, well… sort of

The thing about Cambridge is that it’s essentially a university town (or city, if you prefer). Which means that come December this picturesque place will be reduced to something resembling a ghost town since everybody will be gone. I’ve lived through this twice already so take my word for it. What this means is that it will be pointless to decorate the city in December for there’ll be nobody to appreciate it. Hence, events that are related to Christmas are happening now: Christmas lights on the street (even though they’re still not switched on), Christmas dinners and formals etc. etc.

We had the chemical engineering Christmas dinner last Tuesday. Last year it was held in Teri-Aki, a sushi restaurant which, even though the food was okay, doesn’t have the Christmassy feel to it. As a result, this year it’s held in a more appropriate English pub called The Anchor. Nice enough place. It’s next to the river, which is always a plus. To be honest, I’ve never been inside a pub in Cambridge to eat before, so it was quite an experience.

Just to note, I’ve been in a pub in Cambridge before. There was this young lady who played a game with her friends in which they have to bring a person they don’t know with them so she just grabbed me while I was walking along King’s Parade. Went to the pub, sat for like 30 seconds and left. Pretty hilarious though.

And the best pub food experience for me was when me and my dorm mates ate at the Olde Swan Inn in Llantwit Major, Wales. We were quite an international bunch: a Malaysian, a Ugandan, a Londoner with a Maori heritage and a Pakistani/American. I still remember that I ordered quesadillas, and that we all shared a humongous plate of nachos. An amazing gastronomical delight, that’s what it was.

Anyway, back to the present (or more precisely, the very recent past), the Christmas dinner was good. Had to choose the wild mushroom soup and stuffed trout instead of turkey or steak due to my dietary requirements, but that was good too (I’ve never actually tasted turkey, wonder what it’s like). Ended the meal with ruffled by chocolate (essentially a chocolate cake with cream and raspberries and a mint leaf; Christmas colours, see?). Many went to a pub afterwards, though I don’t see the point of paying to get into a bar when you don’t drink and will probably not dance but instead having to see other people get drunk and listen to some music blaring in your ears. So I went with some friends to one of our rooms and just chilled out and talked about guitars, Mike Tyson, interesting suicide attempts, St John’s porcelain cups, German punks, accordions and some other random bits and pieces.

Lectures end next Friday, so a lot of other people (me included) are waiting in anticipation and counting the days for December to arrive. In the meantime, there’s another Christmas dinner on Tuesday, so that ought to get me through the week.

Season’s greetings everyone.

Yaz.