My first full day in Cambridge and my first day in the archive reading room at Scott Polar Research Institute, and my first day, for a long time, sitting at a desk writing for seven hours.
Woke early, beating the alarm, had breakfast, showered and then had to fill in some time before leaving. The walk took me twenty minutes and I soon learnt that cycles were the danger here. Everyone seems to ride bikes or catch buses. Bikes are like mobility scooters back in my retirement village—you can’t hear them coming.
The reading room hours are from 9:30 a.m. to 1 pm and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. with a compulsory break for morning and afternoon tea. During the hour for lunch I walked down to the corner of Lensfield Road and Regent Street to a Chinese restaurant for meal of stewed pork belly and rice. Next week I will venture further up Regent Street and try Italian, Greek, Thai or an English pub meal.
Today I went through two of Campbell's field note books extracting some of his survey data. Each day, either at lunch time or at their camp at night, he took a round-of-angles to local features. These angles fixed their position and will allow me to plot their route during their sledging in South Victoria Land.
After sitting all day I got a sore bum and was glad when the bell tolled 5 p.m. Yes the bell did toll on the reading room clock at 5 p.m. and every hour and half-hour. On the walk home I called into Tesco Express and bought some beer, a bottle of Dr. Pepper and some fruit. Before going to my Annexe I called into the owners and got the WIFI password. Now I am connected to the world.
Since leaving home I have had some communication problems. I forgot to buy my mobile roaming before leaving and had not been able get it as all the WIFI connections were unsecured and Spark won’t let you purchase items over an unsecured network. Also since arriving in Cambridge I couldn’t connected with the WIFI in my accommodation. Now that all is rectified, the connection is secure, and Spark will sell me my roaming. These problems have resulted in the Blog posts jumping from Wednesday to Friday. Thursday will turn up sometime, possibly over the weekend.
Now all is well, I am connected to the world and after one day at work I have the weekend free.
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