St Johns Gaudy Dinner

 



One (of many) nice Oxford traditions is that of inviting back old college members for a "gaudy" dinner. This year I was invited back with my intake and that of the previous two years. A nice opportunity to catch up with friends one still meets (I travelled up with a mate I ad last seen the previous week), plus other s one might be in touch with but see rarely, and others whom one perhaps hasn't seen in years. 

 

And you can't really grumble at the opportunity of a four course meal with wine and pre and post dinner drinks all for free. Yes one does have to get dressed up for the occasion, black tie of course, and 7:30 on a Friday evening means realistically taking a day off work. But I was very glad I went.

 

I also had the advantage of being able to stay with friends, although setting off from the Cowley Road one does feel a little conspicuous in a dinner jackets. But the evening was a lovely one in this amazingly mild sunny autumn we are having, so it was a very pleasant walk.

 

 

 

Pre-dinner drinks were in Canterbury Quad, with diner at the hall. As is traditional the welcome speech is given in Latin - afraid my long-forgotten A-Level Latin wasn't up to this stuff. There were so many of us that we had to use the Gallery as well as the Hall, so this photo is from my vantage point up top.

The star attendee was Evan Davies, soon to take over from Paxman on Newsnight. One thing with going to Oxford is that some of us are bound to make it, not just in our own fields but also on the public stage. Hew was in the year above me.


After dinner we went back to the Presidents Lodgings for drinks. I didn't leave until well after midnight. You don't get the chance to chat with this array of folk very often. A nice evening. Although I think I felt even more conspicuous going down the Cowley Road in DJ at 1am. Oxford is surprisingly bust y even at 1 in the morning.

Next morning, to make up for the lovely day on Saturday, it was raining a monsoon. I had to get back to London for mid-afternoon, so we couldn't do much, but went with my friend and his kids to the Museum of the History of Science, a place I didn't know even existed. Its good that it does exist, and the collection of scientific instruments is interesting and in its way attractive (lots of decorative brass), but wouldn't detain one for long.