Transitioning to "The Other Place"

I'm a "Bodleian Reader" :-)

I arrived in Oxford (or "The Other Place" as those in Cambridge call it - of course I'm finding out in Oxford that it is Cambridge that is referred to as "The Other Place").  The first thing I did was to head to the Bodleian to get my reader's card.  Though they had just closed moments before I arrived they graciously made an exception and went ahead and made my card for me.  Tomorrow (Friday), I'll be reading correspondence between mathematicians Mary Fairfax Somerville and Ada Byron Lovelace.

Actually, earlier in the day I'll be at the library of Queen's College, Oxford consulting a first edition Whetstone of Witte (1557) by Robert Recorde - the book which contains the first recorded use of the equals sign and the first use in an English text of the plus and minus signs.

Anyone recognize this building?

So, as you can imagine, this is all super cool - especially having a card to the Bodleian (for which I had to take an oath, by the way, among other things!) -  but I'm having a really hard time appreciating it right now because I've been super sick for over a week now - but more on that later.

I was pretty worn out upon arrival, which took five hours composed of bus, train, tube, train, bus - via London - but which I have come to find out could have been accomplished by one bus straight from city to city.  I missed the second train, didn't have time for lunch, etc.  So once I finished up at the Bodleian I asked if there was an Italian restaurant nearby.  I needed something hearty and tasty that would make me happy.  I never did find it, but after walking further than I should have needed to I looked up and saw this, which I immediately recognized - was planning to eat there at some point anyway, so that settled it.

They make a wonderful macaroni and cheese - and just as I skipped the whiskey in Scotland, I'm skipping the beer in England - sorry to the folks who are purists and will think this is heresy, but it's lemonade for me!

This morning I went to the Mathematical Institute, Oxford and toured the Andrew Wiles Building with its Penrose Tiles out front.  (I also went to C. S. Lewis's house, The Kilns, this afternoon, but that will be for a different post.)

My guide here, Dyrol Lumbard, told me that Sir Roger Penrose had to be out here the whole time the workers were laying the tiles, because they are used to looking for pattern, and the point here, pretty much, is that there isn't one!

Roger Penrose - he of the tiles - has an office here and remains active at age 84.  I imagine Andrew Wiles has an office in this building named for him, but I didn't think to ask.  I did, of course, have lunch in the Cafe Pi.

So there's definitely cool stuff going on here, but I have to say I miss Cambridge and my connections there.  Thanks to Dr. Piers Bursill-Hall - who went so far beyond merely answering a question for me - doors were open to me like crazy, and I was able to see so many colleges and their chapels - and to eat in Trinity Hall - as well as to work in the Center for Mathematical Sciences - and eat there too!

Yes, I have two libraries open to me here in Oxford and got a half-hour tour of the Mathematical Institute this morning, but this place feels like a really closed book.  At least at Cambridge even if I'd had no connections and was a tourist I could have paid to get into a variety of colleges:

St. John's Cambridge - open to tourists for a fee

Another Cambridge College - open to tourists for a fee

 Here's an Oxford college.  Can you tell?  Can you tell which one it is?  Can you get in?  Do you see the bouncer, um, I mean "porter" standing guard in black and white in the entry?

Oh, wait, what's that tiny, little sign just inside the left of the arch?  Oh! This is Somerville College!  I'd hoped to visit it because of my interest in Mary Somerville.  Maybe I will just leave it at this for this one.  If I were feeling better I might try, but not so much right now.  It just feels very closed-off here compared to Cambridge.

Obviously I miss my contacts - had no idea in advance that they would take me on board as they did.  Here's one of our LATE dinners in "The Core" of the Centre for Mathematical Sciences.  Many stories were shared, many math puns were bantered about, and, though I can't speak for them, a good time was certainly had by me!  Brilliant company, absolutely brilliant!

I was not feeling well then either, but somehow it's easier to deal with illness when one is not entirely and utterly solo.  I'm just going to be brutally honest, as awesome as a sabbatical in Europe sounds, when one has had a fever for over a week, feels like they've got bronchitis, cannot stop coughing, has a touch of stomach flu and also other very uncomfortable physical stuff going on too - it ain't pretty - especially when living in a small, cheap hotel room with pharmacies a half hour walk away and restaurants a half hour walk away and when there's no one around to look out for you or bring you stuff when you feel miserable.  (Piers took good care of me in Cambridge - got me to a pharmacy for cough meds and paracetamol - connected me by phone with a nurse who told me this is viral so no antibiotics - fine, but I wish I could get over it!  And now I'm totally solo and still just as sick if not sicker.)

If I didn't feel so miserable it would be kind of funny.  When I open my mouth to ask someone something I actually do not know if any sound at all is going to come out of my mouth or not.

Part of this is probably my own fault.  Just because a schedule can be put together like a tidy jig-saw puzzle with no gaps doesn't necessarily mean that it should be, I suppose.  If the idea of driving in totally foreign parts with a reversed car in a country that drives on the opposite side of the road than one is used to sounds TERRIFYING - especially if one isn't even really comfortable driving in one's own home country where everything is familiar - then perhaps the added stress could weaken the immune system.  And, though this piece couldn't be helped, being served breakfast by someone at a B&B (10 days ago) who kept complaining about how she's been really sick and just can't get well probably didn't help the situation - just some thoughts.

Here's a snap of part of my schedule:

But right now it just kind of looks like this:

If any of you reading this are of a praying persuasion, I would sure appreciate prayers.  Thanks!