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onceuponatime
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when the clock strikes twenty-three
We decided that the race should be run the other way up. 
This (arguably) set off a chain of topsy turviness.
It all began cycling back; when passing over the bridge into my favourite corner of cambridge - those ancient narrow streets by caius with spires and domes and the bronze sundial peering over the red crumbly walls, and thin slit windows in the stones that have looked out onto the cobbles for centuries.
And all at once the bells inside the college began to peal. Not your regular chime of the hours, or a jangly torrent of wedding bells, but a solemn regular gonging, that sounded again and again…
I had to stop, the effect was so strange; it echoed all around the otherwise silent street with an unearthly vibration in the walls, and made the air feel older, the light brighter, the sky almost gothic. Somewhat mesmerized I eventually left the bells still clanging, after twenty, thirty peals… they faded as I passed people oddly dressed in every kind of costume along king's parade: boys in knotted checkered shirts and cravattes, a crowd in fancy dress having their photo taken outside st catharines, many small boys in black cloaks that made them look like mini vicars, a lady pulling a giant cardboard box.
And so when I reached the sign saying ‘road blocked, please take alternative route’, even though it was not in my way, I thought; well ok, I will take an alternative route. So I cycled off in a direction that was not home. Soon I met a friend I haven’t seen for a while on her way out for a meal, and having quickly arranged a time to re-meet, I went on to meet more and more oddly appareled individuals. I realized I must have slipped back in time briefly because turning down a street marked by a gilded rose I found a string of ancient low 12th century cottages heaped all over with flowers. And then there was a lady meditating in the park amongst the plants and a family pitching a tent on the green in front of the shops. And then there was the street which smelt of candy floss and the sparring
jedi children and wandering rabbi, and then there was home. There was absolutely no point to this exercise as far as I can fathom, and isn’t that wonderful.
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To date 1 Comment(s)
TrackBack-URL
(29.4.06 00:02)
That is wonderful.... and so Cambridge. I doubt very much you wou;ld get half of that if you cycled ina different directions in Guildford... looking forward to seeing you cyber friend.
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