Balliol Society Dinner

After being out until about midnight at the port tasting and the Lansdowne, the next morning I actually managed to get up at 7 AM to go to a pub in Waterloo to watch the England rugby game, which was a real nail-biter. It was good to see a few friends who I hadn't seen in a while, and talk to a few new faces too, all over an English fry-up. In my over-enthusiasm about the result, I texted the dentist boy who I went for drinks with on Monday (as we'd been talking about the game then), and he actually texted back. But nothing since then, I think he was probably just surprised to be getting texts from me at 9 AM on a Saturday...

I quickly had to shower, change, and pack then, because I was heading up to Oxford for the Balliol Society Weekend. For reasons unclear to me, they invited everyone who matriculated in 2004 to come back to college and stay overnight for free, so a large group of us came back to re-live our glory days. The weather was so gorgeous, it of course made the whole weekend just seem magical, and really put the rose-tinted glasses on as we imagined that Oxford had always been that beautiful!

I caught a bus up at 1 PM, and made it into town around 2 PM. I got myself a sandwich, went to college and got my keys, and checked myself into my room at Jowett Walk. I wondered where the others were, but luckily didn't have to spend long before I ran into my friends the Giant Dutch guy and the American Lawyer (whose wedding I went to in Boston last year).

We thought about going down to the river for a drink, but eventually just grabbed pints at the King's Arms, a pub where we used to spend lots of time as students. It's a pub right near Balliol, and as we stood outside on the street corner, we kept running into people from Balliol we knew, which was great fun. We hung out at the KA until 5 PM, when we realised we needed to go back to Jowett (where we were all staying) to get changed into black-tie for drinks at 5:30. I debated leaving my hair down (as I was actually having a good hair day), but at the last minute decided to go for an updo, which was probably a good call as it was so hot out!

Yet, the weather had turned out to be freakishly warm, so they moved drinks from in the Master's Lodge to the Fellow's Garden, so we had a really lovely evening just circulating with some of the old dudes, and chatting to each other. At 6:45 we were supposed to go into chapel for service, but aside from ringing the bells, they didn't make any attempt to herd us in there and kept pouring wine, so needless to say we just stayed outside drinking until we were called into hall for dinner at 7:45. (Plus, everyone in chapel was wearing gowns, which made me wish I still had a gown to wear. So many things to miss about Oxford!)

Dinner was seriously good, aside from a bizarre starter where they gave us a shot glass of salad dressing (but didn't tell us that's what it was). But the standard of food seriously seems to have gone up a notch at Balliol. And we all laughed again at how short Balliol grace is, as it's over almost before you know it's begun! The Master gave his last speech as Master of the college (as Sir Drummond Bone has now taken over), and he recalled to us the speech he gave at our Fresher's Dinner, and I was totally taken back (and it felt like it was just yesterday!) And we once again raised our glasses to "Floreat Domus Balliol", and I swear I was getting a bit choked up. So many memories at that place!

We then retired to the SCR for after-dinner drinks, and spent a lot of time hanging out outside because it was so hot out. Then at some point we got the brilliant idea to go to the Purple Turtle, a student bar, (you may have noticed that many drinks have to be factored in at this point which might explain our poor decision-making), where as soon as we were there we remembered why we hated the Purple Turtle. The Giant Dutch Guy did have an absolute blast dancing, however!

We finally left the Purple Turtle at 3 AM, went looking for Hassan's for kebabs, but there was no Hassan's van outside Balliol (as it wasn't quite yet term time). So we went to a distinctly inferior van on George Street, but it was still probably a good move as it helped soak up some of the serious amounts of alcohol we had consumed. Also at that point my feet were totally killing me (why do girls always wear such uncomfortable heels? I will never figure out why we do that to ourselves), so between that and the cobblestones I was grateful for all the boys who kept lending me an arm as we walked back to Jowett.

I totally missed breakfast in hall the next morning (my head was absolutely swimming), but we did manage to coordinate and get ourselves together to go to the Vault (another old favourite) for breakfast. (Zhan apparently did get up in time for breakfast in hall, but he'd been seated at high table the night before and so had been moderately well-behaved). Then spent the afternoon chilling in Second Quad, reading the papers, catching up, and drinking lots of water. Felt so much like we were students again, sitting out on the grass and nursing our hangovers.

Most people headed back to London early, although I stayed around to just sit in Second Quad and enjoy the weather (and try to wear off my hangover somewhat). I sat reading a book I'd brought with me for the Oxford Tube, just enjoying the sunshine on such a beautiful day. After all, what was the point of running back to London to read in a park there, when I could just stay in Second Quad and read there? Remained there happily reading until the sun started to set, so I went back to my favourite sandwich shop from when I was a student, got a sandwich for the bus, and finally went home to London, missing Oxford all the way.