Sunday, February 10, 2008

London burning


Yesterday I went into London for my first tutorial of the new OU course, held at Birkbeck College. The tutorial was early afternoon, which suited me well as we take son 2 to music therapy first thing on Saturday mornings.

Being cautious about time, I arrived quite early so decided to look for somewhere to have a coffee. The nearest place was Costa Coffee in the basement of the University branch of Waterstones. I had a rather tasteless decaf Americano and made a mental note to return to browse in the shop when the tutorial was over.

The tutorial itself was good. I am unable to attend the sessions held by own tutor, but we are free to attend any and this tutor seemed easy to understand and very nice. So far, so good.

Afterwards I did indeed go back to Waterstones, it is a fascinating academic branch with lots of floors and corners, reminiscent of Foyles. You'll be pleased to hear that I left without buying anything, since I have bought so many books lately.

Back at home in the evening, I was channel hopping on the TV when I came across the news coverage of the major fire at Camden market. I've visited Camden market in the past and Hubby worked in Camden Town for years, so we were fascinated. In fact the more we watched, we realised that the fire was in exactly the spot where he used to work. It is amazing that no one was injured or killed in such a big blaze in a very popular area.

Three notable things:

1. Lots of OU work to be done in the next week before half term starts!

2. Both sons had successes last week. Hopefully the coming week will be just as good.

3. We enjoyed the episode of CSI:NY last night which was based around the virtual world Second Life.

8 comments:

Yvonne said...

Thanks Cathy for posting about the fire as I wasn't aware of it. I have friends who live in Camden and have visited there a number of times, it's a great area. Sounds like the firemen did a great job.

Anonymous said...

Oh I am so behind on the news, never seem to have time to watch it these days but I have such fond memories of Camden Market in my pre-kids days!

Oh and I love that branch of Waterstones, that store saw way too much of my wallet when I was a student in that area!

J.

Casdok said...

Wasnt CSI fab last night!!
Glad to hear your tutorial was good. And that your boys both had successess. :)

Lane Mathias said...

Awful fire. Seems like it started in the pub across the road which is quite incredible.

That was a great CSI episode:-)

Kate.Kingsley said...

LOVED that ep of CSI!! How lame was mac at trying to flirt online, eh? ;-)

Zinnia Cyclamen said...

I used to go to Camden a lot in my London years. I hope they can return it to its former, er, not sure 'glory' is quite the right word!

Anonymous said...

Great to hear you are enjoying the tutorials and college. Terrible news about the fire. It's incredible how present life can often relate us to our past.

Crystal xx

CC Devine said...

You managed to leave the bookshop without any purchases? I salute you!