Sepia Fades Too.

There are not too many Cambridge Colleges that I have not been in. Some of the graduate colleges like Wolfson, St Edmund's and Hughes Hall have not been on my journey. If I were to have my time again I would have applied to Hughes Hall for the PGCE.

Of the undergraduate colleges only Christ's, possibly Peterhouse-my memory is hazy on that one-and Magdalene are unvisited by me. On Thursday afternoon I strayed in Magdalene territory with a visit to The Pickerel Inn. Magdalene was the last bastion of pure testosterone in Cambridge as it only admitted women in my time there. It was a rugger buggers college in those days full of public school toffs who mourned the passing and the fall of masculinity in their college.

The Pickerel as I suspected is adorned with Magdalene sporting photos from the 1990s. Not long after I was there yet before most of my students were actually born. All those pictures, I hold similar ones of my time rowing, on the rugby pitch and captaining the university at American football back at dad's, seemed so important then. We favoured sepia in our arrogance. And so as I looked at these pieces of history I realised that sepia like us in the pictures fades to obscurity.

In years to come will I be recalled as piece of Cambridge history fading away on a pub wall? Maybe. It shows the transient nature of life, education, and eventual responsibility.

Back home now after 2 colleges, various friends, the aforementioned Pickerel, Jayne's house, The Boot, The Red Lion and The Rose and Crown in Histon, and lunch at the acclaimed Hole in the Wall at Little Wilbraham today, my holiday is almost complete.

I think I feel better than this time a year ago. The anxiety seems less. But I'm not looking forward to that alarm calling to muster on Monday morning that will be the prelude to the charge of the heavy brigade when the students arrive in 2 weeks.

And so on a drizzly autumn day, having passed the fields of stubble in the black earth of East Anglia, time has past and will now move on. Take care out there.

I Heard a Voice