It started as with many others, in the library, but fortunately that didn't last terribly long. Today is the start of RAG week here. RAG are a student body who organise different events to raise money for charity, and today was RAG Carnival day. I needed to do some shopping for 'Dutch Dinner Do' that I've perhaps unwisely agreed to do tomorrow night, so it seemed a good way to combine the two.
The parade started at the Grafton Centre and made its way to the Drummer Street bus station, which didn't really seem that far, and a little out of the way for something that's supposed to be quite high profile. But a lot of the people had clearly made an effort with their costumes, and they all seemed to be enjoying themselves.
It was certainly colourful, and provided a nice diversion while buying my 'British Fenland Kale' from a Dutch market stall - who says globalisation doesn't work? But RAG today wasn't just a parade, they also organised a rubber duck race on the Cam. For some reason, this really caught my imagination. I had visions of them flinging bucket loads of rubber ducks from Magdelene Bridge and people shouting their ducks on from Quayside. Unfortunately it wasn't quite like that, and instead they offloaded them from a punt in bin liners. In fact, if you look closely, you can see one bin liner that got away before it was emptied leaving a bin liner for of ducks in line for victory for quite a while.
Fortunately, the bin liner didn't win, and neither did mine or Amy's duck. The Cam's probably not the best place for such racing, as it's a pretty gently flowing river, and for quite a lot of the time they just bobbed along in a very uncompetitive unison, but eventually one duck broke free of the others and was hoisted onto the waiting punt to be proclaimed the winner. Apparently all who entered do get their duck to keep. So I shall look forward to being presented with my bright yellow/green/blue/pink duck at some point in the future once they've all been fished out.
This evening though I was presented with something of an all together different kind at the Cambridge University Automobile Club annual dinner at Downing. After a half-hour battle in front of the mirror with my bow tie, and despite some interesting service and a menu that didn't always reflect what we found on our plates, it was a really good evening, and it was nice to get to know the people who I've been racing against a little better while we didn't all have helmets on. I'd been told in advance that I was going to get an award, and I had a sneaking suspicion what it might have been for. But at the end of the meal I was presented with the CUAC award for 'Best Crash', or as I prefer 'Best Example of Driving Beyond One's Capabilities', or as it actually says on the trophy 'East Essex Pony Club Brew Cup for the Best Tetrathalon Performance'.
No-one was quite sure where the trophy came from, but I think it's great, and it has taken pride of place on my mantelpiece. Maybe I'm an equestrian extraordinaire just waiting to be discovered. I'm planning on writing a little piece on the crash so that they can start building up a catalogue of idiotic driving to pass down the generations. For a Society that's over 100 years old, it could be some list.
No comments:
Post a Comment