The long arm of Father Christmas

From the Tubantia: Kerstmis in York!
(Twinkling courtesy of Google)

Back on track. Temperature: down. Coughing: under control. Nose drip: not so you would notice. Smell: present. Full steam ahead!

On the other hand, it seems as though this place, meaning the university, is closing down for Christmas. The campus supermarket is no longer open Sundays or in the evenings, and they have run out of pumpernickel. (Elise, can you bring some from Hengelo?) The Glasshouse (if you remember, the restaurant on the Heslington East campus), which I prefer to the Edge though that is a lot closer by, turned out to be closed as well when I wanted a quick bite before Body Pump. Are there no lectures any more, two full weeks before the Nativity? Must ask.

Student creativity (The Edge)

In the meanwhile, I'm busy preparing for Elise's visit, come Friday. Exciting really: I can show her all my toys, and in doing so renew my own fascination with this place which has inevitably sunk into routine by now. By sheer coincidence, there was an article in the Tubantia, the local newspaper of Twente, about the Christmas market in York, which was praised as being one of the most attractive in England. When I went to get new batteries for my watch two weeks ago I saw the stalls being built. There will also be the ice sculpture Festival of Angels, and we are going to two shows, a live broadcast from the Met of Falstaff (tip from my mother) in the Cityscreen, and a pantomime in the Grand Opera House. (If you have never been in England around Christmas time, I am sure you do not know what a pantomime is! It has very little to do with what we call pantomime -pronounced the French way- in the Netherlands. I'll post about it at some later occasion.)

This is also an occasion to find out how easy it is to live as a couple in this apartment - which is what it is actually meant for. Since there is no way we can sleep comfortably in the bed together (I only fit on it diagonally) I have borrowed an air mattress of one of the PhD students of the group. It turned out to be an electrically inflatable one, and since I had never seen such a thing before, for your enjoyment I made a video of the inflationary process: The Miracle of the Air Mattress! (If you watch it on YouTube you can enjoy my rather dull commentary in English by switching on captions.)

I'm sure we will have a great few days. For Elise a nice diversion, since the kids in her classes are giving her hell. I might not have time to post about it extensively though! Anyway, first I have a concert tomorrow: a choir in the Minster singing Britten's Christmas Carols. If it had been on Friday I know Elise would have loved to go there, too: we actually sang the Christmas Carols with the chamber choir where we met. So far the singing I have undergone in York was not of the highest quality (Festival of Remembrance, Dicken's Christmal Carol musical) though the English have a great reputation for singing. I have every hope that the record will be set straight tomorrow.