Matthew's Journal

The UL, to a science student, is a strange and mysterious place, occupied by fell beings and arts students. Usually your department library will have most of the texts and journals you need, and in my case, most of those that it lacked were in the maths library. Most of my previous visits have been for recreational texts, which has occasionally caused librarians to wonder what someone registered at the vet school is doing borrowing Icelandic sagas in the original language; they've always seemed like a bit of an adventure, really, particularly given the slightly idiosyncratic shelving scheme. I always feel that somehow, I'm doing something *wrong* just by being there.

Today I went in in search of some quotes. Some PhD theses have a pithy or apposite quote (or two) on an early page, as a sort of introduction; I'd had an idea of this, and my supervisor agreed it sounded quite good. So, I went to the Commonwealth Room (somewhere I'd never been before), and requested a couple of parliamentary papers; I then retired to the tea room for a cup of coffee. I'd never been there before either - it's very institutional, and terribly green. I sat, flicked through the folder I'd brought with me to make notes in (full of all sorts of things - past retreat notes, supervisions, QB), and then daydreamed and people-watched for a while whilst finishing my coffee. It struck me as I cleared my papers up and headed off that someone shoulder-surfing would have found the juxtaposition of a sermon by ++Rowan and some fairly hairy maths lying open on the table in front of me somewhat confusing.

Anyhow, I returned to the Commonwealth Room, and collected the books I'd asked to be fetched; the reports I'd wanted were bound in big hard-back volumes, very aesthetically pleasing books. I took notes, and requested a further, earlier volume, which arrived and was delivered to my desk. After an hour or so of note-taking, I returned the books and left.

The end result, online as a PDF here for a while is, I think, quite pleasing.