8 hours of revision in the day. Went to the plant sciences department to do some plants revision. Was really noisy there as they had building works on. So, i asked the librarian at the desk if he knew of any other quieter places to work. He showed me to these reading rooms whose shelves were neatly stacked with journals and magazines on forestry. It was completely empty and I had the whole series of rooms to myself! The only problem, he said, were the protestors which sometime stand outside of the building and shout stuff at the new science building opposite (its been very controversial as they do lots of animal testing there...). Managed to do 4 hours of work before getting bored so I explored the library/reading rooms. It seems that they’ve been using them for storage as some of the rooms contained random cabinets stacked high with old Ryvita tins (from the 1930’s?) and inside these were tons of old letters, slides and photos (one annotated as being taken just outside Oxford in 1938). I then had a look at the various journals etc which were ordered alphabetically. Managed to find a whole section on Mexico and its forests dating from 1965-1975ish...had a quick read through and smiled at the 60s diagrams. Went back to college around 5ish and found Alice who had been working and was just as bored. We decided to cycle out OF Oxford towards Brookes. There’s a park just past the Cowley roundabout where we went for bonfire night. Getting there was really tough as it was up a really steep hill (my bike has no gears and I could hear it groaning under my weight...thought it would fall apart!). I wish I could say that the view at the top of the hill was worth the cycle but it really wasn’t. Of course I’m sure that it would be a lot nicer if the sun had been setting or also jus after the snow in February. It was a cloudy, rainyish day so the city spires didn’t look as impressive as they could have. Cycling down the hill, on the other hand, made going up it all the worthwhile...I followed Alice as we sped along the grass on our bikes and I misjudged when I was going to stop so nearly rode up a tree (literally!).
Went back to college to eat. Then did more work. Met up with Ben and G&Ds in Little Claringdon for some ice-cream and to relax. I like talking to him as he seems to think that I have a relaxed attitude to life. He’s also a very analytical person and tries to understand people. I like that :)
