Tuesday 26 August 2008

Durham

So I was in Durham this weekend. All I knew about Durham before visiting was that it was the origin of the legendary birdwatching fanatic, Kitchen Mark, so already Durham had a giant gold star in my book. However, Kitchen Mark has been soiling the streets of Aberdeen for over a decade, and there's a new kid on the block in Durham, the legendary literary deconstructionist, non-kitchen Maebh. In fact, Maebh has been in Durham for two years and I'd been promising from way back then to visit, only finally now being true to my word.

And, well, wasn't it a lovely visit? I thought I was fully prepared to deal with Maebh's awesome beauty, but somehow she'd cranked up the honey factor yet another gear, leaving me convinced that within her DNA the very secret of eternal youth must lurk. Truly a scientific wonder. And a literary one too, as she ploughs through a PhD on deconstructionist maestro Derrida, a topic my very own PA, herself an English PhD student (a criticial analysis of a Walter Scott poem) described as "difficult".

The Friday evening I arrived was one of Maebh's housewarming party, in a real house, which in a nutshell was a gathering of Durham uberstudents drinking tons and tons of red wine. Very enjoyable, and I regaled to one and all my tales of the seas, aboard destitute rigs in hostile climes. All the girls swooned, I'm happy to report.

Remarkably, my health wasn't ruined the next day, save for some fuzziness, and so Maebh and I took a little wander round Durham, and I admired its beauty and she reminded me it was in fact really quite small and the nightlife wasn't raging. As we know each other from Korea, we remembered these days fondly, harking back to that carefree lifestyle and the quirks and mania of rather a unique nation. And of course, we took a look at Durham cathedral, which I can confirm is really quite big. And thus I shall end my writing now, and bombard you with photos.

Or I would if I could get this damn thing to work. Screw this, I'm hungry, I'll put these photos up later.

5 comments:

Jenny said...

How does one pronounce "Maebh"?

Nev 360 said...

It's a silent "m" so it's kind of like "Abe", as in "Abe Lincoln".

Eileen said...

You are quiet the old hand at old Irish pronunciation, aren't you Neville?

Anonymous said...

Nev, I was about to declare my love for you, and then you desecrate my name!

Jenny, it's pronounced Maeve; in Irish b+h = v.

Mark said...

where are the photos, owl beak freak?