Today was the Sabbath, and we only planned a few items on our agenda.
We walked to the Radcliffe Camera only to find signs in front of both entrances saying only “Readers” could enter. I consider myself a “reader”- I try to read 50 books a year – but I still felt the sign was not referring to me.
While standing there with the GSB team contemplating our options a gray-haired gentleman (and I use that word loosely) standing no more than 6 feet away crepitated, or as they say in the UK, “broke wind.” And in no small way, I might add; it was sustained and sonorous.
I looked at the rest of the team, but I was apparently the only one who heard it. And when I told them what he had done, no one else seemed surprised or offended. But we were at Oxford. In England. What about manners? Propriety? The Privy Council?
We stil had the Bodleian Library on our agenda, but there again we were turned away. We were told we were too late to get tickets. I used the opportunity to stress to the rest of the team again the importance of getting an early start, but that was met with the same disinterestedness they had shown to unrestrained flatulence.
Continue reading “England Travel Journal – Day 5”