At the student fair, the admissions office was giving away toothbrushes.

I was accosted by what I think was a Hare Krishna on my way to the Vaults and Garden Coffee Shop. As I walked through a sort of open market, I saw the little man in a dark blue pea coat, head shaven, with a clipboard in hand. There was an entire crowd slowly walking through this street, but the little man, a scant 5’2” or so, walked directly to me. I attract people like this. He came uncomfortably close and started talking with an incredibly thick cockney accent; I’m pretty sure he said something about Hare Krishnas. I really couldn’t understand him for the first few seconds until my mental de-accentator kicked in. He had a small scar across his cheek and his eyes were an uncommonly light milky green. And he paused. “Ah you ‘ere studee’in?” Yes, I was. I am. He only wanted students. Then he continued on, saying something about feeding the homeless and inner peace, and then handed me a little book, a spiritual guide of some sort. It said YOGA on the front and was illustrated with fanciful far-east imagery. They were raising funds by selling these inner-peace-for-dummies handbooks. And I suppose that’s why he only wanted to talk to students ----- anyone paying +$40,000 a year to sit in a library and not sleep probably doesn’t have inner peace. Sorry mate, not today.

Vaults and Gardens is my new 10am hangout. It’s in the side of St. Mary’s Church, the university church, which dates to 1460. I prefer to sit outside on the gravestones, between the church and the Radcliffe Camera. At 10am, you can see, it isn’t particularly busy.