Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Thursday 15 July 2010

Lunch with a friend

I had a most enjoyable lunch today with a friend from Oriel who was back in the city for the day. It was a great pleasure to meet up with him again after an interval as he has been working abroad.

He is dedicated reader of this blog, and assures me he has read it in Kashmir, Kashgar and Kazakstan. His only criticism was that it was not, in his words, "bitchy" enough. He thought I was not doing justice to my skills in that respect. He obviously knows me well. Well, I will see what I can do over coming posts to keep him happy.

There was fringe benefit to the lunch - there is a real plus to lunching a deux with a Muslim who orders a bottle of wine and then declines to drink from it...well, I did not want it to go to waste...

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