The Ministry of Truth

Further to my previous post - I hate snow because I hate being cold. If I had my way, temperatures wouldn't be allowed to dip below 15 degrees C. Being cold makes me feel physically ill, my bones ache, my skin gets so utterly wrecked I look like I'm cultivating a layer of scales. I can't even think properly when it's cold.

(Some of you would probably claim that there'd be no noticable difference from usual. This may be true).

I braved Senate House yesterday. Unfortunately I only remembered halfway through the bus journey home, which meant having to get off at King's Cross and walk, rather than just crossing Russell Square. Still, "how hard can it be?" I asked myself. "It can't be that far, it's only one tube stop."

Big mistake.

Not only did I manage to set off in the complete wrong direction, I also found myself stuck in a hail storm. Rather naively, I had assumed that as it's a massive white building that looks like a wedding cake, it would be pretty easy to spot from Kings Cross. I was, of course wrong.

I then had to go through the struggle of trying to find the books I actually wanted. It's like a Crystal Maze mental challenge in there. Instead of using the Dewey Decimal system like every other library I have ever visited, they have their own weird combination of letters and numbers that is yet to make any sense to me.

I needed books from the English Lit section, then one from the Sociology section. Of course, this wasn't made easy. I had to trek down from the 6th floor of the South Block to the ground, cross the ground floor (dodging a BBC film crew on the way), then back upstairs in the North Block to reach the Sociology books. I think it's a way of assessing academic prowess - if you can pass the test of actually tracking the correct books down, you are deemed worthy and permitted to borrow them.

Though it's probably for the best I chose not to follow Google maps' directions from King's Cross to Russell Square:

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I hear Belguim's very nice this time of year.

For all that, I am immensley fond of Senate House. It's very pretty. University of London legend also has it that Hitler planned to use it as his base should he ever invade Britain. May not be true, but it's quite a good story. Almost as good as having a campus graveyard.