Torpids: Day One

Hiya!

Today was the first day of a four-day "bumps" race here at Oxford. It's inter-collegiate and absolute chaos. I can't even begin to explain how it works (mostly because I've only just regained the feeling in my hands...)

We set off to line up at the start and the most snow that has snowed this year began! You can see from the photo, it was a winter wonderland. Ordinarily I would be thrilled, but at that very moment I was seated in a very unstable boat essentially level with the water in a very cold (and dirty!) river, trying to regain the feeling in my hands. It was absolutely amazing. If I hadn't been so nervous, I would have burst out in song (ala the end of White Christmas.)

In short, we were bumped by St. Hilda's College (bad), but we recovered and went on to bump Somerville College (good!)

On to day two...



This is Sian and myself in our all-too-stylish red Magdalen caps! It was bloody cold at this moment, even in all our kit.