P(T)CL Stairs

Today started with some rather extreme housework. I handwashed a large, heavy rug (soiled by a small cat with an upset tummy) in the bath in biological washing powder, which did nothing to help my hands which were already dry from the cold.

Since I was then feeling better than I had since last Sunday night, I started to catch up on household chores - washing, hoovering, and a little bit of cleaning and sorting. It was good to finally be well enough to get something done again!

After lunch I went to Scharwenka's where we sorted some computer stuff, took a small trip to Sainsbury's to search for tights/leggings in an attempt to stop my legs, which get terribly sore in the cold, from drying out and losing all their skin. After a cup of tea we went to the lab to drop something off.

So, I took a picture of these stairs, which hold many many memories for me. I first climbed them over 21 years ago as a first year chemistry undergraduate in order to go to lectures on various aspects of physical chemistry. I later climbed them when I was a music student in London but got the early bus to Oxford every week for a term to attend lectures on Atmospheric Chemistry (which ultimately led to me co-authoring a book on the subject). And, years later again, I climbed them regularly when I worked in the lab, and when I was a music graduate student who went to coffee with my friends who worked in the lab!

I never quite settled on a life in either science or music - when I was doing chemistry I spent lots of time playing music and when I was doing music I spent lots of time hanging around in laboratories!

The writing on the wall on the first landing reads:

THIS LABORATORY COMPLETED IN 1941 WAS GIVEN TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE VISCOUNT NUFFIELD M.A.D.C.L.

And, in my day, the laboratory was simply known as the Physical Chemistry Laboratory. These days it is the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, hence the addition of the T!!!