Migrations #2
Welcome to Bedlam! Oxford this morning was gridlocked with returning undergraduates. You can tell them by the family saloons packed to the roofs with luggage, nose to tail along every road and lane that's too narrow to swing a cat in. If life were a bit longer, and I were the true straw-chewing yokel I'm sure I have it in me to be, I would stand and watch, just to see how these unimaginably convoluted knots of traffic ever get themselves unknotted. But sadly it's all still a bit too raw; the days of driving Tom to and from Cambridge are still not yet forgotten.
I'm wondering how long it will be before the average undergraduate's amount of luggage (chiefly electronic equipment: computer, printer, DVD, hi-fi, TV, document shredder, sandwich maker, mini-bar, still, etc.) becomes so huge that no family saloon will be big enough and they'll all have to hire small removal lorries or trailers.
When I were a lad, it were still possible to go up to 't University by train, and have your trunk delivered by British Rail the following day. Only, I were too poor to have trunk delivered, so my Dad used to have to take me and my two suitcases. Er, yes ... in the family car.
I'm wondering how long it will be before the average undergraduate's amount of luggage (chiefly electronic equipment: computer, printer, DVD, hi-fi, TV, document shredder, sandwich maker, mini-bar, still, etc.) becomes so huge that no family saloon will be big enough and they'll all have to hire small removal lorries or trailers.
When I were a lad, it were still possible to go up to 't University by train, and have your trunk delivered by British Rail the following day. Only, I were too poor to have trunk delivered, so my Dad used to have to take me and my two suitcases. Er, yes ... in the family car.
posted by Tony at 10/05/2004 02:37:00 pm
2 Comments:
I've never heard this usage of "saloons" to refer to family cars, and at first I was picturing a pub with luggage stacked to the roof. Perhaps I'm revealing my Yankee-ness.
My Concise Oxford English Dictionary confirms that saloon (British) is a car having a closed body and separate boot. So, strictly speaking, most of the cars I saw today were actually hatchbacks or estate cars. Sorry; must be more accurate!
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