One Christmas the cranberry sauce turned out crazy thin (no idea how that happened) so I poured it over cheese cake.

So. Good.

Fay, what's an "academic daughter"?

Sorry, my bad - it's a St Andrews University phrase. The idea is that when you arrive as a wee fresher, you get 'adopted' by an Academic Mother and an Academic Father from the 3rd or 4th year. They take you under their wing and introduce you to their mates, act as a sort of mentor, get you pissed out of your head and so forth. It's not a formal thing - one just has to find said people. Which can be a little stressful, of course. There's a big crazy drunken debauchery weekend involving elaborate fancy dress, appalling quantities of alcohol, Latin and shaving foam, but we'll not go into that now. Anyway, suffice it to say that Helena was in the Academic year below me, and when we met she was 17 and I was, er, 20. Which, at the time, seemed like a Big Age Gap. And she was rather vulnerable, for several reasons, and so - yeah, well, whatever. It was a Big Romantic USTy Unconsumated Romance Thing that we had, in which I did a lot of running away, as is my wont. And she ended up with some lad, in the end.

Also, although this was all long ago and far away, I'm delighted to know (through our reacquaintance via the miracle of Facebook) that she's a hardcore Buffy fan. Good girl.

There's a big crazy drunken debauchery weekend involving elaborate fancy dress, appalling quantities of alcohol, Latin and shaving foam, but we'll not go into that now.

Somehow, this sounds so much more appealing than the US version, even though I'm guessing it's pretty much the same vibe.

(Funny how big those 3-year gaps seemed then, and so nearly nonexistent now, isn't it?)

Fay, how did I not know you were a St. Andrew's grad? That's Tom's alma mater as well.

But I do remember you weighing in on St. Andrew's town-related things when I write about visiting Tom's mother so maybe I did know.

Good grief, Nora, is it really? Huh. Small world!

I graduated in 1996, and much as I adored the place I didn't make it back until just over a year ago. I found it very little changed in the interim.

What did Tom study? I remember being struck that one must have a very different experience of the place depending on what one was studying - the Arts people tended to spend a lot of time around St Salvators centuries' old quad, whereas the Divines (and/or the Medics? I forget) were over in St Mary's - equally ancient, I think, but smaller and quieter. And then the Scientists would be over on the other side of town in lots of big shiny new buildings, rather than wandering through cobbled streets and looking out over the ruins of the castle onto the sea.

Mind you, it was only a 15 minute walk, tops, to get anywhere in town.

What did Tom study?

Something with whales, wasn't it?

Mind you, it was only a 15 minute walk, tops, to get anywhere in town.

Yeah, I love St. Andrews for this. I've only been there a few times (4?) but I feel like I *know* it already.

Tom graduated in... '93 maybe? He started out in Astronomy but switched over to Philosophy. Also semi-active in the LibDem organization on campus and in Fife.

Something with whales, wasn't it?

That was his Masters', at University of Edinburgh. His masters was in AI (artificial intelligence), and his thesis was about whale song.

Huh. My uncle used to teach in the AI department at Edinburgh. (He's retired now.)

the building that the AI department was housed in burned down, unfortunately. I think it was in 2003. We saw the aftereffects while we were there during the summer of that year.