If there’s one thing that Cherwell staff take more seriously than headlines and hacking, it’s crewdating. And, not content with the arduous trek to deep dark Cowley for our usual venue, this week we took a three and a half hour Megabus to Cambridge to crewdate (sorry, I mean ‘swap with’) our Tab counterparts, Varsity.
On arrival, we were shown to our respective hosts’ rooms and I immediately admonished 17-year-old Emma for her blatant mistake on her UCAS form. My host was nice, sure, but her room was incredible and outdid, in every capacity, the majority of hotels I have ever stayed in (Edinburgh Travelodge, eat your heart out.)
Apart from a few arguments over the rules of pennying (reader, if you do learn anything today, make it Cambridge’s ‘an empty glass is a full glass’ rule) the night was classic crewdate territory—think sconces over allegations of libel, and a certain editor declaring he has one shoe for red wine, and one for white.
We then headed to the biggest Wetherspoons in Europe which taught me only that even if you have two stories, a dancefloor, and a smoking area, a Spoons is still a Spoons and there will inevitably be people drinking from pitchers with a straw, someone drunkenly spilling the details of their personal life to anyone who will listen, and one girl crying down the phone outside. All of them were me.
The night progressed to a slightly swankier bar, although that wasn’t exactly difficult, where I apparently was under the illusion that Cambridge spending is not real spending. I haven’t checked my bank balance yet so I might be right but I have a strong suspicion that I will be living off pesto pasta for the rest of the month.
As the night drew to a close, people started to divide off and go back to their hosts, and one former editor took the current Varsity editor under her wing, presumably to pass on her sage editorial advice and InDesign tips. How nice.
So, if you prefer drinking from shoes with the tabs instead of actually shoeing them, then you’re in for a treat. Just make sure your editor has sick bags and a change of clothes for the Megabus home.
