{"id":31,"date":"2018-12-28T16:29:36","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T16:29:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philipjetheridge.com\/?p=31"},"modified":"2022-05-20T10:29:40","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T08:29:40","slug":"21-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/28\/21-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"21. Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

We spent a couple of days in Cambridge in 2015 for a gig at the Rathmore Club on Cherry Hinton Lane. G\u00f6ran, Niklas and I were to meet with some people at the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens, not far from the Rathmore. The small group of specially invited people, from Germany, Italy, Holland, the USA and other parts of the UK, were all in Cambridge for the gig and had rented a coach for a tour of the town. So after breakfast we walked the kilometer or so to the Botanic Gardens, taking in the sights along the way, possibly including a Waitrose supermarket and definitely the iconic Flying Pig pub. We were a bit late, but not too much. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We approached the booth at the garden where a young woman sat selling tickets and G\u00f6ran pulled out his credit card and asked nicely for three. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Park bench in the Botanic Garden, dedicated to RKB (Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The woman enquired, \u201cAre you with the group that\u2019s just gone in?\u201d to which G\u00f6ran and I answered joyfully in unison, \u201cYes, that\u2019s right\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, in that case I can\u2019t let you in\u201d, she replied. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat? Why not?\u201d, we asked, more than a little shocked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause\ngroups of more than ten people must be registered at least a week in advance\u201c,\nshe snapped. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut there\nare only three of us!\u201d we explained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou just\ntold me you were part of that large group\u201d said the gatekeeper.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, no! We\nhave absolutely nothing to do with them\u201d, G\u00f6ran insisted. \u201cLook, we\u2019re just\nthree ordinary tourists on holiday who want to see the garden!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut you\u2019ve\nalready told me, so now I know you\u2019re part of that group.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, we\u2019re really\nnot!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, you\nare!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, we\u2019re\nnot!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We argued back and forth with her for a few minutes, but it was a waste of time and in the end we gave it up. If she hadn\u2019t asked us if we were part of a group, we wouldn\u2019t have said anything, as it wasn\u2019t relevant and in fact we were anyway not with <\/em>them, just meeting them. We were planning on simply walking through the gardens, looking at the trees, flowers and a park bench or two and if we met up with the group, fine. If not, also fine. Instead we were forced to silly-walk away from the booth talking about Kafka and Monty Python. The whole thing was completely bizarre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We walked around the outside of the garden and met the group at the other end as they were loading themselves onto the coach, joining them for the tour of Cambridge. Next stop: Grantchester Meadows. The group of thirteen had also been refused entry earlier because of the \u201cmore than ten\u201d rule and had become frustrated and angry, as of course none of them were aware of the rule. Not even the organizer of the tour, born in and still living in Cambridge, knew of it. Finally they had paid for ten tickets and the remaining three had walked in without paying anything at all. That must have stung the irrascible gatekeeper, who probably spent the rest of the day asking visitors if they were part of a group and refusing them entry if they were. Thank you, Cambridge University Botanic Garden. It\u2019s great to feel welcome! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nhttps:\/\/open.spotify.com\/track\/3EbIvnhugoPe9xLI8HfYDE?si=bX33gYc_Ro285-Tsooc_xQ\n<\/div>
This song is actually about the Cambridge University Botanic Garden. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We spent a couple of days in Cambridge in 2015 for a gig at the Rathmore Club on Cherry Hinton Lane. G\u00f6ran, Niklas and I were to meet with some people at the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens, not far from the Rathmore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4,14],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-men-on-the-border","tag-cambridge","tag-syd-barrett"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73,"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philipjetheridge.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}