Corpus Formal Hall

On Friday night, I attended formal hall at Corpus Christi. I was actually a little late, because I was coming straight from the All Souls service at St John's Chapel, which had run over by about 15 minutes. I figured that if any excuse for missing the opening grace at Corpus hall would be acceptable, "I was at church" would work. Corpus has a beautiful hall: traditional, good balance, with lots of pelicans piercing their breasts scattered about. One little alcove has the walls painted blue, with silver stars. The food was good, and a couple of undergrad freshers down the table had their dessert pennied: usually, pennying involves dropping a penny into someone's wine, which they then must down immediately in order to "save the Queen from drowning;" in this case, it means they must eat their dessert without their hands. After Corpus hall, retired to Clare's MCR bar for Scotch, a bit of amateur matchmaking, and an absurd game of stairwell twister in suits and gowns.