So returning to Dean's Yard after just a few days of rest, I would describe my state of mind as apprehensive at best, reluctant at worst. But coming through Liddell's Arch I found School totally transformed: not just with ramps, a crowd of new faces, and adjoining rooms set up for all four 'workshops' that would take up the next few mornings, but the whole atmosphere. Dislocated groups hanging about before lessons had been replaced by a mix of frantic activity and laid-back enjoyment of the July sunshine, all played out to a soundtrack of Bob Marley blasting out of somebody's kindly donated stereo. And after the second surprise of the morning - opening a cupboard to find it filled with crisps and chocolate, apparently to boost flagging energy levels later on in the week - I quickly came to the conclusion that maybe the rest of the course wouldn't be all that bad after all....
So with renewed enthusiasm, and all the reassurance five boxes of Wispa Golds can give, I found that I got into the swing of things remarkably quickly - although that is not to play down the problems of re-adjustment to a social situation utterly different from any I had found myself in before. Initially I was not entirely sure how to interact with some of the PHs without sounding utterly false or, worse still, patronising - an issue which, while appearing daunting on the first evening, I was glad to discover became noticeably less significant by the second day over a pint in the Westminster Arms.
I am also proud to identify myself as one of the first of last year's PHAB members to discover the pleasures of sunbathing in St James's Park in the afternoon, with a cold drink in one hand and a pack of playing cards in the other - a trend quickly picked up by practically the whole of the PHAB crowd, bar those who felt the lure of Oxford Street in the sun was just too strong to resist.
As for evening activities, they ranged from the relatively conventional to the distinctly bizarre - and I would be the first to admit that even I had second thoughts early on in the course, finding myself up School, on stage, with a huge snake wrapped around my neck.... But as the week wore on, what originally seemed a little odd became just enjoyable, and by the final show (an Oscar-winning rendition of the Star Wars trilogy condensed into 15 minutes) the idea of 'Hannika' Solo and a video of our 'Special Effects' crew setting fire to model space ships all seemed perfectly normal. Equally imperceptibly, PHAB managed to transform itself from a 'worthwhile' experience before the summer really began, to one of the high points of a truly memorable holiday.
That is not to say it wasn't hard work, and after five days of carrying wheelchairs up and down College main staircase, and a frantic clean-up job on the final afternoon, nobody was denying that. But somehow, on a mixture of pure adrenaline and genuine community spirit and good humour, everybody emerged at the end relatively unscathed.
And as for this year's PHAB course? Even if it couldn't quite drag me away from a post A Level holiday in the Greek islands, to its credit it came admirably close....
Avye Leventis (Dryden's)
For Keith Tompkins, however, the evening was marred by an event most unbecoming to this 'transcendental' experience. In the limited space surrounding Elizabeth I's tomb just off the Lady Chapel, all the guests are asked to press themselves up against the walls whilst the Scholars sprinkled amongst them recite their Latin verses in thanks to the Virgin Queen. Struck by a feeling of community which all the Scholars generate when singing the responses to the Cantors, Keith Tompkins began to let the Latin words absorb his total concentration. Astonished and amazed at the ceremony of the occasion, he suddenly realised that, straining in an effort to correctly pronounce the predictably quirky version of Latin which Westminster calls its own, the young Scholar standing immediately in front of him had unwittingly broken wind.
Alastair Sooke (College)