Celebrating 40 years of women at Oriel

The last few weeks at Oriel were some of the best of my life. Finals were over and the women's 1st boat had just won blades and gone into Div. 1. Here are Lee, Carla and I about to go to our finals dinner. We're still great friends today, and I still have that dress somewhere.

It was wonderful to become part of an international community at Oriel in 1988. Meals in hall, evenings in the MCR, weekend trips to the Cotswolds were marvellous experiences we shared. Meeting at Oriel stimulated our cultural openness and intellectual curiosity, and the effects lasted a lifetime.

Serving as the first woman Bible Clerk, in chapel and saying Grace. There were many moving services, though some misadventures with the bell (there was a knack which I sometimes got wrong, once omitting the triple ring for the Trinity!). But I enjoyed tolling midnight to start the 1987 Hamlet play!

Never skilled at sports, I enjoyed the opportunities when willingness & availability to play were the main qualification. The Mixed Hockey team, proudly named as "Fully Integrated" in Lodge notices, reached the Cup semi-final in 1986-7, the same day as the women's football team drew our first game!

On the final day of Summer VIII's, we bumped Keble right in front of the boathouses. "ORIIIEELLL" reverberated through Oxford's ancient streets. The entire college seemed ablaze with chants, cream blazers, and an infectious joy. A proud moment to be in Oriel women's first boat indeed.

The many international friends from a wide variety of cultures I made, especially in my second year. This was my 19th birthday, shared with Rachel Fraenkel, Lorinne Yoong, Wan Ching An, Anmol Manghnani and Ram Prasad. I later became godmother to Ram & Judith Prasad's children Krishnan and Nalini.

Oriel has been part of so many key life moments. I remember standing in the Lodge reading my acceptance letter to the British Army & I got married in the Chapel but it is also where my love of rowing, which led to a Blue, started so getting Blades with the 1st VIII in 1993 was special!

I was among the first cohorts of women to study at Oriel. But we did manage to find our place, whether in rowing, drama or simply gathering in someone's room, kettle whistling, and building relationships for life over steaming mugs of tea. Picnics along the Cherwell, punting awkwardly. Through it all, the gradual realisation that these medieval walls would always be home.

The summer of my third year was magical - rowing over Head with the crowd roaring, being carried on the boat to College for bump supper, somehow making it through Finals and then the Oriel Ball with so many friends. The garden of our house in Howard St made an incongruous backdrop to our dresses!