Second Shot

I believe that’ll be what you’ll say when you hear my story. Patience, now.

Not content with causing mass hysteria, Apple let a baby killing application onto their online shops.  Idiots.

Whoo whee!  I might have to watch The Apprentice a bit more…

Things are starting to happen in our office with regards to employment, or more correctly, the soon-to-be-lack-of.  Positions and people are being reviewed over the next 40-days (yes, I don’t quite know how they can manage it, either), by which time everyone concerned will know whether they are going or staying or relocating within the company.

Being one of the many, it’s all a little odd and slightly unsettling but strangely feels like an opportunity has occurred for me to try something else.

No need for sympathies, etc. etc.  One way or another, I’ll be employed again.  Somehow, listening to Keane’s debut album on the journey back home in the sunshine kept bringing a smile to my face; obviously, there’s nothing to worry about, then.

That’s right, it’s back on. After three years of delay, Nav and I have decided to gear-up for our travel around Ireland.

Mind, nothing has been planned yet, we just know that we’re going.  And we’re going this year.  Sometime.   Hopefully.

When we know, you’ll know.

I spent the long Easter weekend in Oxford (of which I will forever always call Cambridge mistakenly before correcting myself), and wanted to explore it full and proper as I could because I’ve never been there properly.

And now I think I’ve seen all of Oxford.  Having met Nav for a spot of lunch at the Eagle & Child – serves a lovely chicken, bacon and leek pie  that was far too much yet I couldn’t leave any of it – we strolled to his place to dump my bag off.  And what a place it was; the flat was between two rivers just off of a small road bridge.  Out of the lounge window was the river.  Step outstide and there was the river, ready and waiting for you to walk along its bank.  Next door was a large pub yet never riotously busy or loud.  In fact, the ducks were the loudest creatures out there (and they can actually be quite loud, especially at night – the bastards!).

Oxford, then, it a rather charming place.  It’s got the new and old mixed together in its city centre, but you can always see the defining line between the two.  Mixed is probably the wrong word; more jumbled, I guess.  There are areas that are solely historical and areas that are modern shopping.  I have to say it’s more charming than Cambridge in this respect as you can really sink into the history without (too much) distraction.

Tower climbing, cityscape views, ghost/history tours and castle tours were the order of the play on Saturday.  Whether or not you find yourself free on Friday or Saturday evening, you must attend Bill Spectre’s Ghost Trail.  Superbly and professionally conducted with humour throughout, Bill gives a great performance on telling tales and truths of Oxford’s past.  He commanded so much respect and certainly handled our large (about 60, at least!) and sometime boisterous group without missing a step.  Except for the single, most unexpected event when he had his arms and hands raised as if to summon a spirit and a young chap from the crowd came in and hugged him.  Everyone, including Bill, was stunned and laughed heartedly.  It didn’t feel totally out of place, what with the way the tour done.  And Bill, thinking fast(ish), played it to his advantage and said we could do it again, but with a lady instead.

A quite note to say that if you do go on the Oxford Castle Unlocked tour during Easter time, the hidden Easter Egg anagram is ‘moistures’.  I’ve no idea why, but the tour guide did say ‘moisturer’ or something similar before leaving us on our own.  If anyone knows the signifance, post me a comment.  You get a Cadbury’s Creme Egg for getting it right; I didn’t get mine because I think they would have laughed at me for asking for a form.

Oxford seems surprisingly small, as everytime we seemed to walk somewhere we’d nearly always end up on Broad Street, heading towards the tourist information centre.  Once we got out of Oxford city and into the greenlands, that never seemed to end either.  Somehow we managed to get lost in one of the parks and ended up walking into the countryside.  The change from suburb to rural was pretty quick, and it was nice to get out there for a while.

No doubt there’s probably a lot more of Oxford than met my eye, especially as I didn’t venture into any of the colleges in any depth (although Christ Church’s ground were ridiculously massive and open).  Whether I’d want to do that is another matter.  For now, I can definitely cross Oxford off my list of places to visit and certainly recommend it.

Check out Bengal Spice Oxford for some decent and rather surprisingly non-greasy curry.  The online menu is a little out of date and the prices have gone up by about 50-pence.  We ate too much, but never felt like we’d chased the food down with a litre of cooking oil.  Which is always nice.

And photographs will be uploaded at some point.  I’ll let you know when.

This is probably one of the better slideshows you’ll come across:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigsheep/sets/72157616420718677/

Thanks, James and Ali, for sharing your wedding photos – I love its progressive way from getting ready, getting to the church and getting married, through the reception and into the evening.  There are some fantastic shots too, the style of which I can only aspire to take one day.

Congratulations, again.  And I loved the wedding cake!