Our friend Selma from Australia arrived last Saturday morning. She only had a day and a half here, so we whisked her off immediately, before jet lag could set in. We cycled up the Thames to Medley Manor Farm, where we picked blackberries and raspberries and strawberries and broad beans, and then had lunch in the Perch Inn. more
Gabi was our first visitor, but she stayed with my sister. So Matthew and Colene were our first house guests, staying for two days as part of a trip around the UK and Europe. more
I bought myself a bicycle to replace the one that was stolen, and have been cycling around for a couple of weeks now. more
As well as it being a university town with attendant facilities, where my sister was living, one of the attractions of Oxford was that it had a gamelan group. more
We haven't been eating out nearly as often as we did in Sydney, but so far our experiences in Oxford have been quite good. more
Yesterday, after waiting for them to get something the right size in, I bought a refurbished bike from the Oxford Cycle Workshop around the corner. I was very happy with the purchase, and put it next to C's bike at the back of the house. This morning when I got up it had been stolen. more
We're in East Oxford, which is a marginal constituency, held by Labour but with the Liberal Democrats only a few hundred votes behind at the last election. more
I've read that the optimal size for a city is around 700,000 - big enough to provide services but not so big as to be unwieldy. With a population of about 140,000, Oxford is a fair bit short of that, but as one of the UK's two premier university towns it ranks way above its size as a cultural and intellectual centre. more
Wandering around central and inner East Oxford, there are few signs of economic malaise more
Oxford is well-provided with bookshops, not surprisingly for a university town. Here is my survey of them. more
