2nd anniversary and counting!

Hello from a chillier Oxford. I have included pics from a sunset we enjoyed last week in the hope that it won't be long before we see the sun again over the dreaming spires.

Yes, we have reached another milestone. 2 years of marriage seems long and short. Amazing to look back to our wedding day and know how we've been blessed right through our cotton socks over and over. We are galloping on to try and catch up with my grandparents who've been married 65 years (more or less). Now that is amazing!

The glorious daffodils that you see in the pics were photographed in the gardens of Hampton Court Palace on Sunday afternoon. Oh Wordsworth, you knew what you were talking about: "fluttering and dancing in the breeze". We spent a very cozy weekend with Nicci and Lyons. It's so wonderful being near enough to them to pop in.

This weekend we are celebrating our anni in Paris. Bring it on. Un petite romance never hurt any married couple.

R

On the hill in Oxford

So many advancements in the cause of a life more fulfilling in the UK - where to begin? We now have: jobs, 2, tick; flat, 1, tick; elderly new friends, 2, tick and breadmaker, 1, tick. We are feeling rather chuffed.

Mark has been putting his body and mind on the line every night this week at the John Radcliffe Hospital's children's emergency area. Mostly, it seems he is dodging vomit from alcohol-poisoned 15 year-old girls - but you'll have to check that with him. A far cry from Somerset by all accounts. He's had shifts from 2pm-10pm each night except Wednesday, which he had off to source the afore-mentioned breadmaker, amongst other less important items such as sheets. This device is the first foray we've made into British cooking. The things are as ubiquitous as dassie droppings on Table Mountain over here. (I love having an excuse to whip out the "u" word.) We used Lin Lawrenson's machine whilst in Jersey and fell in love. Oh that smell that weedles its way into your nostrils as you try to hide under the duvet for one more minute. Some of you know what I mean.

So the pics attached this time are of Jersey (oysters by the fire, Mark shopping at the covered market, friends and the beach)

and of our new flat and neighbourhood on the hill in the suburb of Headington.

Note the paddle stairs at a rakish angle of must-be-more-than-45. The studio flat is attached to a big countryish house. (That's us huddling behind the green bins.) There are no street lights at night, so we will be using our bicycle lights plus the reflection off our high-vis clothing which we are purchasing tomorrow. Seems construction workers have lost the monopoly on the loudest clothing in the world. Oxford cyclists are now donning it too (I'm sorry, was that a pun?).

I acquired an English teaching job until the summer today at The Cherwell School, which does not have six permanent security guards dressed in black with walkie-talkies (to protect the staff from the children), unlike another school I taught at this week. Got to be a good sign. I start on Monday.

If you're wondering about our new elderly friends, they are Wendy and Jim Evans who hosted us in their home on a B n B basis for four nights until we could move into our flat. We are going to curry night at their favourite pub with them at the end of the month. When you're in a new town, what's wrong with buying your friends, hey?

R