Summer days are gone too soon

It seems summer lasts a total of two weeks in England. It has been raining all week.

But! We've had our fair share of sunshine and here are some pics to prove it.

Blenheim Palace - our local slice of 300 year old history in all its splendour. We just love going for walks in the park here. It is a total sanctuary just six miles up the drag.

Near the White Horse of Uffington - no pictures of the horse because it can only be seen in full from the air. People suppose, therefore, that the chalk outline was made in stone age times for the gods. I spent a lazy afternoon here the day after I returned from Cape Town. Easing myself in.

Thames Path near Oxford- we walked here on Sunday with Nicci and Lyons after a Sunday roast at the pub. Very hot with lots of buzzing things and pollen driving Mark's eyes crazy.

Dear hubby is working his socks off as usual, so, again, this is from just

R

A small miracle

If you ever get the chance to fly 12 hours in a cramped and manky metal tube to a wintry city on the other side of the globe to meet your 9-day-old niece for a week, grab it by the scruff of the neck, bolt some sedatives for the flight, pack your raincoat and get there.

It is hard to describe the thrill of holding little Abigail in my arms. Of all the clever things Em and Al have done in their lives, this has to take the cake. Passing their matric geometry papers pales into insignificance. And we all know that is a Herculian feat. I mean honestly, I had to restrain myself constantly from chewing on her ear, elbow or foot (or any part that was exposed, actually). How do you like the pic of her 90-year old great-grandfather giving her a cautious cuddle?

Back in sunny Oxford and writing from my favourite Mark's-working-again-so-I-better-do-some-marking spot, Cafe Coco on Cowley Road. 'Bacon Boy', as he is affectionately known in our abode, has kept the home fires burning successfully for a week and that bacon keeps rolling in to satisfy budget requirements.

Our flight to New York is booked for 28 July and our conversation of late seems to veer towards which gas stove is best for use in Yellowstone National Park or whether to spend 3 or 5 weeks in Alaska. Tee hee. Lucky fishes we. (Please excuse my ancient Celtic grammar. Obviously influenced by all the antiquity around me in this town.)

R

PS Where have you all gone? Comments always welcome!

Weekend, wonderful Weekend!

Yes, it's a case of enjoying the present (ie. work) only for the sake of how it can fund the weekend and forthcoming road trip at the moment. Confucius say, don't live for the moment, live for the weekend.

So, my job may be slightly stressful (watch Mark's eyebrows lifting beyond Botox levels), but we have had some great weekends of late to cheer me up. Attached please find pics from Ireland (Easter), Oxford (with Nicci, April) and Amsterdam (last weekend).

I am currently on tenterhooks - which (did you know?) means being stretched between hooks on a wooden frame like fabric, ouch - awaiting the birth of my niece in Cape Town. I'll be making a sneaky dash home (sshhhh) to see her in two weeks time. Let's hope she's arrived by then!

R

A long expected blog

When you've neglected your blog for this long it becomes an albatross around your neck. So I'm wringing that there albatross' own neck by writing a shamefully short blog. Now I'm over the psychological barrier and hopefully you'll see a flood of entries in the near future.

Here's a pic of us at my birthday celebratory drinks at the Oxo Tower in London on Friday night with Leesen, Melina and Nicci and Lyons. For those who have forgotten it's near my birthday, never fear, you have 2 more days to send flowers, chocolates and bottles of wine to me. 22 April. Diarise.

Mark swears and promises to blog and hangs his head in shame. He is currently making scones downstairs, so you'll forgive me if I don't drag him away.

R

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

Long live life-long learning!

Being gainfully unemployed can be a challenge. But I've met it headlong with a challenge of my own. I have decided to catch up on my classics reading. This came about chiefly when I risked my English degree being revoked by unmasking my horrifying total of Jane Austen books read (viz. zero, wince) to some of my learned friends and my hubs. So I have begun to make amends. My first port of call has been Thomas Hardy. Much to Mark's surprise I have loved "Far from the madding crowd" because of his gorgeous takes on the foibles of human nature. Check it out:

"He wished she knew his impressions; but he would as soon have thought of carrying an odour in a net as of attempting to convey the intangibilities of his feeling in the coarse meshes of language. So he remained silent." (pg.20)

Delicious, hey?

But life-long learning doesn't stop at books. Oh no. Living with my tannie and oom has been an education in itself. They are seriously into sustainable eating and living. We went to hear a talk by Rob Hopkins called, "From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience". Very inspiring. The UK feels light-years ahead of South Africa in terms of the transition we have to make due to peak oil and climate change.

And lastly, to convince you that I am aspiring to the upper echelons of educated society (ahem), I include an extract from the job description for the Saturday Invigilator job I have applied for at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Yes, THE Bodleian Library:

"Sensory and physical demands:
1. Fetch manuscripts, rare books and archival objects (some extremely heavy) from locations around the building, including areas accessible only by stairs.
2. Handle rare and fragile objects with care.
3. Operate specialist equipment (e.g. stairwalkers) in order to move manuscripts, rare books and archival objects from delivery points."

Can anybody out there stand as a referee of my ability to operate a stairwalker? If you could just let me know what it is, that would be appreciated.

R