A WEEKEND IN OXFORD - JANUARY 2005
This weekend was a combination of the chance to visit Louise, and an opportunity to make something out of celebrating 20 odd years of marriage. I was painfully aware that there wouldn't be too many more of these trips down to Oxford - none of my other children having felt inspired to try and follow in Louise's footsteps. True, there'll be another university to visit when Emily finishes school and there's nothing stopping us visiting Oxford even when Louise is no longer there, but formal hall, JCR tea, joining irc channels with a leet rdns, evenings in the college bar and generally experiencing life as an Oxford student in a vicarious kind of way is half the attraction.
Re-reading an account of a previous trip down to Oxford with my Dad, I was struck by how similarly I felt coming home this time. The same sense of anti-climax, the same depressing thought of having nothing now to look forward to except work, and wishing I could live full time at the Holiday Inn and only have to decide each day whether I fancied going shopping, spending time on the computer, or visiting a place of interest.
The weekend began with early swimming at Jesmond pool (can't have 5 days without training) then the packing I should have done the day before but hadn't got round to. We left rather late for the airport, which was unfortunate in view of the problems I subsequently had with my pre-printed boarding pass. Expecting a quick passage through to the departure lounge with an online checkin and already printed boarding pass, we were met by a massive queue at the security check, with only one x-ray machine working. By the time it was our turn the flight was departing in about 15 minutes and the scanner couldn't read my boarding pass. I had to race back to the BA checkin desk, where this seemed to be an insurmountable problem unitl eventually I was rushed through to the boarding gate and onto the plane, in a scene reminiscent of the programme Airport, where some delayed passenger almost misses their flight. Muttering apologies to the crew and conscious of the glares from the other passengers, I quickly sat down and we took off a few minutes later.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and we checked into our room at the Holiday Inn about an hour before we had expected to arrive. Derek went off to the Leisure suite while I connected the laptop to the internet and clocked up an amazing amount in telephone charges (considering it was supposed to be local call rate). The room was lush! I particularly liked the personalised welcome on the TV screen and the bed was so comfortable, once we'd ordered another couple of pillows from the pillow menu. Best of all it was warm, unlike our bedroom at home, where Derek always insists on having a window open, even in winter!
Oxford centre is easy enough to travel into, thanks to a really superb Park and Ride system. Oxfordshire council have invested a lot of money into Park and Ride, in an attempt to deal with congestion in the City centre. Basically, what Oxford could really do with is knocking down a few colleges and building a decent road system, but understandably, that's not going to happen! We met up with Louise and Steffan in the college bar and as usual enjoyed the traditional formal hall, spending the rest of the evening playing pool, table football and generally socialising in the univ bar afterwards. The photo showing several people wearing striped jackets, by the way, indicates that they've been in the first 8 of the college rowing team.
Then it was back to the hotel, where we eventually got some sleep after ordering a room service sandwich at 2 am. The following day consisted of shopping, spending some time in the computer room, using the leisure centre and an Indian meal at Cafe Zouk in the evening. Back at the Holiday Inn, we ordered a movie, The Day After Tomorrow, which was really good. Louise and Steffan spent the day moving out of the hovel they'd been renting, back into college accommodation in Banbury Road. Not before time .... they chose this bedsit because it was half the price of anything else (including University owned property) and for £400 a month they got two tiny rooms. The bathroom/toilet was shared among the 10 other bedsits in the property and the kitchen was nothing short of disgusting. Environmental Health had been called out on numerous occasions and tracing the actual owner of the property had been impossible. They were continually on top of each other and the lack of personal space had taken its toll. It was an effort to save money, but in the end had proved too high a price in terms of their continuing relationship.
On Sunday we took advantage of the car they had hired and drove out to Cotswold Wildlife Park which is basically a zoo. After that it wasn't long before we were back on the bus to Heathrow, where I did the only work for my exam on Monday out of the entire weekend, sitting in the departure lounge. As we descended into Newcastle Airport, my weekend enjoyment seemed to descend with the plane - back to reality, unfortunately!
One more shock awaited. When we picked the car up from the long stay car park and called in at their office on the way out, I made the unwelcome discovery that I had prepaid and booked the car into this car park, and actually parked it in this car park! Knowing the futility of getting exited and making a fuss, I prepared to pay the extra £30 charge, however the attendant was nice enough to "price match" the quote from Park and Fly and only asked for £15.20. When I returned home, I sent Park and Fly a nice email, acknowledging this mistake was my fault and asking them if they could help in any way, as I was planning to use long stay car parks in the future, but frankly this experience had put me off. They've been good enough to refund my money (apart from a £5 admin charge). Again, a good example of how much more successful a calm approach is in a situation like this - something I've learned from working in customer services!
The following night I was delighted to find that my Access exam had been postponed till next Monday as the tutor was ill. Just as well - I really hadn't done enough preparation over the weekend. I still haven't. I really must get down to it today :(
3rd February 2005
