Oxford

The two hardest things about writing this blog are thinking of a title for each entry (as previously mentioned) and thinking of an opening sentence - something to draw the reader in while trying to not sound like a 'dear diary'...

Today we went to Oxford.

Oxford High Street

The day started late morning, and as has become the norm, I was the last one of us to wake up. After breakfast it was decided that this sunny day should be appreciated and so we settled on going to Oxford. So after watching some tv, we got dressed and walked to the train station. There we saw irritating, infuriating and, sadly,the now familiar sight of the train we were meant to be on leaving the station as we arrived...

Half an hour later we were on the train to Oxford. With nothing planned, we just decided to walk around, making an effort to walk up and down streets we hadn't been to yet in the hope of seeing something interesting. That turned out to be the Oxford Castle.

One of the towers of Oxford Castle

It was a nice old building, which incorporated many new buildings into the design and it was easy to see that it had been restored. The only problems for us were that there was an entrance fee (even to the garden/hill in front of it) and that we actually couldn't find the entrance. Even though we walked around the whole castle.

The tops of some of the universities' buildings

So we stood and admired it from outside, and then continued with our walk. Other points of interest included finding Paradise Road - unsurprisingly lined with gay bars given the name, and buying a soccer ball as well as some groceries. We then made our way back home where we spent a lovely evening having dinner (which Mickaela cooked so well once again) and watching tv.

The End...

Bangkok has him now...

It is/was (depending where and when you read this) a bank holiday here in England today, and with not much to do we decided to treat ourselves to a day out in Reading.

The day itself was nothing to write home about - more rain clouds and irritating little drizzle that blows horizontally into your face, forcing you to look at the floor as you walk or face Nature's version of getting spat on in the eyes... It's the type of rain that makes you think that its not ACTUALLY raining, so it's safe to walk around, but then, when you do, you end up getting wet...

Anyway, we spent the day walking around the Oracle Shopping centre, which has a load of really cool stores. We had a nice lunch at Subway, window gazed at the shops, and then made our way to the cinemas, where we watched the Hangover : Part II!

Good movie, really funny and it was a nice day out, doing normal things which we havent had the chance to do yet until today.

What to do today:

Things I did today:

• sleep
• have breakfast
• read
• blog
• go to lunch at Pierreponts, a little restaurant by the bridge that makes really good food and is always busy! Nice little spot to hang out at and chill.
• blog

Things I will do later today:

• drink some tea
• be sad that the 2 worst teams are in the Champions' League Final
• watch the Champions' League Final
• drink some beer
• sleep

So on that note, I believe I got to go put the kettle on!

My Library (so far)

So as I'm sure you have gathered by now, a great deal of reading( verb, not the noun this time) has been done here in the UK. It's a good way to spend the down time we have while still feeling like you have accomplished something besides watching a full tv series in one day!

Greatest Greek Myths

So this was one of the books that Lisa gave me as a farewell present. It might not be the greatest read or most in-depth look at the myths of Ancient Greece, but it was funny, had cool cartoons in it, and helped me in reminiscing with some of the stories we had learnt back in school! All in all, it was a fun book to just pick up and look through when you don't feel like doing something too challenging.

Do you know who I am?!

This was the second book from Lisa, and it was actually really good. Don't think its fair to say you 'read' it, but it was interesting to page through and look at the cartoons Zapiro had done. He manages to comment on so many issues in SA and abroad by means of his work, and they are works of satirical genius! It's a good reminder of issues that face society, which are often depressing and concerning, but presented in a light-hearted and comical way. It's always good to see the bright side of things!

The racist's guide to the people of South Africa

This little book packed a big laugh! Bizos gave me this book the day we left SA, and i actually ended up reading the whole thing on the plane on the way to England! It basically takes a look at all the different races of people in SA, and points out their cliches, giving the reader a 'guide' to the people. It was very funny and surprisingly accurate, and is a good reminder of how we all look at (and judge) others!

Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe

After all those interesting but ultimately light-hearted books, it was time to get busy with some serious literature. Adam ended up giving me his e-book collection of about 900 books, and I decided the next book would be one from that collection. I had often heard about this book and how highly it was rated, so decided to give it a shot.

Its a well written story of a fictional group of 9 villages in the Niger delta, and is focussed on the story of a man named Okwonkwo and his wives and children. It paints a vivid picture of tribe-life and a look into African culture pre-colonization. It portrays various rituals, customs and beliefs of the way of life of the family and the villages, and how this is ultimately changed when the first white men arrive in the area, spreading Christianity and their own rules and government, which has drastic effects on the lives of everyone involved.

It is touching, saddening and heartfelt, and really makes you feel a part of the scenarios it portrays. A very good read that offered something different to what I would normally read.

The QI book of the dead

This is another book that i had borrowed from Bizos and I had found interesting, so i saved it and brought it with to England so i could read it here. It is basically a book that explains the lives of people who are now dead. It may sound like a boring topic, but it is well organized, informative and features many different characters from across history. These stories are organized into the way people had lived their lives, and gives detailed accounts as to why they fit each category. It ranges from obscure people who lived extraordinary lives and only found fame after death, to famous characters who had more sides to them to offer than for what they were most famous for.

It is the type of book you can pick up and read every so often, learning something new and interesting every time. My grandfather always says that there is no point in reading something if you are not going to learn something from it, and i tend to agree. So for that reason, I highly enjoy this book!

MAGAZINES

Obviously no reading is complete without magazines, of which there is no shortage of choice in England. GQ is an obvious candidate, and the UK version is by far better than the SA equivalent. But if GQ is good, Esquire is better! If someone tells you otherwise, they're a liar!

It's harder to think of a title than write the actual blog

So it was more of the same yesterday, and we spent the majority of the day indoors, huddled up with books and laptops in front of the tv!

We did manage to fit in 2 nice walks to get in our daily dose of excercise though! The first walk took us up the side of the Thames, where we walked past various fields and saw some nice, modern homes. We kept walking and ended up in a neighbouring village, about 2km away from Goring. Along the way we saw a good deal of wildlife, including rabbits and pheasants! The most popular animal in England has got to be the dog - it is virtually impossible to walk anywhere without seeing someone walking their dog! They are always so well behaved, well maintained and friendly! Its really nice to see.

Some of the scenery:

We then took a twilight walk at about 9pm around the village and across the bridge, up into Streatley. It was also a good opportunity to peer into the bars along the way to see if any peaked our interest, but it was not to be. We did, however, start  a beat-box/singing session on the bridge which we found entertaining, but no doubt must have frightened whoever saw it! That time of day is always nice as we got to see the streets light up, and even the boats that moor on the side of the river for the weekend had fairy lights draped on their sides, creating a glow on the river and making the village even more beautiful!

Panorama-rama

So we were all suprised when we woke up and realised that we all had slept in! But a quick look outside revealed why - the weather was rainy and miserable. It was the type of day where you know you are just going to want to lay around all day, reading a book and drinking coffee tea!

And that is exactly what we ended up doing! I finished reading some books, did some photoshopping, and enjoyed 2 great meals - burgers for lunch and a lovely oven roasted chicken, served with sweet potato and veggies by our great chef Mickaela! All in all, it was a nice quiet day spent at home. Time to crack open a(nother) beer I say!

Here of some of the panoramas that I got done today:

LONDON

Houses of Parliament

West Minster Abbey

from across the Thames

Mini London world

Field in Goring

Church in Streatley

Thames as viewed from the bridge between Goring and Streatley

We can Read(ing)!

Another day, another excursion.

We didn't really have much we needed to get done today. At one point it even looked as if we might just stay home and take a break midway through our week. Alas, it was not to be. A plan was hatched to go to Reading and make our way off the train at some of the stops on the way there.

We once again set off on foot from our house, making our way to the train station.

 Next stop - Reading. We quickly made our way into the centre of town, where Adam and I handed in applications at a store, and we then decided to take a walk off of and away from the main roads of town... Reading FC must be playing soon, because stalls selling their merchandise had suddenly popped up in the streets!

Any guess where this was taken...

Our decision to wonder around proved interesting from the get-go, as we saw a group of girls dressed like red-indians, followed by a girl waiting at a traffic light, painted fully blue and dressed the part of a Navii(?) from Avatar! We never actually found out what that was all about...

On we went though, walking into a less populated but interesting part of Reading, with various retail spaces, colleges and row-houses. There were a selection of interesting new buildings spread out amongst the old buildings. 

Oracle Shopping Centre

Kendrick Primary School

University buildings with various classrooms

Mixed-use Building

We then reached a Polish Roman Catholic Church, "the Sacred Heart of Jesus", which stood tall amongst the surrounding buildings. Although it was not the biggest or most impressive church we had ever seen, it certainly had something about it that caught the eye and made us take notice of it. It had been recently renovated and the facades had been cleaned, leaving the old church to shine in the Spring sunshine. It felt that the church was both old and new, and it fit in well in its context. It was definitely a nice find!

The Sacred Heart of Jesus Church

We then continued walking around, eventually stopping at Subway for lunch (we have loyalty memberships at subway now!), got full on our meatball marinara foot-long subs and bottomless cokes, and, with not much else to do in Reading, made our way back to the train station. On the way there, we found an interesting alley way filled with cool shops selling all sorts of stuff - sweets, army memorabilia, old records and vintage clothes.

Our next stop was Pangbourne - which is 1 stop away from Goring. We got out the train and, walking through the tunnel under the tracks, were greeted by a tiny snake! Not sure what type it was, but it was no bigger than a big earthworm! After that we saw a Bentley dealership with some nice cars outside, and made a short trip up and down the high road. It is a nice little village, bigger than Goring but much smaller than Reading. We then made our way home to meet Peter, who was coming past to take us grocery shopping.

So the early evening was spent at a Tesco, getting our groceries for the next week or so! It really does help having a car to transport groceries with!

No real plans for tomorrow. Looks like we might have a mid-week break after all...

Banks and Museums

Today Adam and I had an appointment with Barclays bank in Oxford, hoping to finally, FINALLY, get to open a bank account in England! We set off early, hoping to first try our luck with the Lloyd's bank that's in Goring before going out to Oxford. Little did we know though, that Goring High Street is closed until 10am. So we loitered outside the bank until they opened, only to be told that such matters are not handled in Goring...

So we set off to the train station, and midway there realised that the next train would be at the station at 10:06... it was 10:04! So off we ran, up the street and across the road! As we got to the ticket machine we saw our train pulling into the station, but unfortunately it was on another platform! We ran up and across the bridge to platform 3, only to see the doors closing and the train set off! So after all that effort, we sat and waited for 30min for the next train...

Once we arrived in Oxford, we walked around and looked at some shops until our appointment. We then went to the bank, to have our meeting with the 'Personal Bankers', which, according to Barclays, are a couple of guys who are younger than Adam and I and can't spell. They were friendly enough though, and we eventually left having opened accounts!

Adam and I then spent some time walking around Oxford, looking at the old building and awesome campuses. There really is a huge difference in infrastructure, architecture, ammenities and student life between Oxford and Wits, but I don't think that comes as a suprise to anyone once you remember that Oxford is probably the most famous University town in the world...

Another cool thing about it is that all the museums are free and open to the public, so we popped in and looked at them. The Modern Art Museum was closed due to a new installation in progress, so we went to the Museum of the History of Science. Their current exhibition was entitled "eccentricity", and featured curious objects used throughout the years for various purposes. They included a lot of old microscopes, globes, astronomical instruments, drawing tools... Really everything you could think of. 

The most impressive thing about it all was the precision and intricacy that was put into each and every piece. These were objects made hundreds (if not thousands) of years ago, and the detail and designs were still impressive. They were perfect examples of objects being both useful and beautiful, and even though some were used for the same purpose, each was unique. The perfect example of this being the many various sundials, which used different shapes and methods to tell the time. One curious sundial had a little canon on it, that you would fill with gunpowder in the morning, and at precisely midday, the sun's rays would shine through a magnifying glass and light the canon's fuse! Very cool. I wonder if one day the iPod or iPad will be as interesting...

The rest of the day was spent at our place, where I took my first afternoon nap while here, and it was glorious! Let's see what tomorrow holds for us!

Moving in day

Just realised that I missed out on a post for the moving in! What a travesty of justice...

On Saturday 14th May, we arrived at 16 Cariad Court, Goring-on-Thames. This is the place we will be calling 'home' for a while! It was a nice feeling to be getting into our own place as it finally felt like this trip was real, and not just a vacation spent at other peoples' houses and hotels...

So we are on the First floor. We have a small entrance passage, which we use to store our shoes in! As you walk through here, our very handy Kitchen is on the right, facing the road side. It is flanked by 2 storage rooms - 1 with the boiler and the other is where we now keep linen/blankets and our vacuum cleaner. Across the passage is the entrance to our Living Area  - a spacious, well-lit room with double bay window at the end, offering awesome views out over our garden and across the Thames river, into Streatley! It is probably the nicest room, and where we spend most our time!

Adam in our kitchen

Living Room

We then have a double bedroom with en-suite bathroom, which is where Adam and I set up our stuff and proclaimed as our bedroom. It faces the road, but is nice and spacious and has more cupboard space than is necessary! Well unless I need to buy things for people back home from Topman ;)

The MAIN bedroom!

My Things!

There is then another bathroom (Mickaela's), and then the second bedroom, which, although not as big, has more great views across the river! The gardens are well-maintained and everything is very green and scenic! We can make our way down the path right to the river's edge, where the boat house is.

All in all, it is a really great place and the setting is beautiful! We moved in with great excitement and hope that everything will turn out for the best. If our accommodation is anything to go by, it definitely will!

PS: I will post some photos of what the place looks like now that it's furnished.

Liverpool Game.

I don't really need to explain this one too much. Adam and i went with his cousins to Liverpool to watch the great team live at Anfield against Tottenham. The stadium itself is surprisingly well-hidden amongst the houses in the city, and you can only see it once really close to it.

Inside you get to see (and feel) just exactly what makes this ground so special - crazy fans, the long slope of the Kop, the mis-matching elements of the stadium and the tiny seats and legroom that all add to the crazy atmosphere that is LFC!

The game in itself was a bit of a let down, but at least we can say we were there, and saw the last home game of the season! After the match, the players returned to the field and thanked the fans for their support throughout the season.

It took us another just under 8 hours of travelling to get there and back, all in a single day, but it was definitely worth it!

The photos were taken with my phone. It didn't feel right to take a camera to the Anfield...

The legendary entrance and motto.

Teams warming up before the game.

Me and the liverpool team.

The Kop

Reading.

So today we hopped on a train heading into Reading, with one mission and a handful of CV's. Our aim - hand them out and get. a. job! And so the three of set out on this task... walking up and down the main roads, into the shopping centres and places of business and handed out CV's like our lives depended on it - which right now it kind of does!

Ok, so it was as dramatic as that, but it definitely is important to our trip, as our ability to get jobs is ultimately going to determine the success (and duration) of this trip. We did manage to find a few places looking for staff, so I'm "quietly confident" that we will hear back from someone soon!

And after revisiting Reading, I think it would actually be a nice place to work. the commute into it from Goring is less time (and money) consuming and it is a city proper, compared to Oxford being a tourist/student town. So I would definitely be happy to hear back from either place.

Tomorrow, Adam and I are headed into Oxford. We have appointments at Barclay's bank with a personal banker (fancy!) who will, thumbs-crossed, finally grant us the mystical and elusive "bank account". This animal is easily found in deep, dark Africa and yet requires superhuman patience and time to find in the First World.

I don't really have any related photos for this post, so I will add a photo of me with my 2 friends - banana milk and chocolate milk. Enjoy!

Politically Correct: Asian, Caucasian & African

All up on the interwebs (again)

Whoo-hoo! Our recent lack of internet forced us to take drastic measures, and in a moment of sheer genius and ingenuity, we decided to reach out to our neighbours and ask them if we could piggy-back on their wireless networks! I wrote out 2 flyers, which we posted on the entrance to 2 stairwells...

Lo and behold, it has worked! one of the neighbours (number 20) came and knocked on our door, bringing with him his wifi signal and, more importantly, his password!

Oh happy days!

We now can access it, and have vowed to not overpower his wifi, so we will limit our usage to the bare minimum. I even have to come and sit in the garden for my laptop to find his wifi, but it is definitely worth it! Starting from tomorrow, I vow to be up and on the blog once more.

Garden Blogging: now in black and white

Thames walk

So today we went on a short walk across the bridge into the neighbouring village of Streatley. It is a really nice walk to do and afforded us great views of nature, as well as a good look at our own place back across the river Thames. We got to meet our noisy neighbours (geese) andsome sheep in  the park across from our place, and walked all the way up to Cleeve Lock, where we sat and watched a river barge make its way upstream.

Nothing like being out in nature, and it was good to get our quota of walking in for the day! We are gonna become walking machines by the time we get back to SA!

Here are some photos taken on our River Walk...

Our backyard! Our building is the white one in the middle

The 3 of us. In descending order of good-looks from left to right.

More photos of the scenery after the jump!

Photos of Southampton

Here are a few photos of our last day in Southampton, spent on the High street. They just give you an idea of the type of pedestrian lifestyle we experienced while there. All the facilities you would need were easily accessible from the High street on foot (or by bike), and it was a cool place to sit and watch the world go by. Something that Adam and I took no shame in doing!

Bargate and market - even had a South African stall!

High Street - this wasn't even peak hour (foot)traffic

Pretty Colours!

Goring 1 : 0 Internet

Sorry for the lack of posts!

Since we moved into our house on Saturday, we have been without the services of the internet. You really don't know what you've got until it's gone...

Here is a quick summary of the happenings of the last few days. Hopefully we will be able to get all up in the interwebs soon, and then I will fill in all the missing details...

Friday 13th (!) May - Spent the day with Adam in Southampton. Went for our interviews at the job centre so as to get our national insurance numbers, which we are waiting for in the post. Also tried to open a bank account, but no luck. The rest of the day in town was spent walking around and looking at the people and buildings. Returned home and used our last opportunity of free,fast, unlimited internet to download large amounts of movies, shows and music.

Saturday 14th May - MOVING DAY! Excitement was the order of the day as we left Southampton from the train station, catching the train to Reading and then from there into Goring, our final destination! Adam and I started unpacking while we waited for Mickaela to arrive with her aunt and uncle. Our first home-cooked meal was a cheese and salami snackwich, and it tasted of independence! Mick arrived later that afternoon, along with the majority of our furniture!

This was our first day together as a pack, and we started setting up the furniture and tidying OUR place up!

Sunday 15th May - Adam and I got picked up by his cousins, Ben and Daniel, to go to the Liverpool game that afternoon! It was a ±4 hour drive, in the back of a little Peugeot, but it was definitely worth it when we got there and saw Anfield! Adam and I had seats next to the Kop, which were good and kept us sheltered from the miserable weather, which was in line with the way we played and the end result of the game... We then spent the night at Ben and Dan's house.

Monday 16th May - We got back to our house early in the morning, and then got Mickaela and made our way into Reading, which is only about 15min away on the train. We walked around the High street there, and made a note of looking out for places advertising for jobs. In all likelihood, we are going to either find work there or in Oxford. There are some nice malls and shops in Reading, especially the Oracle centre. Another amazing discovery we made was Poundland - a store where everything costs 1pound! needless to say, we did our household shopping there!

We got home and prepared a lovely meal, followed by a night of house-warming drinks and games of King amongst the three of us... It was a lovely night indeed!

Tuesday 17th May - Oxford. Tuesday's day-trip took us (once again by train) to Oxford, which is 30min away from Goring, but not much more expensive than tickets to Reading. We followed our routine of examining the High street and malls, looking out for job opportunities. We also made our way into the beautiful campuses and museums that we stumbled across.

As a city, Oxford is much more appealing than Reading. It has a younger, more vibrant population, better architecture, more to do and see and in general is just a cool place. We also spotted a few places where we could apply to work at, so we're holding thumbs for that!

Wednesday 18th May  - TODAY! Spent the day at home. We went for a long walk around town, down to the river Thames, and across the bridge in neighbouring Streetley. This really is a picturesque part of England, with amazing nature and wildlife. Peter also came by and brought with him a TV for us to use, his amazing power of the interwebs and then helped us bring a dining table and chairs from Adam's grandma's house, helping us turn our house into a HOME! aaaaaawww.... now it appears to be time for me to go and get my tea on. Once we get our internet working I will make sure to revisit these past few days in more detail, and post a couple of pictures, but until then this will have to do!

You sound like you're from Lon-Don!

And so it was that on Tuesday 10 May 2011, we made our first excursion (of this trip) into London!

We started the day off with a commute into London, experiencing some traffic, and a nice little nap. We then got on a train on the outskirts of London (somewhere near Twickenham stadium), and before we knew it we stepped out of Westminster tube station and were greeted by probably the most famous face in London, Big Ben!

It was 09:30 at the time.

We did the touristy thing and saw the sites around there, including the London Eye, Houses of Parliament (which were in session, which meant you could only go in if you were an English citizen) and a general stroll up and down the edge of the Thames and some gardens. There's no point in commenting on it much because I am pretty sure we will be returning to this place a handful of times in the next few months. But i will say this - every part of this city is impressive and never fails to amaze me. In my opinion, London has to be the centre of the Western World.

Houses of Parliament

 We then spent the rest of the morning walking around a bit aimlessly, hoping to come across cool buildings, which was easy considering the location. We had lunch at a Subway just off Regent's street, where we encountered what is probably the friendliest, most gregarious person the UK has ever known. Needless to say she wasn't English...

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon on Regent and Oxford streets, looking at all the shops and what they had to offer. Resisting the temptation to spend money was not easy, but we managed. Pretty soon I'm sure we'll be sporting some new yarmukahs...

Its hard not to like London, everything is either cutting edge, or covered in history. It's an awesome blend of the current and the past, and I hope we spend many more days there!