Oxford Town

R and I met at university in Oxford so it will always be a special place for us. Happily, we get lots of opportunity to go back as my sister is now studying there and always loves getting a visit. We went just before Christmas, and again a couple of weekends ago. And so I thought a post on Oxford was due.

Before Xmas we drove up on a Sunday and took my sis out for lunch. Middley sister also came along (she didn’t want to be left out!).

My sister has the most amazing room overlooking Broad Street, right in the centre of town. 







This is the view from her window!!

Me and R desperately tried to think of a way we could go back to uni for a bit.







Her college looked very majestic cloaked in autumnal colours and sunlight. 

The beauty and privilege of it all always makes us remember how lucky we were to study and live there for a brief time. 

For lunch we headed to the restaurant at the top of the Ashmolean museum which gets lovely views of the Oxford rooftops. 

We stopped by the modern art room for a brief look on our way up.



They’ve just recently renovated the museum and it is amazing now. We didn’t have time to do it justice. 

The restaurant’s got an amazing roof terrace, but it was a bit too chilly to hang around for long out there! The food was delicious though and we had a good ol’ natter.

Afterwards we went for a mooch around Oxford, arms linked for warmth and sky dropping into damp darkness. 






Oxford in the dusk and streetlamps took me right back – cycling home from the library as night fell, winding my way through the backstreets, over cobblestones, back to my over-heated room and a cup of tea before dinner. Oh nostalgic!

We ducked into the beautifully curated Objects of Use just before closing. What a lovely shop. I think I wanted to buy just about everything.

A couple of weekends ago we made a return trip, this time to have dinner in my sister's college with the rest of the family, to celebrate dad's birthday, and to stay with some friends who live in Headington. It was cold again, but bright and beautiful too. We headed to Summertown where we used to live and had a potter around the charity shops (they have some seriously good ones up there). We took the bus, reminisced, walked past our old house and marvelled at how long ago it all was.



In the evening we had a present opening session in my sister's room.

 We got him a frying pan!

Then we donned our gladrags, slapped our lipstick on, got R to take photos of us (all of which were awful), and headed to hall for dinner.





Where we proceeded to drink too much and play games involving chocolates on faces which really didn't go down all that well with our fellow guests......

The next morning mum and I went to hear some rather lovely music at the Holywell Music room and felt very cultured and virtuous. And then we went out for a big celebratory-Dad-birthday-curry on Sunday before parting ways.

Ode to Oxford. Still magical, full of memories.