One of the must-do things in any Oxford student's life is to go to a ball. Those of us with £££ to spare would obviously choose the Magdalen College ball, but at £195 for one night it's a little on the steep side! A much more reasonable choice was the Keble College ball for £70, so a whole group of us from my course decided that a fun and frivolous night out on the town was definitely in order.
The theme was Neverland and it was definitely a fantasty paradise! Entertainment on offer included a silent disco, a chocolate fountain with cream filled profiteroles to dip into it (!!), a bouncy castle, a photo booth, a casino room, shisha pipes, and even sumo suits to play with! All that and unlimited food and drinks until 5am... We most definitely got our money's worth!
Adrian was particularly enamoured with the sumo suits (at about 4 in the morning) - see if you can tell which one he is in the video! I got into them as well after this scene was shot, man, are they heavy! I could hardly lift myself up again once I'd fallen over. Enjoy the video and the rest of the photos here.
The luxury of a taxi (for the mammoth one kilometre walk home...) at 5am was well worth it, as was the greasy fried chicken in bed the next day - so classy.
A brilliant night out!
Sunday, 7 June 2009
Monday, 11 May 2009
Oxford takes on Paris
One of the most alluring parts of the structure of each of the four MSc courses in the Geography department is the annual field trip. Barcelona, Brussels and Amsterdam were on offer for the other courses, but I think we got the best choice of the lot - Paris!
After having lunch with a newly arrived Alexandra fresh off the plane, we all met up at the train station to get the Eurostar across to Paris. I'd never caught the train before, always going for the ferry because of the price differential, and becasue I was worried about ruining myself with the luxury of the train compared to the budget train/ferry/bus combo! It was pretty incredible, you only spend about 15 minutes in the actual tunnel itself, and then, hey presto, you're in France! Coming from an island it's definitely always a bit of a thrill to be able to go 'overseas' so easily...
On the work side of things we had a visit to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a study of how nature/culture is represented in Parisian parks, a presentation on some research on Paris's transport policies, and then a presentation of our work on knowledge controversies at Sciences Po (one of Paris's universities). I was also lucky enough to schedule one of the interviews for my research while I was there and, as a result, to be invited out to a gathering of ex-pat Kiwis on the Pont des Artes to celebrate ANZAC day! (The guy I was interviewing was a NZer) It was great fun and made me incredibly jealous of all these people doing wonderful things in such a beautiful place.
On the fun side of things we hung out on the steps of Sacre Coeur watching the amazing fire poi guy, went to the flea market at St Ouen, had dinner at a great Brazilian restaurant in Belleville, took loads of photos of all the lovely Paris icons, and other such frivolity. Every time I go to Paris I want to live there more and more...one of these days!!
Enjoy the rest of the photos!
After having lunch with a newly arrived Alexandra fresh off the plane, we all met up at the train station to get the Eurostar across to Paris. I'd never caught the train before, always going for the ferry because of the price differential, and becasue I was worried about ruining myself with the luxury of the train compared to the budget train/ferry/bus combo! It was pretty incredible, you only spend about 15 minutes in the actual tunnel itself, and then, hey presto, you're in France! Coming from an island it's definitely always a bit of a thrill to be able to go 'overseas' so easily...
On the work side of things we had a visit to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a study of how nature/culture is represented in Parisian parks, a presentation on some research on Paris's transport policies, and then a presentation of our work on knowledge controversies at Sciences Po (one of Paris's universities). I was also lucky enough to schedule one of the interviews for my research while I was there and, as a result, to be invited out to a gathering of ex-pat Kiwis on the Pont des Artes to celebrate ANZAC day! (The guy I was interviewing was a NZer) It was great fun and made me incredibly jealous of all these people doing wonderful things in such a beautiful place.
On the fun side of things we hung out on the steps of Sacre Coeur watching the amazing fire poi guy, went to the flea market at St Ouen, had dinner at a great Brazilian restaurant in Belleville, took loads of photos of all the lovely Paris icons, and other such frivolity. Every time I go to Paris I want to live there more and more...one of these days!!
Enjoy the rest of the photos!
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
Pudding monsters
So, you've been hanging out in anticipation long enough, wondering what on earth is this wonderous Pudding Club that I spoke of in the previous post. Well, let your salivating commence!
The Pudding Club is one of those random British institutions that you are never going to find anywhere else (although I might just set up an Icecream Club when I get home) and you just absolutely have to experience while here. In 1985, a group of friends were looking at the choices on the dessert menu and bemoaning the loss of traditional British puddings like 'Spotted Dick', and 'Jam Roly Poly', not to mention the illustrious family of puddings that are the crumbles. So, they started a tradition of getting together each Friday night and trying out a set of puddings (served, of course, with lashings of custard). One thing led to another and now about 50 people go each week, paying £30 for the privilege of a small main course and then seven, yes that's right, SEVEN helpings of pudding. You're not allowed to try a new pudding until you've eaten your last helping - and that's no easy task I can assure you when you're looking down the barrel of pudding #5...
The Pudding Club is one of those random British institutions that you are never going to find anywhere else (although I might just set up an Icecream Club when I get home) and you just absolutely have to experience while here. In 1985, a group of friends were looking at the choices on the dessert menu and bemoaning the loss of traditional British puddings like 'Spotted Dick', and 'Jam Roly Poly', not to mention the illustrious family of puddings that are the crumbles. So, they started a tradition of getting together each Friday night and trying out a set of puddings (served, of course, with lashings of custard). One thing led to another and now about 50 people go each week, paying £30 for the privilege of a small main course and then seven, yes that's right, SEVEN helpings of pudding. You're not allowed to try a new pudding until you've eaten your last helping - and that's no easy task I can assure you when you're looking down the barrel of pudding #5...
But, we made it through! Jeff and I (congratulations to Jeff also for organising this whole thing) made it through all seven of our puddings, while Sara managed a very honourable five helpings. My favourite of the night (and the crowd favourite also) was the rhubarb crumble, with the sticky toffee coming in at second place. Spotted Dick was stodgy and the idea that it was made with 'suet' just kind of didn't work - I don't even really want to know what suet is, it just sounds a little too odd for my liking... Lord Randall's (marmaladey) was quite yum, as was the Squidgy Chocolate (how could it not be with a name like that), but I'd definitely be keen to go back during the summer when they add four summer-weight puddings to the repertoire, such as Gooseberry Fool! Mmmmm...
Check out the rest of the photos here.
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
Cotswolds invasion
To celebrate the prettiness that is England in the springtime, it was only right that a small Easter excursion was planned to see (arguably) one of the prettiest regions of them all - the Cotswolds. Jeff, Sara and I hired a car and used Oxford as a base to head out into the myriad of impossibly cute villages and windy country roads that make up the Cotswolds.
It's basically an amalagam of Oxford and Gloucestershire with bits of Warwickshire and other counties thrown in for good measure. It's been designated as an 'area of outstanding natural beauty' and I'd definitely agree having seen it!
We started off with a trip to Minster Lovell via Woodstock to see the ruins of Minster Lovell hall, the still existing church and old dovecote. There's a rather eerie story about the last Lord Lovell hiding in a secret passage but no-one ever finding him and his skeleton only being discovered years later... After that we went to the picture postcard Slaughters (Lower Slaughter being especially cute with all the daffodils, lambs, river, working water mill etc.) and Chipping Campden which had a very lovely main street with lots of shops and places to have a Pimms and cream tea! I even found a brand new board game at the local op-shop for only £3 which has got to be a good end to any day!
Day two was spent mostly at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire which has had a very fascinating pedigree, particularly when Robert Dudley owned the castle and hosted several elaborate festivities for Elizabeth I in the late 1500s (said to be the inspiration for 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' even). There was a great amalgam of styles as the castle was built over several centuries and they're building a new Elizabethan garden too.
I got completely sucked in by the tasting of all the jams and things and came away with some lemon honey, gooseberry and elderflower jam, and honey mead! Mmmm... We also had great fun listening to the audio guide's medieval dance music, jigging our way across the castle and dressing up in the old clothes!
After Kenilworth we popped into Stratford-upon-Avon briefly, visiting the (outside of) Shakespeare's birthplace and having a drink by the river. Not much really to report from there other than that it was full of people and a nightmare finding a park! Oh, no, the church was pretty stunning but unfortunately closed... Stratford was a brief stop because we were on the way to the PUDDING CLUB! More on that in a later post...
Day three was all about getting out and about into the fresh air (and to work of the massive amount of pudding just consumed). We had lunch at a great old pub called the Falkland Arms in Great Tew and then joined in the great British tradition of going for a ramble across the bridle paths and fields, getting in tune with nature. We passed a great church there as well which had some brass pictures from 1410, pretty impressive! We rounded off the afternoon by going to see the White Horse in Uffington, south of Oxford and hanging out with some very non-plussed sheep. You can't see it fully from the ground which makes its original meaning all the more interesting, with theories ranging from an offering to the gods or a picture drawn by aliens!
The last day of Easter was spent in Oxford, visiting the hall at Christ Church (the inspiration for the hall in the Harry Potter movies), the annual literary festival, and getting an extensive tour around Oxford cathedral (also the college chapel at Christ Church) by an expat New Zealander who could definitely talk the hind legs off any animal of your choosing!
All in all, a great Easter weekend with big ups to Jeff and Sara for organising everything! Check out the rest of the photos here.
It's basically an amalagam of Oxford and Gloucestershire with bits of Warwickshire and other counties thrown in for good measure. It's been designated as an 'area of outstanding natural beauty' and I'd definitely agree having seen it!
We started off with a trip to Minster Lovell via Woodstock to see the ruins of Minster Lovell hall, the still existing church and old dovecote. There's a rather eerie story about the last Lord Lovell hiding in a secret passage but no-one ever finding him and his skeleton only being discovered years later... After that we went to the picture postcard Slaughters (Lower Slaughter being especially cute with all the daffodils, lambs, river, working water mill etc.) and Chipping Campden which had a very lovely main street with lots of shops and places to have a Pimms and cream tea! I even found a brand new board game at the local op-shop for only £3 which has got to be a good end to any day!
Day two was spent mostly at Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire which has had a very fascinating pedigree, particularly when Robert Dudley owned the castle and hosted several elaborate festivities for Elizabeth I in the late 1500s (said to be the inspiration for 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' even). There was a great amalgam of styles as the castle was built over several centuries and they're building a new Elizabethan garden too.
I got completely sucked in by the tasting of all the jams and things and came away with some lemon honey, gooseberry and elderflower jam, and honey mead! Mmmm... We also had great fun listening to the audio guide's medieval dance music, jigging our way across the castle and dressing up in the old clothes!
After Kenilworth we popped into Stratford-upon-Avon briefly, visiting the (outside of) Shakespeare's birthplace and having a drink by the river. Not much really to report from there other than that it was full of people and a nightmare finding a park! Oh, no, the church was pretty stunning but unfortunately closed... Stratford was a brief stop because we were on the way to the PUDDING CLUB! More on that in a later post...
Day three was all about getting out and about into the fresh air (and to work of the massive amount of pudding just consumed). We had lunch at a great old pub called the Falkland Arms in Great Tew and then joined in the great British tradition of going for a ramble across the bridle paths and fields, getting in tune with nature. We passed a great church there as well which had some brass pictures from 1410, pretty impressive! We rounded off the afternoon by going to see the White Horse in Uffington, south of Oxford and hanging out with some very non-plussed sheep. You can't see it fully from the ground which makes its original meaning all the more interesting, with theories ranging from an offering to the gods or a picture drawn by aliens!
The last day of Easter was spent in Oxford, visiting the hall at Christ Church (the inspiration for the hall in the Harry Potter movies), the annual literary festival, and getting an extensive tour around Oxford cathedral (also the college chapel at Christ Church) by an expat New Zealander who could definitely talk the hind legs off any animal of your choosing!
All in all, a great Easter weekend with big ups to Jeff and Sara for organising everything! Check out the rest of the photos here.
Monday, 27 April 2009
Spring babies
There are loads of spring babies in my class here at Oxford so we've been having birthday bbqs/drinks/picnics/lunches out galore. It's been a great excuse for enjoying the fact that there are actually four very defined seasons in this country - and spring is arguably the prettiest of them all!
I've also been snapping a few pictures here and there which are a bit disconnected so I've whacked them all into the one album for your viewing pleasure.
Check them out here!
I've also been snapping a few pictures here and there which are a bit disconnected so I've whacked them all into the one album for your viewing pleasure.
Check them out here!
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