Life on Mars

Thursday and Friday last week was great – I had two days off work, the sun was shining, and we spent a glorious couple of days in Oxford. And yes, I did get to use the air-conditioning in the car!

Because it was the first really hot day of the year, millions of insects decided to hatch out and die a hideous death by throwing themselves in the path of our car. If they’d simply purchased an A-Z map to identify the main roads in the vicinity, the carnage could have been avoided – but no, there are now hundreds of the bastards super-glued to the front og the car by means of their own entrails. Nice.

Oxford is a beautiful city. There is SO much old architecture there, and all so grand – you become almost oblivious to all the honeyed stone and the ancientness of everything. Stepping through one of very many anonymous and unimposing gateways, you enter an ancient, scholastic wonderland. Very different to my own experience at Southampton Institute of Higher Education (Arts Faculty)! It’s another world, it really is – whilst I am sure the cleverness of the students who study there is astonishing, so is the world of affluence that so many have come from. It’s like another planet. I guess that is why it IS so rich and lovely and beautiful.

Just a few snaps…