Oxford Comma

So it has been awhile since I last posted a blog entry...oops life sometimes gets a little busy. Since we last spoke about all things Hogwarts I have finished up at Kings College and their multiple graduations and I have moved onto Lumos to help them with a fundraising event they are holding in the near future. 

But enough backstory let's talk about the amazing weekend that Lindsay and I just had in Oxford. We decided not long after Christmas that we would get out of London and go touring for the Easter weekend. After some deliberating, Oxford was the winner!

We left on Saturday by the extremely convenient Oxford Tube, which is a coach bus. I know, rather confusing name. Regardless Lindsay, myself, and of course, Batgirl get on board and we were off.

In less than 2 hours we were there and in search of our accommodation. As I am a big fan of hostels and/or student accommodation, I had booked us into Lincoln College. Student accommodation is never fancy but its clean, centrally located and you usually get breakfast for a  reasonable price. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Lincoln College

Oh yeah, it was amazing! After we had met the porter and were settled in our room, we decided to spend the afternoon exploring. Oxford city centre besides being full of colleges is fairly easy to navigate and we soon found ourselves at a pub. Yes, because we were hungry and also we had deliberately sought out this particular pub

The Eagle and Child is famous for being the pub which served JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis and was the gathering place for the Inklings which was a writing group comprised of those writers and others. The food was lovely, the ambiance even better and we were off to an auspicious start.

Afterwards we wandered around just taking in the sights and admiring the numerous college grounds. There are 45 colleges which are part of Oxford University and each college appears to have a magnificent college building with stunning quads and garden areas, all that green was a bit overwhelming.

The Martyrs Monument

I can't recall what this building was but I was fascinated by this really unique and somewhat disturbing statue positioned on the top edge.

Sheldonian theatre, the Old Bodleian library is behind

Museum of the history of Science

Unfortunately, I couldn't escape having numerous people in my photos. It is unbelievable how many tour buses and tourists are there during the day-and we didn't even have many students around. It was uncanny though that by 6 pm the streets were fairly deserted of both visitors and locals.

Museum of Natural History (one of several panoramic shots I took)

That evening Lindsay and I ended up at the Turf Tavern, one of the oldest pubs in Oxford, though it had a different name. It was somewhat hard to find but well worth it and certainly can claim to being our Oxford local. After that lovely evening we were back to Lincoln and greeted by a new porter,ready to take on a full day in Oxford.

So day 2 began with breakfast. Now we had been so impressed with the college that we thought we would be disappointed with the food they served just because nothing can be 100% amazing. Fortunately, we were wrong. Besides being a lovely full English we ate in the college's medieval dining hall. We also had the pleasure of dining with a gentleman and his grandson who were staying at the college because he was an alumni and was doing research for a book. Interesting company indeed.

Then we were off to see some more sights and hope it wouldn't be quite as crowded since it was Easter Sunday.

The Radcliffe Camera which is now part of the Old Bodleian and has an underground passage which connects the two. 

The side of the University Church of Mary the Virgin.

Interior

Pipe organ

Acknowledgement of those who were executed for their beliefs during the Reformation.

.....cont

Wrapped up in Books (or Everyday I Write the Book Too)

Continuing on with the theme as it appears,  I have a lot of book bench pictures...

William Shakespeare appropriately placed by the Globe Theatre.

"That's not my meerkat", a series of books by Fiona Watt

Samuel Pepys' Diary, part of the Greenwich Trail for book benches.

"The Railway Children" by E Nesbit

"The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer

"Frozen in Time" by Captain Scott

Probably my favourite of the benches that I saw because of the incredible colour, "On the Origin of the Species" by Charles Darwin

"Mrs Dalloway" by Virginia Woolf

Batgirl getting all mysterious with Sherlock Holmes by Sir  Arthur Conan Doyle.

Loved the design of these benches and some of them were so creative it seemed a bit sacreligious  to sit on them and eat your lunch.

"The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by CS Lewis. This bench had my two favourite characters Aslan and Mr. Tumnus.

"Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell. One of the more detailed benches,  my photos definitely do not do it justice.

"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. Not gonna lie, a little disappointed with the artwork for this bench.

James Bond stories by Ian Fleming. A standout, such a well thought out design and very eye-catching. 007 would approve.

"Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly" by Agatha Christie.

I had such an enjoyable time going around the city and looking for this benches. And there will still a lot that I missed, Great Expectation, Bridget Jones's Diary, Around the World in Eighty Days, and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, just to name a few. I'm looking forward to the next collection of art sculptures going out this month and the theme is Paddington Bearsso I suspect at some point you will get the photo collection from that.

Everyday I Write The Book

Happy November! It is only fitting that after having been MIA for 6-7 weeks I return with an Elvis Costello song as the title. Hooray I am back having gotten wrapped up in real life. Still no permanent full time job but I've been having an interesting time these last few weeks working for an Interfaith network and a Community foundation.

So today I wanted to focus on a collection of photographs I took around London regarding book benches. Fifty benches were commissioned depicting well known British books and these placed throughout various green spaces in London. I posted a photo a few entries earlier about the bench that was close to were I was staying at LSE but here the rest of the collection. It was part of a fundraising effort for the National Literary Trust called Books about Town. And no, I did not get to all 50 but I made a good dent. Besides seeing how the books were depicted it was also a great way for me to make my way throughout London and get my bearings. So without further adieu, I bring you books.

So this is actually the 51st book bench chosen by readers, "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman

 The always enchanting "Mary Poppins" by PL Travers

Sadly could not get the front of "Peter Pan" bench by JM Barrie

"How to Train your Dragon" by Cressida Cowell

There was a montage of different Dr. Seuss books which was fun.

A book I had not heard about, "Clarice Bean" by Lauren Child.

Disappointing "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll

So that's all in this post and now onto part 2!