Day 12: Oxfordshire
Nothing could be more delightful than two friends, 3 cafes, a multitude of winding cobblestone streets and 6 months of our lives to catch up on. This is how I spent the day discovering the town of Oxford. We lazily hopped from cafe to cafe, window shopping, admiring buildings and debating over what the plethora of teenage students were doing in town. Each herd was branded with backpacks and lanyards and guided by an individual who seemed to be in a constant state of discontent. We never bothered to actually look up what they were doing, but it was fun to guess.
Among the curiosities of the day was the incredibly cute tea timer I was given at our third cafe. It is just one of those little trinkets that makes you smile. It has 3 timers which run simultaneously, which allows for the customer to decide when they want to stop brewing their tea. Unless of course, you are like me, who was enamoured by the device, but then promptly went back to talking and forgot about it until all of the timers were done. While luckily I like my tea strong, this made me laugh. I am forever being told off at home by my brother for abandoning cups of tea around the house, to intent on whatever idea has suddenly grabbed my attention.
How amazing is that tea timer?!
Helen abandoned me to my own devices the next day, as she had the delightful task of trawling through her collection of England possessions and trying to squeeze them into suitcases. So I went to the Oxford University of Natural History.
Regardless of the displays, the building the museum is housed in is beautiful. and I think it was worth going just to see it. I could only ever dream to own or build a room with the character this place had. While the designers clearly weren't really thinking about the heating or cooling costs, as you can see, the glass ceiling is the reason the space works. The dinosaurs also help. Just Magical.
Ingredient list for a Magical Space
1 part metal framing
A plethora of timber display cabinets
5 parts sandstone
A good heaping of sunshine
3 dinosaurs
Also, I got to chill out with Charles for a bit. That was pretty neat.
Chilling with Charles
The rest of my time in Oxfordshire was somehow spent simultaneously being incredibly chilled and yet also frantically trying to find somewhere to go hiking for the following days. After going around in circles for 2 days, we jumped and booked a campsite, crossed our fingers and hoped it wasn't a bad decision. It was, after all, only on the other side of the country.
