Oxford, photos + procrastination

Hi all,
I'm avoiding doing an essay so I thought I'd finally update you on Oxford and put up the pictures I took on my phone! :) I arrived on Thursday evening, and after being met at the station by Amy and her boyfriend Chris, we went to a Chinese supermarket to buy some supper ingredients, and had a drink in a local pub. Chris is still revising for his exams, so Amy and I had dinner in her halls, then went for a stroll around the college (Magdalen), which is extremely pretty:-
They even have a deer park!
Rachel (Amosu) also came to see us (who we went to sixth-form college with) which was really nice as I haven't seen her in a long time! She's finished her finals, and is going to Jamaica for an internship over the summer. In the morning, after breakfast and general getting ready and lounging around, we loaded up with sun cream and went for another walk, this time through Magdalen and out to University Parks. On the way we saw some ducklings! We think they were the ones Amy had seen with her family a couple of weeks previously, and they have grown up quite a lot - they were looking quite fluffy and grey.

In University Parks we sat in the sun and waited for David (Amy's brother) to arrive - he came up for the day, which was nice. When he turned up we went into Oxford and had lunch in a little Italian place, and then went to the famous G&D's Ice-cream cafe for dessert - yum! G&D's is an Oxford staple for students, as it's open until midnight every night, and they have different flavours every day, some of which are by popular demand through their suggestions box! The Green Apple flavour was very good. After that we went to the castle, where there's a large grassy mound that you can climb up and see the view from, so we did:



It was very hot by this time, and we were quite tired, so we went to Krispy Kremes to buy some donuts and to Sainsbury's for other picnic supplies - Amy's friend Katie was finishing her finals later in the afternoon, and there was a picnic on the lawn planned for the celebrations. Then we went back to Amy's room for a bit. While we were there, Amy got a phone call from her friend Sasha, who was making pasta salad for the picnic, saying she'd scalded herself!! We hot-footed it over to her room, (excuse the pun!) where we found her with her hand and foot in cold running water. Amy and David cleared up the kitchen and finished the pasta salad (she'd spilt boiling water on herself while removing the pasta from the hob) and I kept her company in the bathroom. David then fetched the big bag of ice we'd bought at Sainsbury's and we poured it into the bath and forced Sasha to keep her hand and foot in it for as long as we could. Then we transferred the icy water into a bucket (waste-paper bin) and a saucepan, so as to allow her to be more mobile:
Then we rushed back to get ready for the picnic, and Sasha joined us just in time to meet Katie from her final exam. Katie is the one in the pink apron, on the right:
We had a very enjoyable picnic, with lots of fizz and many delicious things to eat. This is Amy:

This is Chris:
This is David: (Sasha in the background)

And these are half the donuts (the other half were plain iced and didn't look as pretty, so I didn't take a picture of them):
After the picnic, we went to a little bar for cocktails, and, after David went home, we all went back to Amy's and collapsed:
Poor Sasha had to go to Accident and Emergency to get her burns seen to, and they couldn't dress them but gave her some painkillers and advice. The next day, Amy and I went out shopping and to see some more of Oxford:
And Amy tried on a hat in Debenhams:
After that we met up with Katie and Sasha, who were waiting outside exam schools for some more people who were finishing their finals. The general tradition at Oxford when you finish your exams is that all your friends come and meet you with balloons, confetti, glitter, flowers etc, and if you're unlucky they also cover you with flour, eggs, beans, ketchup, and anything else sticky or messy they can find! There seemed to be a lot of people finishing that day, so there was a big crowd:
Then we had lunch in another Italian place near the castle, had another G&D's ice-cream (Mint aero flavour this time) and sat under a Willow in a meadow (how picturesque!)

Then I had to pack my things and come back to Coventry.
Friday felt like a long day - I worked at the Arts Centre twice (once on Funny Bones, a kid's show, and once on a film called Mad Hot Ballroom, which was really sweet) and didn't get home til 9pm. On Saturday Antony and I went into Coventry to do a bit of shopping and enjoy the sun, and in the evening we went to Skool Dayz at the Student's Union - school uniforms and cheesy music galore! We went with Julia and Kel, (Hywel was supposed to come but he hasn't been well so he didn't feel up to it) and it was lots of fun - I saw loads of people there who I haven't seen for ages, which was really nice, and we danced a lot :)

Yesterday I had quite a productive day - tidied our room, did lots of ironing, did the washing up, etc. - I even did some reading for part of my course next year! We played monopoly with Hywel and Kel after supper; Antony and Hywel bought the Coventry edition, which is fun because it has the University of Warwick on it, and various other exciting Coventry landmarks!

In other news, I got an email from the Arts Centre asking me to be a head steward! This means I get to be in charge of ordinary stewards for some shifts, have more responsibility in general and get paid more money! I start in September, as there are hardly any shifts for me to 'shadow' and learn on between now and then. How exciting!

Right, must get on with productive things and stop procrastinating. Bye for now!
L xx