Departure lounges

There's a latin beat behind the sipping of my hot chocolate. It's a regular and relaxing rhythm. Reminds me of times spent in Carlton cafes writing and thinking. My body is craving the space to relax enough to think and write- someimes it need the space provided by a certain piece of music or beat.
I'm at Gatwivk airport having been a traveller from here twice now- to Dublin, where I could barely contain the tears last year and later with Tanya when we headed to Marrakech. It's got that feel like a big Highpoint or Chadstone. Neat white lines and internationally recognisable brands. I'm familiar enough now with the likes of Boots or M&S but always get a shock when I see Billabong or Quicksilver in such high profile here... To think they've come all the way from Torquay!!
The last week in Oxford has been good time mostly. Consumed with meetings and short walks through the area where I was staying, Jericho, into town. I had some fantastic sightseeing time there. It's been a wonderful blend of toffee well to do English students and a few international tourists. Coming here made me realise just how diverse and Indian based melbourne's international student blend is. The divide between Western rich countries and their less Western bread & butter counterparts is explicit here and from conversations I overheard, there really are a lot of students having conversations that begin "well my Daddy owns...". It's disconcerting to be around such an openly elitest community which has a different bent than my own university experience which has always to some extent equated knowledge to an elitism. I think perhaps Melbourne is more a slave to the cultural elite than Oxford!
The buildings of the main street, the meadows and lush flora, the hues of autumn fill every space allowed between the grey of the stone and sanstone cream. Every park, hedge, bush or heath is covered with dropped leaves and orange brown colours with just a few of the old green remnants of what has been, by all accounts a very long and lasting summer. September sounds like it was unseasonally warm but around the begginning of my visit the frost set in and the locals are donning beanies, mittens and scarves as a matter of course. I have been too, of course as well as every other conceivable layer of clothing lest I become a nice blue shade of frostbite!
Things I have seen here which have interested me include the Oxford Castle, the street frontages that don't look to have changed in 600 years except with the addition of roads & cars, the Christ church college grounds and buildings ala Harry potter and the bodleian library. The customs of the students here fascinate me and I found an absolute solace in Blackwells the massive bookshop with the unparralleled histoy floor.... Not just a section but a whole floor! It was here that I found a new book that basically wrote my thesis as it's first chapter! I want to buy that one. I loved sitting there in the store for an hour chewing down the first bit of academic reading I have done in an eternity. It felt good.
I loved the fireworks too. It was Guy Fawkes night and on the Saturday I marched across town in the dark... 6pm to await the 6.30 fireworks. It was marvellous. A community vibe in a big park with the focal point being a giant effigy of what looked like a tree next to a 6 story high stack of palletts. The fireworks display was among the most surprising and well crafted I have seen and then when they lit the effigy, which In turn ignited the bonfire, well the crowd of thousands went bezerk. I was gratefully for my ear covering beanie & the decision to wear thermals, 3 singlets, 3 long sloove shirts, vest, jacket & scarf!! It wasn't a late night but it was festive & I'm glad I was there. Also of interest was the uni
Press museum tour that I went on which showed our history from well before the Industrial Revolution. The museum is a room off the OUP library which is on the bottom floor of the building It was amazing actually. I got to touch some of the original letterpress tools and saw some original copper plate engravings from the 1600s. I even got to see snd touch the original printing plate for one page of the first edition of Alice in Wonderland! To top it all of I got to see some of the original research entries for the first Oxford English Dictionary!! It was truly a great tour!
I took myself to the local pub on my last night and was warmed by the student vibe and local brew. I had fish and chips and came to the conclusion that haddock is certainly not my fish of choice. I also dicovered though that chips and mushy peas really do go well together! It was a nice way to spend the evening actually and made ne definitely aware how much I like the pub-as-substitute-lounge-room culture that exists in England. The selection of boardgames was unbeatable too!

Postscript. I'm finishing this entry from Barcelona. My trip from Oxford was ok, although I think passers by may have mistaken me for a street urchin had they of seen the uneasy way I carried my over stuffed small back pack and still moderately but unevenly packed big backpack in tandem in the rain. Cuddle Buddy got soaked and so did I but checkout went smoothly and after a panic that I had left behind my ticket for the bus, I boarded the extremely comfy bus and made it to gatwick where I paid a passing homage to Ben & Jerrys icecream vending machine, and uttered the catch cry- I'll get you next time, next time... And went for breaky in one of the diners. It was actually relaxing sitting there amidst the classic Jazz Christmas Carols and a fabulous cup of tea. The flight was ok and the connecting bus to Barcelona was waiting as hoped. Arriving in the dark and having to then negotiate the metro was a bit daunting particularly as the station attendants warned everyone how rife pickpockets are. In fact I've already met someone who had their wallet stolen. I'm being extra cautious. Anyway. Barcelona has to wait for it's own post!

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