Home for 12 hours

Last week was really busy at work and I was even at the client site on Friday night at 7:30pm. That meant that I didn't get home to my flat in London until after 10pm and had to do two loads of laundry (on long UK cycles), repack my bags, get some sleep and leave the next morning by 11am to have my hair cut in Islington and get to Paddington for a mid-afternoon train to Oxford.

Coming out of the station, I didn't really recognise Oxford from my first visit 2.5 years ago. I figured it couldn't be that hard to get around (every English town has a High Street you can orient yourself by) and I easily found my hostel around the corner from the station. I settled into my 6-bed, ensuite bathroom, female dorm by unpacking my clothes for the evening and the next day, making up my bed and attempting a pre-dinner nap. I was the only one in the room except for one English girl who arrived, got ready and left all in the space of 30 minutes.

I took a cab to the restaurant Shanghai 30s to meet up with friends for Becky's 30th (excuse me, 29+1) birthday dinner. I was there early, and they all arrived late, so I had already been seated, scoped out my pre-approved wines from the menu and ordered a bottle of dry German sparkling wine. Everyone else showed up straight from the pub and dinner was off to a good start with the sparkling wine, ordering the easiest option (a set menu) and getting to know everyone aside from the hosts, Becky and her fiancee Colin (a coworker of mine).

After dinner, we meandered through Oxford, asking locals where we could go to dance to cheesy music. We ended up at a place called Jongleurs, where upstairs we found sufficiently cheesy music/dancing for our purposes. From 11 - 2 am, we danced, sang along, and were generally dorky. Everyone was kicked out by 2am and we realised we were already back towards the station, so I had an easy walk home and I don't know what the others did (get cabs, presumably!)

Setting my alarm, and actually waking up to it, at 9am the next morning wasn't easy, but I dragged myself downstairs by the promise of a full breakfast served by the hostel. They weren't kidding! I had a full English (short for a full English breakfast) except for the sausage. But I did have eggs, toast, baked beans, baked tomato, and bacon. And a croissant, with jam. And orange juice (3 glasses). And coffee. And....no, I think that was it. I had to check out by 10am, so I showered, dressed, packed and found myself with a few hours to kill before catching my train back to London.

I wandered around the village, recognising a pub and a bookstore from my first visit here with Liz and Brian a few years back. I also saw that a walking tour for only £7 was starting a 11am, which was now, so I joined in! I got to see the inside courtyards and chapels of 5-6 Oxford colleges, as well as other historic buildings in the village. It was definitely worth while, and I'm glad I did it, despite how cold it was that day and that I ended up getting a later train than I had planned.

Back in London, laden down with luggage like a gypsy, I first met up with Kylie for coffee in West Hampstead, and then went to a dinner party at Viviana's, also in West Hampstead. I came up to Northampton the same night, arriving at my hotel past midnight and now....well, it's Monday and I am fire-fighting at work instead of doing what I was planning on doing this week. I have a total of 2.5 weeks of vacation/training between now and May 18th, which is going to make the next few days/week really difficult as I try to prep for leaving and tie up the loose ends/deadlines that are already slipping away.

Oh well. 4 more days and I'm off to Portugal for 4 days in the Algarve!