Trinity Sunset...

...look at that sky!!!

The Stairs...the stairs....

My office is at the top of LOTS of stairs - on the second floor (third floor to you colonials).

However, there's plenty to see if you need to stop and pant - like these sad looking soldiers...

...and these little twiddly bits at the top.

Deco Door Furniture

As some of you may know, I'm currently working in the New Bodleian building two days a week. The Art Deco detail is wonderful...even down to the door knobs.

They're really hard to turn when you have hand cream on!

Does anyone know the story behind this?

I've always found the knight and beggar image above this gateway very striking. Does anyone know the parable/fable/story it's illustrating?

New Life

It was wonderful to see so many snowdrops out when I took a shortcut through Eynsham graveyard yesterday.

Forty Winks

It's a hard time of year to be a sheep dog...(I spotted this one when I went to get some veg. at Foxbury Farm).

Curtain Twitcher

This kitty was watching the bus queue with some distaste this morning.

Sausage Seeking Missile

Kipper always gets excited when she sees Jackie (the Queen's Head landlady) - because Jackie = sausages.

The Boy took this great pic of Kipper from the front.

Metropolitan Madness

Some friends of ours from university, who live in North Berwick, were down in London for the weekend. As we hardly ever get to see them, I had a quick dash down to meet them.

They were staying in the Marriott by Regent's Park, so I decided to take the coach down to Hillingdon; then Metropolitan Line to Finchley Road; then one stop to Swiss Cottage on the Jubilee Line.

However, I hadn't checked and turned up at Hillingdon to find that part of the Metropolitan line was out for repairs, and all of the Jubilee. If I'd been thinking straight, I'd have hopped back on the coach, but I wasn't! So I took the Piccadily Line to Rayner's Lane; bus from Rayner's Lane to Wembley Park; one stop on the Metropolitan to Finchley Road (handy for the Freud Museum), and legged it down to Regent's Park to meet everyone at the 'Honest Sausage Cafe'.

I stopped briefly to take this pic of the Swiss Cottage, at Swiss Cottage. It satisfies me on a very profound level that Swiss Cottage has a Swiss Cottage.

As well as catching up with Sadie, David and their girls - it was a chance to see Fr Weeping Cross and Toby.

As you can see from this shot of Sadie, it was almost dark by the time we got together, but it made for excellent plane spotting.

Sadly, I could stay with everyone not much longer than an hour or so then make my way home (the return journey was somewhat easier: no30 bus to Marble Arch; then pick up the coach from there).

I shouldn't have been surprised really - chaos normally accompanies any meeting with the Maskery-Hopkinson clan. :-)

Balliol Dragons

One of the best things about my life at the moment is working in central Oxford. Although I've lived a few miles away for nearly the last decade, I really haven't spent that much time in the city. It's lovely to have the chance to reacquaint myself with the place.

On Tuesday morning, my eye was drawn to this little chap - curled in the top right hand corner of Balliol's main door arch.

I then noticed his pal on the other side, who has a quite magnificent set of chompers.

These are the good old days!

I really can't believe that Harry, Sue and David are off to Melbourne on Tuesday. They've been such good friends to us. They only plan to be away for four years, but that's a LOOONG time.

We now have to save all our pennies so we can go out to visit them.

For Virginia

I've always been fond of this box outside the main post office in Oxford (opposite ChristChurch). Note the pensioner on the left of the picture for scale.

Don's Coins

Presentation is everything. A colleague sent me some change the other day. I love the way it was arranged in size order.

The Andrew Watson Memorial Bathroom - Progress Report 4

Apologies for the blurry pics - but these are quick camera snaps. What a difference a day makes! We now have a shower screen rather than a manky shower curtain - and soon the 'unhygienic' (to quote La Marrison) tortoise light pull will be retired in favour of something chrome.

Thanks to the emergency tiles the back wall is done.

Annoyingly, we need just need one blue tile and two of the 'dado rail' tiles to finish it. Thanks heavens they're made in Huddersfield, so Adam or his Dad can pick them up from the trade counter next week. Rather than wait two weeks or more for delivery and pay full carriage costs.

The Andrew Watson Memorial Bathroom - Progress Report 3

As you can see the bathroom is coming on apace.

Despite Rob (the chap who's doing the work) and I having a drink yesterday evening.

Unfortunately, I ordered too few of these square white tiles...

...and too many of the white, smaller brick shaped tiles. Our tile supplier Rustica, GAVE us enough square white tiles to finish the job (about twenty), which was fabulous of them.

Snow at the Boatyard

I stayed the night with Sue and John last night. I had a lovely evening, warm and cosy night...

...and woke up to a yard covered with snow.

The Andrew Watson Memorial Bathroom - Progress Report 2

Here is another pic for all of you who've been demanding to know how the bathroom is going.

There will be more tiles above the 'Dado rail' above the bath.

As you can our tradesman bows his head in my presence, as is only right and proper :-),

The Andrew Watson Memorial Bathroom - Progress Report

I had a long standing joke with my friend Andrew that he always had horrible bathrooms. The memory of the one with the orange carpet makes me shudder.

However, the bathroom at no29 has been slowly rotting away, so the joke was on us. Although finding a slug on the bathroom wall first thing in the morning isn't a joke (and too think that I've also been rude about NB Bones' bathroom).

The Boy and I have finally been able to scrape together enough cash to deal with it, and just in time as you can see from the floorboards.

Rob, a friend of Mr MarmaladeKiss, is doing a grand job.

View from the Oxford Technogarret

Here is the view from my desk. Lorna tells me that she went to a party in a house along the street once, and climbed out onto the window sill.

I think I'll leave that for another day!

For Virginia

This post box is on the Woodstock Road (Oxford) opposite St Margaret's Road. As the blue plaque shows, it's outside what was James Murray's house. It's very unusual in not having a monarch's initials on it.