Guy whisked me off to Oxford for the weekend to celebrate our one year anniversary as well as my graduation. He did an amazing job of keeping it secret, I didn’t find out where we were going until we arrived at Paddington Station and had to find out which platform we were leaving from, so good work Guy on keeping that secret.
Guy and I spent a day fantasising about becoming academics and moving there, the buildings are just that beautiful. I was telling my Dad about my deprived academic life, which sadly did not involve living in such stunning surroundings, and without a beat said: “you would like it for about a day. You’d be cold, and the buildings are old and creaky”. So ended that fantasy.
We went on a ghost tour on Saturday night, which was hilarious until it started raining. Apparently it is the only theatrical ghost tour of Oxford and the actor Bill Sykes declaimed his stories ever so clearly. Emphasis on the declamation.
We ducked off to get cocktails at the Grand Cafe on the High Street where we were surprised to find that they were half price, so a peach Bellini, Watermelon martini and some more very cheap but very well made drinks and increasingly random toasts to our relationship we stumbled down to Jamie’s restaurant.
I can only think of good things to say about Jamie’s Italian. Owned by Jamie Oliver, it’s his affordable restaurant for the masses. The food was fantastic, as was the wine. We both stuck to the pasta dishes as we only had an hour left to eat before getting the last train out to our hotel in the countryside. Service was efficient and relatively friendly. However, our waitress did not seem to be appreciative of my drunken humour.
However, the culinary highlight was the Chinese food that we had on the last night. We went to a restaurant called Shanghai 30s. It was a very old building, done out with dark wood paneling on the inside and lavish oriental style decorations. Guy had a chicken thing (some version of sweet and sour) and it was served inside half a pineapple! Service was fantastic, every time we went away from the table the waitress folded the serviette and placed it on the table, and then when we returned she replaced it back in our laps. Service like that and a dinner that cost less than £30 for two!? I can’t imagine anything like that happening in London.
Aside from the food and in spite of the bad weather I most enjoyed walking around Oxford. The buildings are so picturesque, its difficult not to feel a little jealous of the people who get to live there. I think we will have to go there when it is warmer so we can go punting along the river and get the full Oxford experience…