Rainy England

I’m in Oxford at the moment. Tonight is the Oriel Ball and I’m killing time while waiting for people to arrive. When I woke up this morning it was tipping down, not a great start to the ball day. Now the rain has stopped and it is just muggy but this means that everything underfood is going to be a mite soggy. Yesterday it was a beautiful day in London so this is somewhat disappointing, especially after the heat of France but it’s better than the apparent monsoon occuring in Munich at the moment.

I left France on Wednesday, leaving a sweltering Bergerac and arriving in a surprisingly warm Bristol. I then had to get the bus to the train station from the airport and met up with Andy, who is currently studying in Bristol, for a drink between my bus journey and my train journey onwards to Oxford. This break was actually a well-earned respite from hours of travelling.  It was nice to see him and gossip about common friends and catch up on each other’s lives. I haven’t really spoken to him in years so it was a lot to cram into 2 hours but I didn’t want to get to Oxford too late because after a certain time there are no more buses and a walk from the train station to Cowley is about an hour and I didn’t really fancy it.

In the end I got to Hannah’s at about 22:30 and we sat up gossiping and watching West Wing. In the morning on Saturday I got up early and made my way to London by Oxford Express to see Katie who was amazed I had got up so early after being up so late. We had a lovely chilled day. It was very hot and we were both quite tired so we took it easy. We had tea, and cake and a ploughman’s lunch and spent the afternoon lying in St James’ park in the sun and drifting round the shops. Relaaaax.

Katie and TT 19-25.01.09

Katie was over this weekend (photos on facebook http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2267436&id=36801141&l=96764). This was the focal point of the week, other than that it was work and sport as usual. It was really nice to see her and the weekend was a great success. I took her out on the town to show her that even though this isn’t London, we still know how to party.

Pre-party on Saturday we went to the Nordbad and lounged around in the pool outside. It was lovely to be in a hot Jacuzzi in January, blue sky overhead and white snow on the ground around us. After this very civilised activity we went for a very civilised ladies-who-lunch meal. Saturday, we also had the privilege of being driven very fast (circa 250km/hr) in an Audi TT. On the Friday evening when she arrived Katie got in touch with a friend of the family to have a meal. We ended up eating in a Paulaner, coincidentally the one to which I had taken Katie when she was over here in October. The meal was fun and then we did a mini bar crawl of Munich starting in Pussers and ending in the News Bar, attempting various others on the way including a very swanky joint called Sylvester’s or something where we felt decidedly underdressed. That evening, circa 1am we talked him into taking us for a spin in his TT the next day. We (or rather I) didn’t expect him to actually mean it but he sent us a text and picked us up outside the café where we were having lunch. VERY swish. It was great. We drove out of Munich, onto the Autobahn and out to where the speed limits have no power… Driving at 250km/hr with the Killers on the radio and the Alps in the distance. Brilliant. I never knew Katie was such a speed freak

After this we had just enough time to do a quick tour of the shops for Katie to get a top and her Deutsch fix (books, mags, cds) and to buy food for that evening. I had invited the Erasmus lot and Vittoria from the Wohnheim for food then partying.

In the end we were about 10 or 11, it fluctuated. All I know is that there were 13 people for pudding. Faced with such a horde we did LOTS of pasta and 2 different sauces; tomato and Katie’s delicious fish sauce. After this we headed out on the town. The original plan (which fell apart of course) was to try out the Club and Line party bus, but I couldn’t find the timetable, couldn’t work it out and in the end couldn’t be bothered. We headed to Qclub in the Kultfabrik. In the end only 5 of us went to the club, me, Katie, Laure, Alex and Vittoria. The rest either went home to work (looming exams…) or to a houseparty. I wasn’t really feeling the houseparty as I didn’t know the hosts and wanted to go to a club…

So, dramatically thinned out, we headed off and had a really fun evening. We spent all evening in the Q club switching between the 2 dance floors. They have an electro room and a ‘cheese’ room. The electro room is good but the ‘cheese’ room is brilliant because it’s just like a bop, so Katie and I were right at home. By 5 am it was just me, Katie and Alex. So we left and went to meet the other stragglers at another bar. However, seeing the time, the state they were in, and thinking about Katie’s flight later in the day we made the wise choice of going home to sleep for 4 hours before getting up for Brunch.