Hilary Term has begun

The second term in the school year at Oxford University is called Hilary Term and starts in January and ends mid March. Each term is 8 weeks. Week 0 which is often referred to is the week before the term starts, where they have registrations and other events.

It's still pretty cold and grey most days, last week we had temperatures below zero. Some places in the UK even got snow, sadly we didn't :( if it gets that cold, it might as well snow. I've never experienced snow in the UK before but loved it when it snowed in Boston. Seems the sun is now setting later at 4:40.

So we've been here in Oxford for 4 months now. We haven't really had the chance to explore Oxford, with the weather being so cold. I so hope Spring comes soon, it will be fun to go around taking photos. Oxford is far less quieter than London - no comparison. While London never sleeps and there are tons of things to see and do, Oxford is rather small and the main attractions is Oxford University and its 30+ colleges.

 Trinity College

Linacre College

Wadham College

 

Hertford College - Athol's college

 



Athol has seminars on Wednesdays and Fridays. He is getting slowly used to Oxford's strange way of teaching where there are only seminars and no lectures.

Athol was invited by a friend to attend a function at Rhodes House. Yes there is a huge grand building with large lawns in Oxford called Rhodes House. So while there has been so much controversy about the little Rhodes statue outside Oriel College on High Street, nobody is upset about Rhodes House nearby. Today the College Governing Body decided that despite the protests, the statue will not be taken down.

Oriel College

To be honest, we walked past this statue many times without realising that it was a statue of Rhodes. It's quite small and high up.

 Rhodes House

 

Rhodes House

On a lighter note.... We've been watching a lot of sitcoms via Amazon and Netflix - 30 Rock, 3rd Rock from the Sun and now How I met your Mother.

We also do a lot of crosswords. In 2011, we had bought a book of 200 crosswords, which we took around with us when we travelled. Without Nintendo Wii (our favourite past-time in SA) we do crosswords every day here :) We finally completed all the puzzles, correctly completing a crossword (100% correct) 1 in every 3. Not too bad hey! It helps keep the mind sharp :) Athol and I make a great team, there's some answers that he knows and some that I know. We track our stats and try to set the record of most 100% completed crosswords in a row, as well as in a day, also the quickest completed crossword. We are nerds, I know :) It's also a bit of a travelling diary (it's been to all the cities we've travelled to - Boston, Washington, NY, LA, JHB, London, Dover, etc. ) as we both leave a witty comment on every crossword we do, depending on the circumstances - making up excuses or using cool sayings that we like from the sitcoms/movies. We have now started a new crossword book.

Crossword book bought in 2011 from Waterstones V&A, CT

 



We are busy planning to go back to SA for a couple of weeks in April. Will be great to see family, check up on things and everyone at READ to RISE! Then we are likely to be back again for a month or so in August.

Climbing St. Mary's Tower

On Friday, we had a rare sunny day in Oxford with blue skies even though it was very cold.

I walked around Oxford and went into St Mary's Church which was built over 1000 years ago. It's a beautiful church with grand arches and lovely stained glass windows. Entrance is free so you are welcome to wander around the church. A great, warm place (especially on a cold day) to just sit in a quiet church.

The church is opposite the Radcliffe Camera and the public climb up St.Mary's Tower to get the best views of Oxford. It costs 4 pounds to go up the tower. I decided to climb the 124 stairs up to the top, passing a stunning window on the way up, you could see the Radcliffe Camera through it.

 

When you reach the top, there are beautiful views of the Radcliffe Camera and beyond. The narrow, steep staircase led up to a narrow ledge around the tower - where only two people can pass each other (so make sure you don't have big, bulky bags with you!).

Well worth the climb up to the top of St Mary's Tower!

Beauty is everywhere

My new hobby is photography so I have been experimenting with my new DSLR camera. I've also joined the world of Instagram. It's a whole new world to me. I'm familiar with facebook and twitter but never tried instagram.

Facebook is more generic where you can post photos, share how you feel, share what you 'like', say where you are in the world, where you are eating, see whose birthday it is, etc. It's great to connect with people living afar. I have got in touch with friends from primary school, even my Grade 1 teacher! It's also a great way to spy secretly on what others are doing :) by viewing their photos and seeing their daily status updates. You can however control your privacy but not making everything you post public.

Twitter is the world of tweeting, retweeting and hashtags ##. It's more for sharing good articles that you come across. It's good for on-the-go updating of your status. You get to see hundreds of news but luckily all summarised in a small number of characters hence the use of hashtags.

Instagram is all about sharing and admiring beautiful pictures. There are so many kinds of photos out there and you can see the different styles captured by different photographers. I have a new found respect for photographers as some photos are really amazing and so creative. Photographers are artists of light and it's all about composition, lighting, symmetry, colour, shadows, etc. It's a whole new world and being a newbie I am still figuring it all out. I must say that I am enjoying seeing the photos and am inspired. Think I have officially crossed over to the Instagram side and become a Instagrammer :) amazing to see that some photographers have so many followers that they are actually world influencers. I hope to capture beauty on my adventures.

Here is one of my favourite photos to date:

Find the silver lining. Even when it's four degrees Celsius outside, find the hidden beauty! Beauty is everywhere.

Follow me https://www.instagram.com/tarynlock/

Looking back at 2015

Another great year!

READ to RISE did amazing, we gave out over 20,000 new books to children in need and we now have a staff of 4 full-time and 3 part-time staff. We started operations in JHB this year. READ to RISE has also been nominated for the 2016 Civicus Mandela Machel Innovation Awards.

We published our second children's book OAKY THE HAPPY TREE and launched it on 9 September 2015 at the Westridge Library in Mitchells Plain.

We attended the Deputy President's Pre-SONA Youth Engagement at Harare Library in Khayelitsha on 18 February. The photo in the Business Day was with Cyril reading OAKY AND THE SUN to the children :) which was also used for National Book Day.

Athol got accepted into Oxford University for a MPhil in Political Theory - a dream of his to study at Oxford. We spent 3 months in Oxford from October 2015.

Athol won his first poetry prize - the 2015 Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award. Athol was interviewed on SABC. Athol published his second book of poetry Bumper Cars which features his award winning poem "Streetclass Diseases"..

I was named by Cape Town Magazine as one of Cape Town's Fearless Females in 2015. READ to RISE was on Expresso SABC which featured me.

So a busy but great year. I look forward to 2016! We hope to publish our next children's book and Athol his biography. READ to RISE will continue to do amazing things. I hope to develop my photography skills and take some great photos.

Happy new year all!

Christmas in Oxford

This year we spent a quiet Christmas in Oxford, just Athol and I. The weather has been cold - grey with rain most days. The "sun" rises about 8am and sets at 4pm so the days seen so short!

We decided to go to into town today, had a fun day pottering around. Although there were tourists, it was relatively quiet. Most students and admin staff go home for the holidays. It also gave me a chance to try out my new hobby... photography :) with Athol as my model!

 

 

 

 

Athol by The Bridge Of Sigh by his college - Hertford College

 

 

Most places were closed - the covered market, Bodleian Library, Museum of History of Science so we spent some time at the MCR at Hertford College. We had lunch at one of our favourite spots All Bar One, even did a crossword (we do at least one crossword a day!).

We also saw the notorious Rhodes Statue outside Oriel College in High Street. #RhodesMustFall
There's been so much controversy over this statue.

 

 

Christmas lights in Oxford

 

 

A fun day out!

Day of Reconciliation

Today in South Africa, thousands of people protested that our president #Zumamustfall

It's been a terrible week for South Africans and our poor rand, which dropped about 10% in the two days to R24,30 after our Finance Minister Nene was removed and replaced by unknown van Rooyen. Four days later, Zuma appointed one of our previous Finance Ministers Pravin Gordhan to replace van Rooyen.

Although the rand has recovered a little, South Africa has a mammoth task ahead. Finch has already downgraded South Africa's credit rating and today Moody has downgraded us from stable to negative. It's only a matter of time, when all our ratings will be made junk. Then the country is in deep trouble and we can say goodbye to our dear rand.

We are in the UK at the worst possible time with our weak rand. Rent is about 1000GBP a month so R24k! Zuma's bad decisions have just us a lot, and I mean lot more money, for us to be here in the UK and for Athol to study. If the rand deteriorates a lot more, we might have to re-consider staying here.

It is so sad watching our beloved South Africa go from bad to worst, and the government isn't doing anything to fix things. The corruption, crime and unhappiness of citizens continues. I was saddened to hear that an 85 year old Chinese lady was raped in Malvern on 7 December and her 62 year old son shot in the head, all this for R1500 cash and some other items. What kind of a world has this become. Today there was a march in JHB to appeal to the police to catch the culprits - so sad that we have to march and beg our police for safety and justice.

South Africa is such a great country, great weather, property and things are cheap, great food but the government and crime is really making things unpleasant. I pray for South Africa, I pray for justice, peace, no more corruption, no more crime.

While here in the UK it is cold and rainy and dark most days, but there is a darkness looming in South Africa.

Crazy Black Friday

The world seems to have adopted America's Black Friday sales, including South Africa!

This year I've noticed so many South African retailers slashing their prices for Black Friday - just a marketing gimmick but effective from all the photos I've seen with people queuing.

Here in the UK, Black Friday is also a big thing with retailers advertising great deals and goods been snatched up quickly. I too managed to get a great online deal :)

Here is some background of Black Friday:

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States (the fourth Thursday of November). Since at least the 1930s, it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the US, and most major retailers open very early (and more recently during overnight hours) and offer promotional sales.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)