Daylight savings

Today in the UK clocks are officially put back by one hour, so now we are 2 hours behind South Africa.

 South Africa played New Zealand yesterday in the rugby World Cup. We lost 19-21.

Yesterday, Athol had a Skype interview with Morning Live at 8:35am so we woke up at the crack of dawn to go to the Gilbert Library at Hertford College at OU so that we would have a nice background. It was a difficult interview because they skyped and phoned him so could here the feedback. It was still a good interview nonetheless as it was about Athol winning the Sol Plaatje European Union a poetry Award for 2015 for his poem Streetclass diseases. .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDQkDS1AUCU

What a great day

This morning Athol attended his matriculation which is his induction into the university. They had to wear their sub fusc.

There's a ceremony and welcome for all new students to the college. The ceremony took place in the Sheldonian Theatre. They also took a group photo in the quad.

This afternoon, the Springboks beat Wales in the quarter finals of the rugby World Cup 24-19. Arsenal beat Watford 3-0. Then it was announced that Athol won the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award for 2015! What an achievement, am so proud. There were over 600 applications so even to get shortlisted was amazing! Now he is an award-winning poet! Congratulations Athol!

Exploring Oxford - Oxford Canal

On Sunday we decided to explore the Oxford Canal in Summertown.

It's a short walk from where we live. It's a long canal that joins the Thames River in central Oxford. There a path for walkers and cyclists. It's peaceful with ducks and benches. There are canal boats along the side. Would be nice to do a canal cruise. Across the canal you can see the houses who have the canal at their doorstep.

Am sure that we will be walking here a lot. Already we have walked so much. Everyday I have to walk to the shops along Banbury Street to guy some groceries, it's at least a 0.5km walk one way then I have to carry all the bags back. It's tough without a car but at least I get my daily exercise :)

Oxford University - Part 1

Oxford University is a pretty different university compared to other universities, they have their own quirky traditions and names for things.

This week Michaelmas Term begins on 15 October 2015.

Oxford University has three academic terms, namely Michaelmas, Hilary and Trinity.

Each term has 8 weeks. The week preceding the term is called Week 0.

There is the University, then there are over 20 colleges as well as faculties.

The colleges make Oxford University very different to others, as each student must register with a college. The college is where you will have a college tutor and a lot of other support e.g. library, IT, your "pige" (short for pigeon hole where all your mail can be sent!), college nurse, etc. Some students live in the college and then there is college accommodation nearby. The "lodge" is the reception at your college. Each college offers students different social groups like choir, band, rowing, etc. There is also a grand dining room for students to eat. So while it is cool to say that you studied at Oxford, saying which college you are from is cool (or uncool!) too :) You might see t-shirts with the college names e.g. Magdalen College, Jesus College, Christ Church College, St John College, Braenose College, etc.

So Athol is at Hertford College which is directly opposite the amazing Bodleian Library. It's a small college which has the famous Bridge of Sighs which connects two of the buildings.

"Sub Fusc" is a new term that we've learnt. It is the academic gown with cap and bow tie that students are to wear for tests/exams and events. In South Africa, this is only worn for graduation. Interestingly, only recently have they not stated what gender each needs to wear and now they only say that students can wear the hard or soft cap (previously soft caps for women only!). You can choose between a black or more traditional white tie and need to wear a dark suit. So we had to buy one since Athol will have to wear it quite a lot, the first one being this Saturday for Matriculation - which is when individuals become an official student. In South Africa, matriculation is when you pass Grade 12.

So it's been very interesting so far to learn the ways of Oxford University, where thousands of students have studied over many, many years. So much history in Oxford, it is know as "The City of Dreaming Spires". So I look forward to exploring more of Oxford.

5p per plastic bag from 5 October 2015

Just our luck, supermarkets will now charge for bags in the UK.

The visa rules have changed so much this year making it tougher for foreigners. Firstly they introduced the health charge of 150GBP which foreigners need to pay upfront plus the TB test which costs over R1000. The Tier 4 student visa cost about R6000, so did the spouse visa.

Not to mention that the rand is at its absolute worst around R21 to the pound :( can't help mulitiplipying prices by 21.  We know that living in UK is much more expensive. Last night we ate at an Indian Restaurant called Saffron in Banbury Street in Summertown. We had poppadoms, I had an orange juice and the veg tikka masala with basmati rice and Athol had the veg Britain which came to R560! For that we could have gone to Bukharra in SA which is much nicer plus we'd get change.

We sure don't choose cheap places to study and live. Our rent is about 800 GBP which is over R16k! Which is ridiculously expensive considering it's only 50sqm but at least it's better than London where we were paying over 1000 GBP.  Let's hope that the rand strengthens.

The Oxford Adventure Begins!

After spending 14 months in CT, we left on 30 September 2015 at 2pm then arrived in JHB at 4:10pm. Our SAA flight to London Heathrow departed at 8:20pm.

I enjoy flights - the small meals and on board entertainment :) I watched the movie Focus with Will Smith. There were lots of people coughing around us, so Athol was bound to get sick (as he always does on flights!).

We arrived in London at 7am then caught the National Express at Terminal 2 to Oxford (100min trip). We noticed "parking pods" driving by on separate in-the-air rails at the airport - quite futuristic I must say!

We finally arrived in Oxford on Wednesday 1 October 2015 around 10am at the Gloucester Green bus station. Athol went to get our flat keys from Hertford College then we caught a taxi to our new home in Summertown. It's university accommodation. It's a nice one bedroom garden flat (even though they call it a studio flat), probably about 50sqm with a huge garden! (compared to our 28sqm room at Northumberland House in London!)

The kitchen is fairly big (at least there isn't a communal kitchen like at LSE!) with all appliances needed. There is a heater in every room even the bathrooms - it must get cold here!  We discovered that the "scouts" come and clean the flat every Friday - a great perk!

Summertown is a lovely suburb, for the more mature couples :) it's quiet, with shops along Banbury Road and South Parade. It's got all the shops that one needs - Tesco, Sainsburys, the Co-Op, Boots, M&S, banks, restaurants, etc. I managed to get some bedding, towels and crockery at a shop called Cargo. Still need to buy some things but this is our home for the year :)

Athol starts his MPhil degree in Political Theory at Oxford University, a dream of his!

Trip to Dublin 23-26 June 2014

From Oxford, we caught a train to Gatwick Airport which is a South-West of London and flew out to Dublin. South Africans don't need a visa for Dublin so we didn't go through the visa/passport check. At the boarding gate to my horror we realised that our boarding passes needed to be stamped at passport control so we dashed back. The man at the Airport desk said that Ryanair officials would come through to take us back out to the entrance. When they eventually came they said that they could have actually stamped it at the boarding gate but now the plane had already left. We had to buy new tickets (it cost 110 pounds each, even though our original return ticket was 80 pounds each!) and go through security again.
So four hours later, we eventually arrived at the Dublin airport. The public transport was very efficient. Airlink (government owned which also do hop on hop off tours) offers visitors a buss service to/from the airport into the city (about 20min) including a 2 day hop on hop off tour for 19 euro.

We stayed at Cassidys Hotel along O'Connell Street. It was a nice old hotel close to the main attractions. Since we arrived late, we decided to have dinner at the hotel which was very delicious.

On Thursday, we went on the city tour bus and hopped off at Trinity College.

We walked to Merrion Square where there was a statue of Oscar Wilde. Apparently he is the only statue in colour and he faces the building where he grew up. Oscar Wilde was a very colourful character in real life too.

We went to the National Library of Ireland as there was a WB Yeats exhibition, which Athol is a fan of. It was a great audio visual exhibition of the great writer. Ireland is very proud of its writers, there were even 3 noble prize winners for literature.

 Where the president lives

We hopped back onto the bus and it took us around to see the Zoo (there are apparently many deer there), Guiness, the Jameson Distillery, etc. We stopped by Blue Apple for a Chai Latte and a snack. For supper we ate at Oasis Cafe in Smithfield, a slightly dodgy area but a very nice, cheap restaurant with very good food. It was raining so we caught a cab back home.

On Friday, I had booked a tour to Newgrange (ancient heritage site just out of Dublin). We waited outside the Gresham Hotel at 11am but no bus came. Eventually a tour guide told us that there weren't any tours that day. Nobody had told us :( We were looking forward to the tour. Anyway, we had a day to explore Dublin. We had a coffee and hot chocolate at a gelato shop along O'Connell Street and then caught the tour bus to Grafton Street. We got some sandwiches at M&S and ate at St Stephan's Green - a lovely park. We saw a Tagore and  Yeats memorial. Athol was inspired to write a poem about the WB Yeats statue.
There was even a children's orchestra playing classic music during lunch time.

After lunch, Athol wanted to go to the Marsh Library so I took the Docks Tours. It was a 30 min tour which took us around the docks. We stopped at the U2 Graffiti Wall, this was apparently where the band recorded some albums.

For supper we met up with one of my fold varsity friends at a Japanese/Korean restaurant just around the corner from our Hotel, which was very nice. After supper we took a stroll down to the Liffey River.

I like Dublin, it is a nice colourful city with diverse people.