Date: 2008-02-07
To: Oxford
Miles today: 0.0

Hi all,Oxford is a very impressive place, each street seems to have another old exciting building. It very much reminds me of Melbourne University, but the bell towers are twice the height, some of the colleges look like medievil castles, spires climb high above your head. The Thames river flows by, but up here it is known as the Isis, with small old historic bridges spanning its width.Yesterday I went off to Christ Church College on a self guided tour. You first walk in and see the Meadow Building which is built in a Venetian style. Second is the Cloister, looks very similar to Newman College at Melbourne University and was part of the original Priory of St Frideswide. That was the original structure that was standing on this spot more than 1000 years ago, before this place was a university town. Next is the dinning hall, and this in my mind is what makes this place so famous, it is the dinning hall in the harry potter film. The movie makes the room look much bigger, but it is still a huge open space, the ceiling is magnificent of a hammerbeam construction. This place is also most famous for being the inspiration of a mathematician tutor at Christ Church known as Charles Dodgson who was the creator of Alice in Wonderland, so well before potter this place already had a mark in popular fiction.To understand this next part of the college you need a history lesson. Before the reformation England was a Catholic country, and the most powerful person was the churches representative. In henry the 8ths day that person was Thomas Wolsey who was educated at Magdalen College. He was the archbishop of York, a papal legate and Lord Chancellor. Henry wanted a divorce from his first wife, and sent Wolsey off to Rome, but he was caught between his patron and church, and was unable to get Henry his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. The King was furious and stripped Wolsey of all his titles and property, and kept all his land for himself. It was Wolsey who had started the construction of Christ Church, but it was then known as Cardinal College. Wolsey had planned this place to be the biggest college in the world, hence why things such as the Tom Quadrangle are so huge. The king took over Wolsey pet project and renamed it Christ Church and turned the priory into a cathedral, the original plans were going to see it demolished and constructed on a massive scale, but that was scrapped by Henry. It should be noted that 13 primeministers have been educated at this college. The Cathedral is rather small, but as a regular church it is rather big, if that makes sense. I was talking to the guide in the church who gave me all of this information. The cathedral was magnificent and had many relics. In one corner next to the altar is a chair with a big awning built over it, this was for Charles the 1st who was at war with Oliver Cromwell and the Parlimentarians, and he took refuge at Oxford, so they built a special chair for him. In the quadrangle there is a massive bell tower, that was designed by Christopher Wren the same man who designed St Pauls. The tower chimes 101 times at 9pm each night, in the original college that was how many students there were and they had to be back in the college by the end of the last ring of the bell or they would be locked out, today they have a key to the backdoor and can come back as they please. The last place I ventured was the picture gallery and it houses some very famous paintings.Everywhere you look there is another college, all having a distinguished history similar to the one above that I have just described. It really is such an impressive place from a historicla point of view.This place is full of people wearing suede, cordory trousers, expensive designer scarves, and polished brown shoes, there is definitely an Oxford look, I am the only one who seems to be walking around in tracksuit pants. The voices are all very posh and plumb, it makes me giggle each time I hear them talk. The girls are even more posh, people actually greet each other with Oh! Hello darling! The class system in this country is alive and well, it is a reminder of why Australia is the way it is, we created our country in direct oposition to this type of who is your father approach to the world. They say this is where the best of the best come, but I think from what I have witnessed having the right connections is more important, either way it does add to the ambience of the place. I have been sleeping on the hard concrete floor of Nicks room, it is your typical medical digs that they provide for staff. Last night we walked into Oxford town, about 40 mins away, and Nick took me down some narrow alleys that could only fit one person until we reached a pub. The beams in the roof were so low that even I had to duck. The place looked like it was half fallen down, but it was so spectacular. It had small nooks and crannies around every corner, and in one such place was a plaque on the wall to mark the spot where our former primeminister BoB Hawke set the world record for drinking a yard glass in 11 seconds. They supposedly only give out two Road Scholarships every year, and Bob got one of them to study here, that makes him one of the most scholastic people on the planet, who would have thought. Yet he marketed himself as the man of the people. We went to another pub, as soon as they recognise that Australian accent they are on for a chat. Nick and I sat with two doctors and a young man who is studying here doing some post graduate. Nick was as forward as ever, and suggested that we should be invited back for dinner to this persons college, and after some coaxing that is exactly what has happened. Tonight we are to have dinner at Worcester college in the dinning hall for a full 3 course dinner. Nick and i are now a couple of college men, I do seem to fit into this place rather well. except for my broad australian accent. People tell us that we do not speak english, we speak Oz, even in this town it seems to be a real sport to hang it on us aussies, but we do tend to give back more than we get.I have had a difficulty with my money. I was doing some internet banking and noticed that two withdrawals amounting to $735 had been taken from my account in Marsielle France. I rang the stolen visa card line and they got onto it, on the same day I had pulled out money in Dudley when I was with Gill, so it was obvious that I could not be in two countries at once. They checked the French withdrawals and said a card had been present at the transactions, so it seems someone has made a copy of my card. The bank suggested that I must have put my card into an ATM that has a scanner, and they have copied my magnetic strip, and created a new card. No doubt this would have happened when I was in Thailand, there was one transaction I made where it did take a very long time for my card to come back out of the machine. Anyways that card has been cancelled, and I have to send off a faxed form for a disputed transaction to get my money back. If you read this mum that means that both the neighbourhood cable account and 3 account will both bounce now as there is no access to that visa statement account. I will have to come up with another way to pay for them, at the moment they are being automatically debited from an account that has been cancelled.I have changed my flight, I leave for Zurich on Friday, Nick returns on that day, so I am doing the same, I can get a bus straight to Heathrow. It will be easier this way, and spend some more time in Zurich with free rent.This is the Worcester College boy signing offTally ho, I better go and practice my posh accent. I have to wear a tie, although there were those last ngith who said they will let me borrow from them, such nice chaps over here.