Oxford and last post for a while.

Just to let you know this will be my last post for a while and unfortunately I  will not be able to visit your blogs.   I return to France at the weekend and I have arranged for my French phone to be reconnected on 1 April.  I have also asked for the Internet to be connected at the same time, but generally this never seems to work quite as expected!  I hope to be back with you all at the very latest by mid-April, but if I get a chance to do a quick post from a friend's computer, I will at least let you know that I have arrrived and  how everything is.  No promises though.

Meanwhile here are a few photos that I took in Oxford while visiting  with Anne last week.  Anne has some beautiful photos which are different from mine, so please take a look at her blog HERE for part 1 and HERE for part 2.

As Anne has mentioned, we first visited Christchurch College; this is the view from the opposite side to Anne's photos.   I just fell in love with this huge tree!

and from the front

We than proceeded to Merton College Chapel; Anne has some interesting photos en route on her blog.  The doors were shut, but we managed to find the doors open at St John Baptist College Chapel.

The Chapel was consecrated in 1530, dedicated to St Bernard of Clairvaux, when this was the college for contemplative Cistercian monks. It was re-dedicated in 1557 to St John the Baptist. The present interior is mainly Victorian Gothic, with recent lighting and heating and a notable new organ.

We walked down to the Thames

and peered under the bridge

Walking on further, I loved this old building

We walked by the Hertford Bridge, popularly known as the Bridge of Sighs because it is similar to the famous bridge in Venice.

We then strolled by the Town Hall

and the Sheldonian Theatre

We than discovered that the doors were open at the church of St Mary Magdalen

The church lies outside the area of the medieval walled city.  A wooden church, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, stood on this site a thousand years ago.  Viking raiders burnt much of Oxford in 1010 and 1013, and the wooden church appears to have gone up in flames.

In 1074, Robert d'Oilli, the Norman Constable of Oxford, built a single aisle chapel to replace the Saxon building. He attached St. Mary Magdalen to his collegiate chapel of St. George in the castle. 

In 1194, St Hugh of Avalon, then Bishop of Lincoln, again rebuilt the church; some of the work remains, though much has been restored.  There seems to have been work on and off over the years, the most recent being the redevelopment of the west end of the church including a new organ, first used in 2003.  More information can be found HERE.

I have many more photos of Oxford, but on my return to France I will naturally be concentrating on French posts; nevertheless, I may just sneak a couple of Oxford posts in at some stage, especially some of the nice pictures I took of doors!!! 

What a Bargain and a Trip to Oxford.

Firstly, I would like to say my thoughts are with all those followers who have family and friends in Japan.  We seem to be getting bad news far too often these days. Yet another natural disaster; they  are  happening worldwide at the moment.

Last week I went to the supermarket to see if I could get some fish, as stocks in the freezer were running low . We are both very fond of all kinds of fish and would happily eat it in preference to meat.   When I got there, I was disappointed to find that there was almost no selection and nothing really of interest.  I was about to walk away, when a couple who had been standing in front of me moved aside, and I saw a whole salmon marked down from £21 to £13. I snapped it up very quickly, as I realised that I could fillet it and cut it into steaks, much cheaper than I could buy them pre-cut.  Salmon steaks here  are now generally around £6 for two!!

On arriving home, I set to work and somehow I must have cut one side of the fish into slightly larger steaks than the other, as I ended up with 15 steaks!!!  We had two the same night and I have frozen the remainder for Nigel to have when I return to France.  It is one meal he finds easy to cook in a hurry and he never has a lot of time when he returns from work in the evening. I was really pleased with myself, as 15 pre-cut steaks would have cost me £45; what a bargain.

 On Monday, Anne and I went to Oxford for the day.  I seldom go there, as I shop locally rather than struggle to a town where parking is very expensive. We went on the bus and as I have a free bus pass, it seemed like a good idea :-).  It was a fantastic trip, especially for me, as Anne knows her way around the town and took me to places I have never seen before.  I took so many photos that I am going to need time to sort them all out and try to remember where they all were!!  What I did think though, was as this post started out about fish, I would show you some of the photos  I took which were connected with food.

These were all taken in the covered market, which is an absolute delight to walk around.  Please note that some of these photos will not enlarge; Google is up to its tricks again!!

I did not buy any fish here, as I did not want to smell fishy going home on the bus!!!

This stand looked so fresh and colourful.

Mmmmmmm no comment!

Anne taking a look at the garden and flower section.

and Anne looking for Nigel's favourite French cheese

Well done Anne, she has found it - Fourme d'Ambert; Nigel was happy.

No, I did not buy any meat either

but I did buy some South African sausages here

Boerewors, which we had for dinner on Monday night with traditional pap (Maize or Mealie Meal) and sous (tomato and onion sauce) it was really yummy and an almost forgotten South African treat.  We ate it with great glee and I forgot to take any photos!

If you want your shoes fixed here, is the traditional cobbler.

We also made a visit to the old sweet shop, where Anne spent a bit of money. I carefully kept my hand in my pocket, thinking of what would happen to the scales if I got carried away here!  To see more on the sweet shop, Anne has some fantastic photos HERE 

Chocolate spoons - yummy

I loved that tin in the centre

Need I say more; whiskey fudge!

and, last but not least, whirly pops!