Oxford

Flew over to Oxford from Hamburg on the weekend. Flying with Ryanair is something that I hope I never have to do again. The flights appear attractively cheap. However, with the government taxes, baggage charges, having to pay for food on flight, and the cost of getting to and from the obscure airports that Ryanair uses, it turns out to be much more costly than you are led to believe. The airline tries to turn a dollar at every opportunity. The flight which they advertise as going from Hamburg to London actually goes from Lübeck to Stansted, which are completely different cities. A shameful misrepresentation. The dirty scoundrels also sell lottery tickets and other useless trinkets on board the plane. But perhaps I've got a little carried away.

Before catching the Oxford Tube from near Victoria station, I did a bus tour of London. I was in London in July with Macca, but the bus tour made me realise how many things I haven't seen. Madame Tussauds, Harrods, the Dungeons, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, London Zoo and the list goes on.

I alighted from the bus on the Oxford High Street at around 7pm. I walked back down the High Street a few hundred metres and was greeted by Eric out the front of the Magdalen College Porters Lodge. After trying some of Eric's home made Lasagne, which was actually really good, we went to a college frat party which was affectionately dubbed 'the Liquid Lounge', a reference no doubt to the frosty beverages consumed there. I played ‘Tip Cup’. The aim of this drinking game is to skull and then flip your cup off the edge of the table so that it lands face down. Once you succeed, the next person does the same. You play in teams and the first team to finish wins.

Saturday morning (24 November '07) Aaron, Eric and I woke up early and went to watch the election. We went to Rhodes house to watch the results come through. There were about 100 Aussies watching the results on a big screen in the main hall of Rhodes House with green and gold streamers draped around the room and a big Ausralian flag hung at the back of the room. It was really surreal because I knew seven of the people there. David Townsend, Anthony Jones, Angela Cummine, Eric Knight, Aaron Rathmell, Oli Jones and Tash McCarthy. As AJ informed me, Oxford is really a finishing school for Sydney Uni students.

Rudd won a resounding victory. 83 out of 150 seats in the House of Reps and Maxine McKew forced Howard out of Bennelong. I am very pleased with the result, although cautiously optimistic. Hopefully the labour party doesn’t manage to destroy the country within the next 3 years. It was perhaps one of my most memorable experiences, being on the other side of the world, in the main hall of Rhodes House in Oxford, watching a turning point in Australian history unfold with so many other Australians.

After watching the end of the results, Maxine make a drunken fool of herself, Turnbull make a leadership speech, Howard thank his ‘cement’ (wife) and Rudd awkwardly refer to himself in the third person, it was time to see Oxford. We had a lunch at the Turf Tavern. A really nice little pub, previous patrons include the likes of Bob Hawk and Bill Clinton. Interestingly, there is a meadow on the grounds of Magdalen College, which is used as a deer park. However, while I was there the deer had been moved onto other college land because the river, I believe it is the River Cherwell, had just recently flooded.

That night I went with Eric to the black tie dinner and initiation ceremony for the Magdalen College Rowing Club. The dinner consisted of bruscetta, lasagne and chocolate cake. It was pretty reasonable, but at £20 it was quite expensive for what it was. During the dinner the rowing organises proceeded to give out a series of prizes and make in jokes that I don't think even Eric understood. Afterwards, we all went down to Addison’s walk, a tree lined pathway on the College grounds, and I was initiated into the College rowing club with all the rest. Initiation consisted of swapping clothes with someone from the opposite sex, having your legs taped together and a bottle of alcohol taped to your hand, then running along to certain check points where the alcohol was replenished. Ah, Oxford.