Wu Wei

Surviving just!

All work and no play certainly makes a dull blog.

I survived moving on my own, managed to set up the internet but not the wireless or the phone but leave the house civilised for Bee who returns to her new home (not quite what I mean) from Japan today. Packing for Bosnia, my computer power unit decided to blow just before I made my backup. Leaving at 4 am the next day meant I had no choice but to bring it with me so I had to pay to ship it back to France where the warranty hopefully has taken over.

The only good news was I was headed for Hotel Hecco in Sarajevo which advertise "computers in the rooms". So eventually I got back to normal and retrieved some of the urgent work, though now have to work on three countries at once to recover what was lost.

Sarajevo was covered in snow when we arrived. Flowers are still blooming and a trip to Tuzla (punctuated by traffic jams whilst rockslides were removed) gave a glorious display of autumn colours, as the leaves are only just turning, and havent yet fallen. By today the snow has all gone and the drizzle is warm.

Daytime work is going well for once, so I am able to do a night and weekend shift on the rest. Only another week to go and I get home, finish everything off and have a rest. Then I go off to start my new project. 18 months in the same place, with good food and wine. Watch this space.

The Cowley Road gentrification -- is it a bad thing?

For those of you not well up on the current debate about this really important issue, you might like to go here, with an extract:

Town and gown have always been uneasy neighbours in Oxford. On Broad Street it is hard to stick out a foot without tripping up a student or a tourist. In the suburbs the university’s influence is scarcely felt. Then there are the borders, where the two spheres of existence collide. One such frontline territory is the Cowley Road. Once a distinctly downmarket area, recent years have seen it becoming increasingly gentrified.

Or here.  Or you can join the group   on Facebook, which says: 

Let's declare war on the 'Jericho is better' separatists.

Jericho is a smarter part of Oxford (too expensive for students, except for the very rich).

The latest issue is whether we should all boycott Costa Coffee.  For really incisive arguments try here.

Hey, but isn't the reason for boycotting Costa on Cowley Road because there is better coffee (not to mention cheaper) and nicer places to sit than this tarted up bank.  On both of the occasions I came in, a creepy manager appeared from lurking somewhere in the back and asked me what I wanted.  The first time I was looking for somewhere with wireless.  As they didn't have it, they immediately lost my custom.  The second time, I wanted to sit down with my Economist and drink my coffee.  Surely you don't need permission to sit down in a cafe.  Even the Hotel Majestic (see here and here) has notices telling you first, what you're not allowed to do.

Technorati tags: Cowley Rd, Oxford, Costa coffee, gentrification

Fresh Polish food

Update 2
It's moved. Go here

Update 1
I'm glad to be able to point visitors to this shop just round the corner from where I live in Oxford. For those of you trying to find it, it's on the corner of Bullingdon Rd and St Mary's Rd, not actually on Cowley Rd.

Of course it's just one of the interesting sights in and around Cowley Road, which is again just one part of Oxford that I write about when I'm home.

This is what I wrote in Aug 2007

On our route to look at a house to rent (houses in Oxford being too expensive to buy unless you have lived there all your life) we spotted this shop selling Polish products.  Unlike the Baltic shop on Cowley Road (our multicultural highway) which sells mostly things in tins, this shop offers fresh food from Poland.  I suppose now that all budget airlines fly to Poland everyday from several places in the UK, it could actually be fresh.  But not the frozen food, surely.

However stuck away in a side street is not a good location.  This shop has already been a Brazilian shop then a Portuguese shop.  But probably there are more Poles in Oxford.

Technorati tags: Polish food, Oxford

A Cowley Road mystery

 

While I was away in Bosnia, the local council was busy finishing the paving in front of the brand new East Oxford Health Centre.  After staggering to Tesco's and the doctor's a few times, I noticed these little brass plates had appeared in the brand new paving.  Then I noticed they were not the usual water/gas pipeline stuff but they were each different.

I have no idea what they mean  (no more blood, cool lense)  and who is Nelson Bean?  The sinister South American General is not identifiable.

I'm not sure anyone else has noticed them.  People walked straight past me while I was taking the photos.   And when did they put them there, in the new paving?  Even in the middle of the night Cowley Road is quite busy.  So a mystery it remains.

Technorati tags: Oxford, Cowley Rd, brass plates

May Day Oxford Style

Whilst much of Europe celebrates May 1st as Labour Day, in Britain we are different.  Partly because it is nice to have a long weekend, and with two public holidays in May, it is better to have them on Mondays, the first and the last of the month.  There was a move to make the earlier one a Labour Day but Thatcher banned any mention of it.  So our first British "May" holiday is on 7 May this year.

However, Oxford, or rather Magdalen College, celebrates May Day at 6am on the morning of 1st May.  So in order to have something to interest my readers, I dragged myself out of bed in time, this year.  In years gone by, undergraduates after enjoying their May ball would gather tired but happy at the foot of Magdalen Tower or as near as they could get.  After the celebrations they would go off to a champagne breakfast.  You can read about it here.

But these days it is not quite the same. 

Here are the crowds congregating on the way into town. Not a very big crowd this side of the bridge.  And definitely not the ball revellers but tourists and students well dressed against the cold.

You can't see, but we are held behind barricades, with police and private security firms manning them.  The police are preventing entry to Magdalen Bridge, from both sides. It looks like Mitrovica bridge must be, with the French KFOR keeping Albanians and Serbs apart.

    

Here is the Tower where the event takes place.  At the top you could just make out figures assembling ready for the performance.  At six o' clock Magdalen College choir sings two hymns in Latin, there is a prayer for town and the university (may they live in peace) and finally Thomas Morley's "Now is the month of Maying".  And that's the official bit over.  And off to breakfast.

                                   

But students being students, that has not been the end of it.  Traditionally some students (or just hooligan idiots) have thrown themselves off the bridge into the river below, where the water is not deep.  Hence the ambulance.  One student ended up paralysed in a wheelchair.  Female students did it naked, much to the delight of the tabloids.  Here is one recent account.

So now the police close the bridge just before and for a considerable period after the singing, hence the barricades.  And if you look closely at the photo of the Tower, you will see in front the mobile thin mast with closed circuit TV  which the police bring out on these occasions (or the more violent animal rights protests for which Oxford is now famous) to give them a view of the crowds, and also to see anyone creeping up underneath the bridge.  Yet another example of how the British are the most observed country in the world.

This year it all ended happily. On the way home I spotted this in a shop window.  It has nothing to do with the post, but I liked the t-shirt.

 

Technorati tags: May Day, Magdalen Tower, Magdalen College, TV surveillance