Oxford: 4/4/2023

 The laptop seems to have recovered after a temperamental breakdown last night, but who knows for how long? So I will try and make this brief. 

Down for breakfast at 6:30 -- I had thought I might take the staff by surprise, but they were active and the cooked bacon and eggs had already started to appear. The people who do the work here are all Asian, and chatter happily in their own languages, while the managers appear to be a rather ineffective English couple, giving it a slightly colonial feel. She's overweight and smokes, and he is bearded and harassed. Neither puts in an appearance in the mornings.

I had a full English, on the basis of loading up with food in the morning when it's free, and coasting for the rest of the day, and, although the coffee was instant and one of the crumpets was inedible, the rest was excellent. Back in my room I dressed for a day that was bright and sunny -- though cold -- and set out to see Oxford. 

First stop was the Bodleian Library, which was announced as opening at nine. Unfortunately all that seems to 'open' was the lobby of a modernish building. Access to the reading rooms wasn't till ten, and most of the older buildings are for card-carrying users only. The library buildings are impressive to look at, however, even if the one on the postcards isn't the Bodleian at all, but the Radcliffe Camera.

So I didn't spend a lot of time there, but walked on to the building which houses the Natural History Museum and -- in an adjoining room at the back -- the Pitt-Rivers museum of anthropology. Both of these are just great square halls with two levels of balconies running around all four sides. The Natural History museum has the usual mass of skeletons and fossils, with a decent geology collection on the second floor. The descriptions on the exhibits are detailed but a little dated, although here and there they've posted little apologetic notices about the terrible colonial past, and how guilty we all ought to be feeling about it. But I get the impression that they are actually quite pleased and proud of their collection, the blackguards!

One nice feature is that all the stone pillars ostensibly supporting the balconies (I suspect there's probably iron in there somewhere actually doing the work) come from different mineral deposits around the UK and Ireland, and are labelled with the mineral type and their point of origin.

The Pitt-Rivers collection is crammed into hundreds of glass cases in an enormous room which is still way too small for them. It's basically home to anything that any person might have made, or adapted, or used for any purpose whatsoever at any time. There's no real way to wrap your head around it, and the only impression I came away with was of the vast human race, all frantically doing things, all the time. It's not a restful place.

I had coffee and a snack at a little cafe on the second floor of the Natural History museum, and managed to get a sim card I had purchased working with no real difficulty. The company is Giffgaff, for future reference, and it was ten pounds for twelve gigs; much cheaper than the options at the airport.

I walked past the Morris Garage, where the original Morris Minors and MGs were made. There are some displays in the window, but it appears to be a residential building now. That led me on to Magdalene College. I had intended to see at least one college, and although this particular one was quite pricey at nine pounds fifty, I thought I should take the time. Some of it is still closed to visitors, and the Hall, which is normally open, was being renovated, so I'm not sure I got my money's worth, but I did hear the organist practicing inside the Chapel, walked around the cloisters, viewed the Deer Park, and strolled through the water meadows like Roger Waters in 'Granchester Meadows'; and indeed, like Roger, I even saw a kingfisher; not 'flashing through the water', but skimming over the surface. So it was all very pleasant, even if -- like most UK venues -- it was conspicuously short of publicly accessible toilets. A distinctive feature of the meadows is the snake's head fritillary, an alien-looking plant which grows here in abundance but is rarely found elsewhere. And big fat honking geese.

After the college, I went over Magdalene Bridge, where the punt-hire place we used in 1985 is still located, and into the suburbs via the Cowley Road. I was looking for the equivalent of a discount shop to buy a few miscellaneous things, but the only one I found was very poorly stocked compared with its Australian counterparts. But I found a nice church and a nice pub, where I sampled a pint of warm Cheltenham Ale. 

Back to town with the jet lag beginning to kick in, I decided to try and see the rest of the Ashmolean before five. I hadn't realised, however, that they have a whole art gallery on the top floor, along with vast numbers of plates and porcelain figures, and even a room with nothing but stringed instruments, including two Strads and an Amati. So it wasn't too long before I staggered out and made my way back to the hotel via the Sainsbury's supermarket just opposite, where I managed to get most of the things I needed. 

A quiet night in, dining off cheese, biscuits, and mini pork pies, followed by a shower, and so to bed by nine o'clock.