Don't stop.

Today was such a hectic day (but green tea keeps me going). It seems that I don't have any time to stop but, then again, I love being really busy if it's with interesting activities! I met up with James Scargill today and we had lunch at The Mission followed by tea in his room. It was great to catch up with him and we talked about the upcoming New College Commemoration Ball and Hertford's black tie Gala of the Gods. We've decided to each buy two tickets so we can both go to the two events - I'm so excited!
The afternoon was spent at the welcome tea for the Chinese group and then an un-successful trip to the pub. I spent the rest of the time in the library preparing for tomorrow's presentation.

6:15am, Heathrow Airport

So today I met Alice and Kate (from the International Office) at Heathrow Airport to collect a group of High School teachers from Beijing. They took ages to arrive and we weren't back in Oxford until around lunchtime, only to find out that we were expected to give them a quick tour of the city! After some semi-made-up facts about Hertford and the University I cycled home and spent the majority of the day procrastonating - so tried! I then met up with my college children (Gaby and Steven), husband (Tom Davies), brother (Jamie) and Nabs' family for pizza at Pizza Express. This was so fun as it was a very large group and people kept on arriving to join it! This was then followed by a trip to G&D's (although most of us were pretty full) where we sat and chatted.

Ladurée

We finally made it. After almost a year of dreaming and planning to go, Chesca and I bought some Ladurée macaroons at the Burlington Arcade. We'd been inspired by The Unicorn Diaries to take a trip and it was the reason behind my return home this weekend.
The arcade was small and modestly elegant with a red carpet running through it and shops selling various items of jewellery and silverware. It was not until we reached the very end that we saw Ladurée on the corner. So much smaller than I'd expected and VERY expensive but still delightful and simple. We chose to share four macaroons; rose, raspberry, praline and pistachio flavour. As there was no room to sit down (or even move!) we continued on our way and ended up in the downstairs floor of costa with steaming mugs of tea and coffee. I used my spoon to carefully cut our prized treats into equal halves and we ate them slowly savouring the fine flavours and delicate textures. We must have been there for over two hours just talking and catching up. I know I always mention this but talking to Chesca has got to be one of my favourite things to do. She's always so thoughtful and funny that It makes me proud to be her sister.
Anyway, we later took the train to Richmond where we met mum, dad and Abu who'd spent a day in Kingston. From here we drove to an all-you-can-eat Chinese restaurant (which was a lot nicer than it sounds!). Being with my family was so lovely and relaxing - being at Oxford has made me appreciate so much more being able to spend time with them.

When things in life are just meant to be...

After lectures today I had lunch with Ruben, a PHD student from Mexico. We ate the most delicious tapas in Little Clarendon street and spent a good two hours talking in Spanish about the wonders of Mexico. He kindly walked me back to College where I had to rush off and meet Seb to quickly discuss Ageaid stuff. From here I walked in the rain to the bus stop and met this really sweet guy from New College called Jezz. He knows James Scargill and we began chatting. The bus, however, stopped further down the street so we had to sprint to catch it. As we got on I realised that I'd dropped my flower hair clip. Jezz asked if I was OK and I said it ws fine - if I'd lost my hair clip then maybe It was not meant to be mine anymore. He got on the bus but I had to wait for the next one as my ticket wasn't valid for another 5 mins. I retraced me steps but couldn't find the clip anywhere. By now I was soaked, tried and slight sad. It didn't take long for the next bus to arrive and it is here that you find me blogging about the picture for today. And as I reached to get my netbook I saw the hair clip safe and dry inside my folder...

Best day, Thursday

Today was so busy but very enjoyable. It started with three lectures in the morning with a one hour gap between the first and second one. I used this pretty efficiently by doing some work in the library on my shmoo. I then lost my bike keys, found them and proceeded to cycle like crazy to the careers service in time for a talk on International Internships available this year. I had to leave this a bit early as they ran over time and I still needed to cycle home for lunch and then peddle furiously to Cowley for my interview. This went pretty well and I calmed myself down by walking around the Botanical Gardens before heading back to Hertford. They were so bare and all the plants had been cut back - I could see from one side to the other! This was quite sad as I suddenly realised that it isn't as large as I thought...
However, a quick trip into the humid hot houses cheered me up as the smell reminded me of being a kid and visiting Kew. Here I found some cotton plants and thought they'd make a good picture. I sat on the floor determined to get a good shot but was rudley disturbed by some tourists who decided that they wanted to get the exact same photos! gr.
A not-so-manic cycle back to Hertford was followed by some more work in the library and a quick trip to Morton's to buy a baguette for dinner - yum! Here I saw the CUTEST guy ever who held the door open for me *sigh*. I then did some more library work and went off to my first Japanese class of term. This reminded me very much of French GCSE and was pretty laid back. I was unable to stay for drinks in the pub later but met Alice at Wadham instead for a meeting by Food Justice - an Oxhub charity organisation working to help distribute unwanted food from supermarkets to homeless shelters etc. It was so interesting to hear about the project (it's fairly new) and I wanted to do as much as possible straight away! Anyway, it was getting late so I cycled back home and now find myself content and looking forward to what tomorrow may bring...

It was you I was thinking of.

Just some lyrics that came into my head as I wrote this.

Its been raining all day and I've spent the majority of time finishing off an essay on Evolution and Systematics. Tomorrow I have the busiest day of the term so far and won't have a break to eat until around 2pm. I then have about three different meetings and possibly an interview with Oxhub for the position of official photographer. It has taken me almost 2 hours to sort through all my pictures ever taken on the Nikon to find ones I think would be good examples of my work. I'm excited about my day tomorrow. It is certainly going to be VERY busy but atleast I'll be doing things I enjoy!

These are a few of my favourite things...

Taking this picture today reminded me of all the things I really like in life. Perfect white porcelain being an example. I don't know why but I just love how flawless it looks...
Today I was pretty effcient and managed to get quite few things sort. You know, the little things that just slowly accumulate and you forget to do although they're quite important...
I met up with Seb from AgeAid to start working on a project between the University and Community centre here in Summertown. The ladies we spoke to we incredibly friendly and had tonnes of great ideas. I then had another meeting with everyone going to Japan and we discussed places to visit. After dinner in hall Alice and I got some work done in the library which was pretty good too. It seems that this term is going to be busy in the best possible sense of the word. I can't wait to get started on all the various projects I have lined up!