Unwinding After A Big Week

Well today was yet another big week and I must admit I was extremely (possibly unhealthily) tired by the time the weekend rolled around. Unfortunately Friday wasn't a very productive day for me with the workmen outside managing to hit an electrical cable and disconnecting the power for everyone in the block of apartments I am in and half of the street too.

When I walked out to see what had happened there were a bunch of guys wearing orange vests looking into a hole and none of them really knew what to say - this is where if they were an Aussie they would have just gone, "Bugger!":

All of external the alarms were going off and one guy called the electricity company and the verdict was no power for at least 1-2 hours. So I decided time for happy hour:

It was a good turnout with the whole Jericho office being there, but at the end of such a big week the conversation was a little lacking. Either way it was nice to be in the (very) fresh air and relaxing.

Walking around Oxford & Jericho

As I mentioned in an earlier post I went for some more walks around Jericho this last week. This is more just pictures but anyway here are some of the things I saw:

Anyone else thinking "Dangermouse!!!"


This is my Church - Woodstock Rd Baptist Church


Spring is on the way (well technically here) but nature is finally catching up.


St Bernadettes? Church (Opposite Bookbinders Pub)


My Apartment from across the river


A short walk downstream from my place towards the car hire place

English Pubs and Quiz Nights

Claire gave me message to say that they were going to a pub quiz night at the Book Binders pub in Jericho and I was welcome to join their table if I felt like it. So that night after going to a meeting at Birmingham I headed out for the 1 minute walk to "The Old Bookbinders" pub just down the road from where I am staying.

English pub quiz nights are very different from Aussie quiz nights. For starters they are much more disorganised. Basically everyone piles into the pub before the time it is due to start and then before the appointed time for the quiz to begin the publican walks around and gives out sheets of paper for people to answer they questions on. Except in our case he accidentally gave us the answer sheet. However, none of us looked at the paper for a little while and so the answers sat on our table for a few minutes before Claire, mentioned that there was something a little wrong with our questions sheet.

Anyway, being honest people we handed the answer sheet back to the very embarrassed pub owner who just pretended it hadn't happened. Thus our team name became "Moral Highground".

We had way too many people for one table and as such actually got most questions right but then were penalised so heavily that we didn't win, much to the relief of the publican who was running the quiz.

At the end of the night he came across and had a laugh with us and gave us some promotional glasses and said he hoped we would be back -which I think was a fairly safe bet since it is walking distance from my apartment. But all had a good night.

As an aside:

I won't bore you with the details of work, business meetings, driving on motorways etc but just assume that I am doing that for at least 8 hours every Monday to Friday and too much on the weekends too.

Now I Know 3 People Here !

OK. Now that you have seen that I have been cooking, eating and have an apartment I figured it was time to actually go outside. An since the weather has improved quite a bit, it was beginning to even be slightly appealing to go for a walk.

I headed down to the local Co-op (super market) to get some additional supplies for meals and as I walked into the shop I walked past a girl who seemed familiar. I shrugged it off and thought no- I am on the other side of the world, she just must look a little like someone I once knew. So I kept on shopping, when I passed her again after completing the breads section I was convinced that she looked exactly like this person.

So figuring that I'm on the other side of the world anyway so making a fool of myself over here will be very unlikely to catch up with me back home I stopped and asked her where she was from. She looked a little confused and said, "I'm an Australian." So I pressed a little further, your name wouldn't be Claire Jessup would it? She looked a little freaked out actually as she said "yes ...".

So I quickly told her my name and she realised that our parents are quite good friends and her dad is Andy Jessup who was my tennis coach for a number years when I was younger and also was someone that we have done some work for at Optimatics.

Anyway, we exchanged numbers so that we could catch up some time and she could introduce me to some other Aussies that are in Oxford. So she will likely appear in future blogs. It really is a small world.

Andy's Cooking Adventure #1 (take 2)

Now armed with my blender I was ready to get stuck into some serious cooking. Now all I had to do was work out how to cook for one person instead of the small army I cooked for with Anil (my cooking guru - thanks).

I made a mess of the kitchen, I made a mess of all of the plates, pots and pans but I also made a Lamb Korma. I had some tonight and it tastes pretty good, not quite as good as at the banquet - but I think I know what to change for next time.

Andy's Cooking Adventure #1

OK I need to be fair and tell everyone that my first cooking adventure was partly an example of why some planning may be required before cooking. I had hoped to be eating Lamb Korma last night but well, you'll see why it's now tonights dinner instead.

I went shopping and gathers a good collection of spices and put them into my new containers. I found everything except the elusive Baba's curry powder so I had to make it up instead. But I got most of what I thought would be the elusive things:

A warning to all those who are still learning like myself, you need more than a fork and muscles to make garlic and ginger into a paste (no matter how long you mash at it). This lead to my first purchase for cooking purposes - a wand blender:

And so without my blender I resorted to a rather bland meal of spaghetti on toast. Only to regroup and begin again the next day.

The new apartment!!! Well my two weeks in the hotel are up and I am now in the new apartment. So some photos are in order: