It is amazing how little time it takes to feel like tourists rather than residents. On the Sunday, we so enjoyed being in St Columba's for worship, but we travelled in on the bus from North Oxford and we had never approached St Columba's that way. After church, we had a lovely lunch with Gordon and Tony at Cafe Rouge on Little Trendy Street (really Little Clarendon) then did a little shopping in the little trendy shops. Elizabeth bought a wooden candle holder souvenir.
On the Monday, we had breakfast at the Brasserie on George Street, where we have hardly ever been and it was fantastic. Highly recommended!! On Tuesday, Pete did the Oxford Credit Union as usual, and then he and Elizabeth went to Rectory Road to move their old dining room table from the Star, where it had been stored, to their GKG office in the Old Music Hall on the Cowley Road. All so familiar. But we both could not identify with having walked up the steps of no. 43 Rectory Road as residents. We are SO at home in Bella, it was really pulling our imaginations to recall ever having lived in East Oxford. We like East Oxford and are familiar with it all, but we couldn't identify with living there. Odd, but good to know! It rather seals our present reality as the right one for us. We were delighted to finish that day by having drinks with Max and Jane at our familiar Kazbar and then going out to dinner with our James.
The other thing we realised about Oxford is how PACKED it is. On a grand scale, it is like narrowboat living with every nook, cranny, corner and crevice filled with whatever can fit it in a specially designed and often beautiful way. We saw Jericho houses from the back and noted all the additions and extensions, up, out over, below, between... Living in Oxford for so long, we had just noted the growth as part of life. But now with the contrast of where we now live with changing gardens from open fields to tiny villages and the occasional city scape, the shock of the density was great indeed. This photo is from the bottom of the Oxford canal on our departure. We love Oxford, but are now quite glad we live on a boat called Bella.
