Did we see Matthew Crawley????

If you're a Downton Abbey fan, you'll understand our excitement when Greg and I had a late lunch/tea at The Rose on the High Street here in Oxford, and this is who was sitting at the table next to us. Here is a picture I took:

And here is a picture we found on Google images:

http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/32200000/Radio-Times-scans-matthew-and-mary-32224119-960-720.jpg

Was that Dan Stevens, the actor who played Matthew Crawley? Squeeeeel!!!!!
Well, no, as it turns out, it wasn't. It was a really neat guy named Greg, who was there with his girlfriend Rebecca. American as it turns out. They have recently come back from 6 months in China (seriously, you meet the most interesting people here), both of them graduates of Georgetown U, visiting family in London, in Oxford just for the day, and we had a really fun chat. Apparently, he has been stopped alot for the "Matthew" factor. If he did his hair a bit different, he could really pull it off. The irony? He has never seen Downton Abbey himself . . . an impoverished life.

Well, we're kind of excited because tomorrow is a Big Deal here in England, it's May Day, May 1st, and festivities start at 6 am tomorrow morning here in Oxford with the choir of Magdelene College singing from the top of their very high Great Tower. I'm saying we'll get up for it, but as a few of you know, Greg and I are not, I repeat, NOT morning people. Pray that the Lord would give us a good kick in the pants so that we might rise with a sparkle in our eyes. After all, May 1st is also the day, 25 years ago, that Greg asked me to marry him on the banks of Lake Carnegie in Princeton, New Jersey. So sweet of Oxford to go to all this trouble to commemorate the event. . .

While no one thinks of England as the most technologically advanced culture in the world (that's reserved for Japan, China, perhaps Germany?), I think this is a pretty amazing piece of equipment:

This is in a public restroom here, and it's an all-in-one hand cleaning system. Stick your hands in that large opening there. Soap squirts onto your hands. Then water starts spraying down. Pull your hands out for a sec, put them back in, and the blower dryer starts up. Voila! Clean, dry hands. I imagine this is what it would be like on the Starship Enterprise. . .

Tomorrow: a report on May Day, and lots of catching up to do of pix around amazingly beautiful Oxford. But let me leave you with one more lovely view around town:

Carrot Batons

In truth, I have very little to say about carrot batons, but it is a curious turn of phrase, right? Any guesses? Carrot batons are English-ese for carrot sticks. But for me it did conjure up images of drum majors wielding small orange batons. You run into this kind of thing all the time at grocery stores and hardware stores (which, by the way, are called ironmongers). Have you heard the musing that England and the United States are two countries divided by a common language? True that.

Here are some recent pictures . . .

Above, this was today, after doing some food shopping. It's amazing how quickly a couple of tote bags filled with groceries get heavy, so one of these rolling shopping bags is money well-spent. In the background there is another view of the lovely and iconic Bridge of Sighs, which was featured a couple of days ago.

If you were standing where we were in that picture, this is what you'd be seeing. Another iconic building of Oxford, the Sheldonian Theatre, with these really interesting heads punctuating the surrounding gate at intervals. Here are more of them:

I never get tired of looking up at these guys. They're probably about 10-12 feet up in the air. One thing that intrigues me about Oxford is that for all the formality and just-so-ness about how things are done, there is this strong whimsical streak that shows itself in places all over town. I guess after so much of hitting the books, people just have to cut loose. Maybe the architect of this building wasn't a fun-starved student, but he sure tapped into something . . .

And speaking of whimsy, how about young men in tuxedos playing croquet? If any of you readers are Brideshead Revisited fans, you'd half expect one of these guys to have a teddy bear named Aloysius. The gate behind which they played was quite something in its own right, as you get a little glimpse of. (Sometimes dangling participles at the end of a sentence just make it sound right!)

Finally, below is a view just outside our front door - the hyacinths in the big pot are a very dark fuschia, unlike any I've seen back home. And so wonderfully fragrant! It is really neat to be here in the spring time, as the English are just a bit proud of their gardens.

Tomorrow: a bus trip into London to visit some older relatives of mine, the Plowden brothers. Buses leave Oxford to go into London every 10-15 minutes! Imagine if we had that option going into New York City!

Seen Around Oxford

So, all over Oxford are things you won't see in most other places in the world. Below are a smattering of them. For starters, here is the place where Greg's colleague Alex suggested he buy a tuxedo. But with jackets alone starting at around $700, we probably won't.  Do note the "Established" date as being 1689. Wow. Of course, by Oxford standards, that's fairly recent.

Here is the entrance to our home, the Postmaster's House. Can't you almost picture William Shakespeare walking out with a recent manuscript in his hands?

And here is our front door, which we do not use, but many other people do, and at very early hours of the day. And loudly. Those front rooms on the ground floor are meeting rooms that Merton College people use for meetings and conferences. Early risers, they are. Bless their hearts.

When I first saw this sign, it seemed very Monty Python-esque. I now know what it means, but I almost preferred when I didn't! What the heck???

Boy, is there a story behind this . . . which I'm pretty sure I don't want to know. Knickers on a post. Musta been some night. Seen on the way to a very posh dinner tonight at St. Cross College, to honor an acquaintance of Greg's who has just become a professor here. In such cases, they give an Inaugural Lecture, which Greg's friend Steve Balbus did, on the subject of "Turning in the Widening Gyre: Accretion Processes in the Universe". Which I know most of you read up on earlier today. Me too.

And then I love this sign at the escalator at Debenhams, a local department store. Please note the 2nd line: "Dogs shall be carried". Which presumes that dogs will be coming in the store. Love it.

 

And so many faces carved in stone around the city! Some quite hilarious. I think this lion is just classic.

 

And finally, the beautifully named Bridge of Sighs, after a bridge in Venice. This also was on our way to dinner, shortly after the Underwear Episode (Oxford is a study in contrasts . . .)  That woman in front was a lovely woman named Judy, who is a retired scholar of Medieval Literature at Cambridge.

Our Second High Table

Compare, contrast . . . well first, yesterday was a gorgeous, sunny mild day. And when I heard the bells ringing joyously throughout mid-afternoon, I wondered what the occasion was. Seemed too early for Kate to have had her royal baby. Upon asking, I was informed that it was St. George's Day, patron saint of England. The Evensong service yesterday evening also payed homage to the saint, and we had our socks knocked off by some gorgeous choral pieces.

As it turned out, I did not need to feign laryngitis. The participants of last night's High Table, while extremely advanced in their fields of study, were sociable, friendly and kind. And many of them  quite young. At Second Dessert, Greg and I were the oldest people there by far. It was once again a really fun evening! A tad less formal - the men just wore jackets and ties, Greg once again looking smashing (yes, I'll have to get a picture for posterity). But dinner was alot more interesting last night! Sunday's meal was pleasant but unremarkable. But here is last night's menu:

The Soup Course

A tiny, almost demi-tasse of cream of asparagus soup, with a delicately crispy

medallion of a lacy cheese "cracker" on the side.

The Salad Course

A delicious, also petite, crab salad, sitting on very thinly sliced cucumbers, with halved grape tomatoes for a splash of color. Really yummy!

The wine pairing for the above: Chablis Alain Bretin 2011

The Entree

A sort of Pork Wellington, but imagine the pastry part being almost like a mullioned window - it wasn't solid, but rather like my fishnet stockings from the other night. Except pastry. Curious comparison, I know, but it's the best way I can describe it! Accompanying this were tiny peeled baby potatoes, and a lovely mix of grilled zucchini (called courgettes over here) and diced butternut squash. 

The wine with dinner: Gigondas Les Pierre du Vallet 2010

Dessert

Mango & Coconut Sponge with Chilled Vanilla Cream Sauce

It was all really delicious. And again, such interesting people. We could get used to this, but alas! one thing I learned yesterday is that you can only be a Visiting Fellow here but once. So we will just savor it as much as we can. Carpe diem.

Where We Live

Here are a few more pix, taken this morning . . . so yes indeed, this guy over a drain spout across the street is sticking out his tongue. At me. I guess his experience at Merton was not a happy one. Or perhaps he's the one who discovered that meat spoils if you don't refrigerate it overnight.

 The pictures directly above and below are views out our living room window . . . by the way, I think you can click on these images and they will appear larger. Just make sure that when you want to come back to this blog that you just use the "X" in the upper right corner of the enlarged photo. Otherwise (I have discovered) you leave the blog entirely. Oops. That gate you see below is the main entrance to Merton College (founded in 1264).

This is our cozy living room late last night. I'd love to know how old the oak panelled walls are. We watched On Her Majesty's Secret Service last night. George Lazenby made quite a good 007! And Diana Rigg is the young It Girl. I had no idea!

Tonight: 6:15 Evensong in the Chapel, then High Table again. Tonight's company is formidable: 2 youngish modern philosophers, an art historian, a genetic biologist, a Chinese archaeologist, the Mathematician from Munich, a couple of economists, the usual bevy of physicists (dime a dozen in this town) . . . I am contemplating feigning laryngitis just so as not to embarrass myself. And Beth, Mary - I'll wear the sheer black hose tonight. :)

Just blew kisses out the window to a school group of teenage tourists.

We are HERE!

. . . and we are loving it, even just 24 hours into our trip. Oxford is such a beautiful place. It's been long enough since I've been here that it all feels quite new. This is a view across from one of our upstairs windows - it's the top of a drain spout, and he appears to be in mid-speech. There is another one about 20 feet to his right, and I'm pretty sure the guy is sticking his tongue out. Interesting. Will try to get a pix of that to confirm my suspicions.

 And this is the street where we live. Our building - the one just past that white building on the left - is very old - we think 1400's! I'll certainly take more (and better) pictures, this was at the end of the afternoon, with not alot of light.

 We live at the corner of Merton Street and Magpie Lane . . . ancient cobbled stones (wear high heels at your own risk), and beautiful views wherever you look. It makes you giddy if you're an Anglophile, downright giddy.

And oh yes - High Table was amazing! So enjoyable that we'll do it again tomorrow night. I went with fishnet stockings, by the way. Didn't get your input til after the fact, sorry. What I didn't quite realize til we got there is that we ARE the High Table. If you're a Harry Potter Fan, imagine dinner at Hogwarts (slightly smaller hall I think, but similar in feel) Well, we sat where Dumbledore and company would sit, up there for all to see. Before dinner, the HT participants gathered in the Queen's Room behind the great hall for sherry, gin-and-tonics, etc. After a bit of light chit chat with a Shakespearean scholar a bell rang, and that cued us to walk into the great hall, as if walking on to a stage from a back door. You know you can't spell Hammett without H-A-M, but I resisted all my theatrical urges, strong as they were. The rest of the room had already been in place at their long tables, and once we all were seated at our pre-assigned locations, a student from the long tables stood and said the grace in Latin. It was left to me to make pleasant conversation with a young mathematician from Munich (sounds like the start of a limeric, doesn't it?) to my right, which actually went better than you might imagine.

The Menu

Appetizer - a lovely fish dish with a light cream sauce

A pleasant Chardonnay to complement

Roasted veal (with gravy) with roasted potatoes & steamed vegetables 

A pleasant red (I forget) to complement

Cheesecake with raspberries

The interesting part was Second Dessert (which of course made us think of The Hobbit's Second Breakfast. By the way, Tolkein taught at Merton College.) - the HT group retired to another grand and gracious room, leaving the long-table peons to fend for themselves. This room had one large oval table, and there we were treated to chocolates and a lovely assortment of cheeses and fruit. Plus dessert wine, port, etc. There were finger bowls as well, quite civilized. You chatted with different people at this point, no seat assignment, so I got to meet Merton's choir director, and a visiting Baptist preacher from London who wore his tux jacket with jeans, and no tie. Shocking!

And finally, into yet another room for liquers and such, and more good conversation. All in all, a fun night, made even more dreamlike by our lack of sleep.

More tomorrow . . .

Ladies-Only need read this

Sunday evening's High Table outfit:

- Black Tahari knee-length skirt with kick-pleats. Just enough detail to make it interesting.
- Snug-fitting fine black v-neck long-sleeve merino sweater (Banana Republic)
- Black patent pumps with just a tasteful bit of platform. Nothing trashy. DSW, Etienne Aigner.
- Triple strand pearls
- Drop pearl earrings with a teensy bit of bling
- Black patent small shoulder bag
- Hair up

Have not decided yet between micro black fishnet stockings, or sheer black hose with seam up the back. Opinions, fashionistas?
 
Watch out, Oxford Dons (or Bob's or Franks, for that matter), here we come.

Dinner at High Table

So to the unitiated (and that would include me) I am going to tell you a bit about the big event that we will attend on the very evening of the day of our arrival in Oxford. It is called High Table, and if ever there was a nod to the glorious past and tradition, this would be it.  I'll find out how often this occurs during the school year, but I do know that since Sunday the 21st kicks-off the start of Trinity Term (my guess is they don't use the phrase "kick-off", but football habits die hard), there will be High Table to mark that. It is a pretty elaborate dinner where men wear black tie, I believe the higher-level academics wear their academic gowns, and there is a different wine served with each course of the meal. And there is "second dessert"! But let's face it, you had me at "black tie" - if I swoon, it won't be clear whether it's jetlag or the sheer critical mass of gussied-up men, my husband foremost amongst them. And speaking of that . . .

We just bought Greg a beautiful suit last night, and it occurred to me that this was the first suit we had bought for him in our 25 years of marriage. He's a casual guy, who is also almost exactly the same size as my brother David. And Dave has been his used-suit supplier over these years. But this seemed to call for something special. It's not a tux, but I did feel swoon-y when he tried it on.

While I won't know the details first-hand until Sunday evening, I read a very fun blog about one young woman's experience in the link below. It gives a pretty good picture of what we're up for.

http://www.eatori.com/2011/12/dinner-at-oxford-high-table.html

I still haven't quite figured out what to wear myself. But it will probably be black. Keep ya posted.

Prepare for Lift-Off

Three days and counting til we blast off to Oxford University, where Greg will spend 2 months working with a great group of physicists, whom I have dubbed The Usual Suspects. When we spent a year in London back in 2001-2002, Greg started what would become an ongoing work relationship with the same group of fellow Plasmoids* (with a few permutations, depending on the locale, season, and year, as well as what grad student is working for what physicist) at meetings and conferences in the States and abroad. They happen to be a very interesting and lively group of people outside of work, so it bodes well for hangers-on like me.

*my affectionate term for plasma physicists. Not to be confused with Astroids, who are astrophysicists. The two groups and their associated fields of interest overlap to some degree.