Star Wars. Apparently, England loves Star Wars. We have our little clock radio (yes, me, of all people, without a decent audio system yet – the sacrifices one must make!) tuned to Classic FM, which is a wonderful station, but as I am writing this, they are getting through what seems to be a daily quota for music from the Star Wars movies. I kid you not. Daily. We started with the main theme, moved into something from the new ones, and I think it just blended into something from the old one again... and back to new stuff. They sure like their Star Wars.

Ok, so anyway, the only thing worth mentioning about the week following out visit to London is that I found employment. And, as it turns out, it is with the company that I had my sights on back in Edmonton. I found some success selling cars (the phrase still makes me wince a little) there, so I thought I’d take a shot at it here, and decided that BMW would be just about right. They weren’t hiring. So I went around to the rest of the places on my list, and almost as an afterthought, dropped into the MINI dealership, which happens to technically the same dealership as the BMW garage. Good thing too, because a few days later they gave me a job. I love it so far, and they gave me a brand new MINI Cooper to drive around in which is truly a great car. It actually reminds me a little of my last car, which I loved dearly (and no, Mom, it’s not because the steering wheel is on the same side…). Myra’s favorite car happens to be the MINI, and her favorite colour happens to be red, and would you believe it, that’s what we’re now driving – a few weeks after we arrive in a new continent, and free of charge. Not exactly what we had expected.

So, with my Saturdays soon to be limited, we made a dash for Oxford before I started work on Monday. Again, like everything else, only twenty-five minutes on the train, and maybe even a chance for Myra to maybe touch something that Thom Yorke may also have once touched.

Oxford is pretty great. It is absolutely packed with students, and more than a few tourists. It’s like being in the centre of a large university at lunch time, only it’s the whole town, and all the time. Reading is alright*, but Oxford is something else. Everything is stunning to look at. Every building has some genius’s name inscribed on it (Sheldon, someone has indeed recognized even your genius and they have a theater bearing your namesake), and everything just feels a bit more magical… ooooh, could it be because Harry Potter was here in the flesh?! Oh, and there was this little rosy-cheeked seventy year old man on the sidewalk playing wonderful classical music on his violin with a little tape player playing the rest of the orchestra on a stool beside him, that still makes me all warm and fuzzy even now. It made my day.

(*While I’m reminded about it, I have to recommend that everyone see the movie “Brick”, directed by Rian Johnson, which we saw at the indie theater here at the uni. Tons of fun.)

Again, we made it to Christchurch Cathedral, but never got to see the inside because the lineup was too long. Every bit as stunning as Westminister, only it’s perched on the edge of sleepy English countryside instead of the middle of London. We didn’t really do a whole lot, being there only for the afternoon. We saw the gigantic Waterstone’s bookstore with something like 600 billion miles of shelves, but really, it’s just a big bookstore. The official Oxford University Press bookstore was more charming. Generally, we just took in the sites.

I’ll make a quick mention of Windsor here, which we visited last weekend, simply because it was another short visit. We saw the castle, but, once again (this seems to be a growing trend with us), we arrived after they closed the inside to the public, so we never got to explore it. The bigger adventure was my first attempt at driving on the motorways here. The road signage deserves a proper rant all to itself, but for now I’ll just say that they are wanting in clarity, proper placement, and quantity. Windsor castle is simply stunning to see a mile away when you round the bend on the motorway, perched up on a hill. It is totally dominant, and so much bigger than we had expected.

I think our next outing will be London for Myra’s birthday, so until then, stay tuned.