The last few weeks have definitely been intense and full, and the last two days have been no exception. Yesterday we went to visit an old friend of Chris’s and went out walking most of the afternoon with his children, who were just lovely. I got to know his daughter quite well after a few hours of hanging out on swing sets and playing Lego. It was one of the bitter-sweet things about going – we will be seeing more of certain people than usual because we’re going, but then not see them again for ages. I wish I would have just spent more time with them while we were here.
His little girl also made me think of the current state of my accent. She is four and asked me if I spoke Irish. I am sure I confused her when I said no, but then went on to tell her a few words in Irish I learned from when Chris gave it a go on Duolingo. This may have further confused her when I told her I wasn’t, in fact, Irish at all. She is the second person to think I was though, so it will be interesting to see how that will develop when we are in the US.
This morning, we made our way up to Oxford to visit Chris’s godson. We initially had glorious weather and had a lovely walk around:
It is probably the cleanest place I’ve been in Britain. It is so beautifully maintained. It also smelt great. Pollution in Brighton had been really out of control at the time we left, so it was a nice change to feel like the air was on our side.
The only complaint I could possibly make about the afternoon out in Oxford is the fact that the sky decided to pour with rain as soon as we had to walk back to our car. In a lovely, unfortunately, unfilmed moment when it was raining, Chris said, “I hate Oxford,” and as though in reply, the rain poured down twice as hard for the next 5 minutes.
Tonight we are off to get a pizza with another friend of Chris’s who lives on this side of London, so I am sure we will be quite full by the end of the day after having kebabs for lunch in Oxford.