2 posts tagged “oxford”

Last night, at a club my friends and I have begun frequenting due to its lax ID rules, they played Sarbel (a favourite Greek/Lebanese pop singer) singing Se Pira Sovara.
It was most curious .
I've already noticed that most of Oxford's weekend nightlife is made up of the Polish and Albanian lot. Both are in abundance in Oxford these days and seem to have taken over, especially the Albanians. Presumably they're nostalgic for Greek-style nightlife (shimmying till the late hours.)  Unfortunately they're rather creepy, and persistent Albanian men can be found in the city centre bars and clubs from 9pm onwards on a weekend night - a fact not included in the guidebooks we sell at work.
The club usually plays mediocre dance or pop music, with the usual lasers and strobe lights and now smoke machines to make up for the absence of cigarettes now we have the smoking ban. We had gone early to get in free on a facebook promotion, and had spent a good embarrassing half hour or two watching an aged and over-keen couple bopping (there isn't another word for what the over 50-crowd will do on a dancefloor) away on their own in the middle. Gradually we watched the club fill up. The amount of lip-liner application going on in the ladies' room made me suspicious. Returning to the bar, I couldn't help but notice a drinks list on the wall not only in English, but also Polish.
Once the club was full it was clear that we English were the minority. The dancefloor was curiously packed with men. Shimmying. At each other. With greasy hair. I didn't live in Athens for two years for nothing - and there aren't enough Greeks in Oxford to explain it. The Albanians had come out in style.
As I said, most persistent dancers and we 4 girls were inundated with male shimmy circles going on around us, a very frightening prospect in any environment, let alone one where it's semi-appropiate.
Then, as we were contemplating leaving, Sarbel came on and I insisted we stay and join in. If it had been a shimmy-fest before, it was nothing now. A positive roar went up as the DJ played the most popular song of the evening and there were chests being flung left and right.
Given that most of the music played in Oxford clubs is of the Beyonce/Sean Paul genre, I just thought it was interesting. Sarbel must be pleased.

Weather report:
Heavy snow will be falling tomorrow over south-east england and Wales. Over 400 gritters and snow ploughs are on standby but we recommend not driving or using public transport as most services may be cancelled or at least delayed. Weather forecasters are expecting a maximum of 6 inches of snow to fall overnight and through the morning - this means snow levels will reach mid calf. We highly recommend staying indoors as temperatures may reach -3 celcius. Luton and Standsted airports will be closed and domestic flights will be delayed. Schools, offices and shops may also be closed, and heating systems may be faulty. This will be the heaviest snow England has seen in over 20 years, and we expect traffic to come to a standstill. Please take care in driving or walking anywhere and wrap up warm when you go out.

    Where to start? The newsreader spoke with genuine shock and horror when she announced snow levels would reach mid-calf. Mid-calf. Now, not to be an old fogie, but, in my day (about 8 years ago) in Lithuania it snowed about 3 feet, and I still went to school. The snow came up to my chest. My CHEST. Not mid-calf, no. My chest. And, yes, I was a wee young sprog at the time, but a chest is a chest. Men came by with shovels and made tunnels from the door of each block of flats so people could get out to the road, where we were to be ambushed by piles at least 5 feet high from where the roads had been cleared. So forgive me, England, if I am unimpressed by your whining about 6 inches.
    Stansted and Luton, you wimps. You childish, foolish babies. You don't deserve to be airports. You should be over-ambitious bus stations. In fact, you practically already are over-ambitious bus stations. Anyway, you're too far away from Oxford. Get a snow plough and stop acting like it's the end. In fact, keep flying your planes and maybe the world will get a little bit warmer.
    As for public transport, well, this is England, so you can only expect so much. However, I got the bus into town and was held up more by the roadworks than the snow. Trains, well. Obviously British Rail have yet to realise that it does snow at least once a year in this country, and when it does, problems with the tracks seem to occur. Preparing by getting some kind of get-the-snow-off-the-tracks device seems to be beyond you, but it might be a plan for the future, eh boys?
    And by the way, thanks for telling us to wrap up warm. Normally when I hear about snow I'm the first one to get my bikini out, so it lucky they warned me this year and I had a scarf ready to go. Temperatures of minus 3? Minus three is only a tiny bit colder than 0, and it's been 0 for a good few days now, and most of us live in old, poorly insulated English houses anyway, so we'll all be feeling the cold. I'd also like to point out that I'm hardcore, I've been out in minus 30 degrees, which is when it's so cold you forget you have a face, so don't talk to me about minus three, you big babies.  Put your gloves on and stop complaining.
   
    Now I've got all the ranting out of my system, the snow was excellent. Schools were closed because none of the teachers could get in, so I spent the morning wandering around taking pictures of the pretty snow before the kids came and ruined it. This is what I saw:
   
   

Southfield Road all snowy, surprisingly good quality considering I had just been informed there was no school and was jumping up and down.
    Bartlemas Lane, up to a small chapel, just off a big main road.
    Cowley Road, snow coming down heavily, while some madman is cycling to work. On the wrong side of the road. Some people, eh?
    Manzil Way park - I don't know who gets up before 8 to make a snowman on the main road park but a very nice job they did.
    Ah, the mysterious bird-roof. Any day of the year birds will be found sitting on the roof of the white building and only the white building. I think it's because their attic has central heating and next door's doesn't. But on snow day some foreign white birds who obviously didn't know the local protocol had branched out to the next roof and didn't realise how silly they looked.

   

Now, this one takes some explaining. Manzil Way park has become a feeding ground for many a bird, due to a lovely little woman who gets all the bread from the bins behind Tesco and dumps it on the grass for the birds. It's quite exciting because every day there is a different kind of bread, so sometimes you go past the park and it's baguetes, other times tortillas, sometimes pitta bread. On snow day it was loaves.

   

    The local butcher getting a bit chilly there. You'd think they'd give him in a scarf but evidently the meat industry is a cold industry. Harharhar.

   

A happy little picture of all the snowy traffic trying to get up a bendy hill road. It's enough to make me want to remain a cyclist for life. Note the snow-topped mosque dome in the background.

   

South Park pre-romping fun had by the young and old. You can normally see the church tops in the city centre but the snow was coming down too much. Usually the park is green and nice looking, but on snow day it looked like an ugly field. Ah well.

   

Another little countryside-in-the-city moment - a lovely Cotswold-style house outside the park, with what could easily be a forest behind it. Alas, just off another main road.

    Oh, the ironic fun of it all. I bet whoever that Vespa belonged to had a cold bottom all day.

    Anyway, that was the clean snow fun, here come some messy snow frivolities.

     
   

     This is me being a weatherperson - see previous post to understand my hilarious irony.

   

     South Park's first snow angel of 2007 - well done Julia. Poor girl must have had some cold ankles after that.

   

     Nibbles wasn't impressed with the snow. She had a quick sniff, dabbed her paw in and then decided it was messy and inconsiderate of her romping needs and skulked back inside.

   

     The park was a giant snowball fest, with students all over the place determined to make the biggest one. Men and size, eh.

    

    The expanse of people skiving work/free from school to play in the snow. As I said, a giant snowball fest.
   
        Some clever youths fashioned a very large snow chair out of a broken snowball, but were very unfriendly about sharing it. However, sitting on it later I realised that snow chairs are, in fact, the best way to loose your arse to frostbite.
   
        A nifty snow sculpture/animal we found deserted in the park. Much fun was had climbing on it and sliding through the holes. Note my cool black and white spotty wellies.
   
         Annnnd Jesus. All worship except Karl, who perhaps is sulking at the bottom because he wanted a go on the top.

   

    ...but then I'm like that. Having tried and failed to shift the big snowball over to some smaller ones to make our own sculpture, we settled for climbing all over it.

   

     Two hardworking students spent hours trying to spell out Oxford in the snow. When we got there they'd just finished the x.
   
         A snow hedgehog thing. The girls who made this were very protective and seemed to be involved in some kind of unofficial snow art competition with themselves.

   

     Finally, a very large snowman. Very large.

    And that was the day it snowed in Oxford! Now kids, remember to wrap up warm, especially around the mid-calf area.