Food and Baskets!

Last weekend Joel and I went up to Anna's to see the family on Saturday and in addition to catching up with everyone and enjoying playing with the girls, we got quite the set of early Christmas surprises!  Joel's Mum had brought a whole load of great things for our apartment for Christmas, along with an early Christmas present for me!

Having a basket on my bike makes my life so much easier!  I can actually carry stuff around without a) sweating to death, b) recurring instances of asthma, and c) being unable to steer because of all of the weight off my handlebars!  Many thanks to wonderful parents-in-law for the wonderful basket!

In other news, we've had some nice meals lately due to inexpensive ingredients at the shops.  Exhibit A: chicken-almost-cordon-bleu with pesto pasta and green beans, terribly yummy!

Exhibit B: Baked camembert in a box with fig salsa, toasted ciabatta bread, a big salad, and olives!

Unfortunately the toasted ciabatta didn't agree with one of my teeth, resulting in an emergency dentist appointment this morning to fix the tooth that broke!  So I guess getting lots of nice, cheap ingredients didn't necessarily "pay off" this time around.

In other news, the Jesus College Carol Service is this coming Sunday and should be absolutely wonderful!  If anyone would like to come it's this Sunday at...5:30?  I think?

Jesus College Choir

Between the University of Oxford and its constituent colleges there is a HUGE amount of choice for things to do here. There are so many clubs, societies, sports teams and performing groups that you really could make it a full-time job just attending all of the groups you signed up for at Freshers' Fair. On a side note, Freshers' Fair is such an event that you have to go at a particular time to which you are assigned, and wear the wristband given to you by your college that allows you entry into that particular session. At Leeds I suppose they managed things differently by having different types of group on different days.

This is all preamble to tell you that we joined the Jesus College Choir. The college was established in 1571 by Queen Elizabeth I and I suppose the choir has been singing since then (or perhaps since the chapel was completed in the early 1600s). The choir rehearses once mid-week and then takes most of our Sunday evening with a rehearsal, pre-service tea and cakes, evensong (a church service consisting of a lot of music, several prayers and a sermon), post-service sherry (and soft drinks!) and free formal hall (3-course dinner). So it's a lot of fun. Tonight was the beginning of 3rd week at the University, so it's the third service that we have sung in. Last week I (Joel) had a solo in the anthem - Jess says it was very nice. It was a song that was sung at the then Princess Elizabeth's (now Queen Elizabeth II's) wedding. Honoured.

What with church on Sunday morning, ward choir afterwards, cycling back to the college and having lunch our Sunday is mostly gone once you then add on the college choir events. But it's fun and we enjoy the social events that come with it. We also joined the University College Chorus, which will be performing the Mozart Requiem in a few weeks' time at the Sheldonian Theatre. We're both pretty excited for it.

Here is a picture of the front quad of Jesus College (the chapel is actually just off to the right of the photo) and a picture of us in our gowns just prior to the evensong of 1st week.

Welcome to Oxford!

We have a blog!

Again!

Some of you may have noticed a trend that a) Joel is bad at keeping updated blogs and b) Jess is bad at keeping updated blogs.  So here's attempt number I-don't-know-how-many, inspired by Anna's Brilliant Blog, in which she actually maintains a blog about her family!  Between that and Kyrsten's blog, I have now at least seen examples of blogs that work and have every intention of keeping this new blog updated!

So I thought I'd start out the new blog with a quick tour of our apartment, for those who haven't been here yet and may not get here anytime soon (because of a large body of water in the way).  So for those of you stuck on the other side of the ocean, here's the quick tour of the apartment!

This is from our front door.  Welcome!

From the front hallway just inside the door, the kitchen is to the left, the living room to the front left, bedroom to the front right, and toilet (bathroom) to the right.  The phone on the wall lets us ring people in from the front gate and does absolutely nothing else.

Obviously, below is our kitchen.  I was in the middle of making a Mexican burrito feast when I took these photos, so ignore the bunch of coriander on the counter and the pot on the stove.  Plus my cookbook and all the other random stuff...

Please note the Union Jack oven mitts.

This is our beautiful living room!  This is the view if you just walk in...

Please note the Union Jack canvas.

...and this is what you see if you turn around.

Please note the Union Jack cushion (not pictured: matching Union Jack cushion).

First is the view from the window in the living room, and second is our bedroom as seen from the hall.

And for the benefit of those who haven't seen a picture of us in ages, here's a story accompanied by a picture: Joel and I had our friend Mary over for dinner (the lovely Mexican burrito feast) and went to a meeting of the Tolkein Society afterwards.  While we weren't exactly prepared for the zealous nature of the group of Tolkein lovers, we were impressed by the surroundings, as they meet in Christchurch College, which is where many scenes from the early Harry Potter films were done!

We're convinced that the staircase featured in this blurry, low-quality photo is indeed the same used in films 1 and 2.

Happy Saturday!