Archive for posts on Oxford

2009/2010 Thursday, December 31st, 2009

2009 has been a strange and brilliant year for me. It started with an ending, when Katie broke up our four-year relationship. It was devastating, yet entirely the right thing to do, and, as it turned out, 2009 was the best year of my life (so far). I’ve visited the US, Holland, Scotland, Spain and Denmark; I’ve walked from Petersfield to Brighton. And in between each of these I’ve been in this beautiful city of mine, Oxford. I’ve befriended people from six of seven continents. I’ve discovered a hundred things about myself - my sexuality, my dreams, my fears. I’ve had my mind read and my pulse stopped and drunk the best cup of tea I’ve ever had (all in the space of an hour). I’ve chased thieves down the alleyways of Barcelona and danced at Parliament Square. People keep telling me I’ve been on BBC News as well as Have I Got News For You.

I had two resolutions in 2009 - the first of my life. One was to go permanently vegetarian. This I succeeded in. The other was to write Katie a letter every week. It would have been strange to have succeeded at that one.

I have lots of resolutions for 2010. My friends tell me they’re all cliches, but they’re sincere. Most of them are just things I’ve been meaning to do and the opportunity to do them seems to have arisen at the end of this year, but I am resolved to do them nonetheless:

Go vegan
I’ve been steering myself towards veganism since July and, despite a massive lapse in December (due to trips to Copenhagen and my parents’ - shh don’t judge me), I hit veganism at the beginning of November. In 2010, though, it’s going to become permanent, and I’m going to throw myself into learning to cook well.

Read
Ever since I got hold of The Wire I’ve stopped reading in bed, which means that - apart from policy papers and invoices - I’ve stopped reading altogether; and I miss it. I made a point of finishing The Wire before Copenhagen so that, when I returned, I could get back to the habit of burying myself in a book before snuggling down for the night.

Get creative
I used to take photographs and record music and write stories and I don’t any more. So let’s have some more of that again.

Learn Spanish
You know, it’s the second most spoken language in the world. And it’ll set me up nicely for COP16 in Mexico (estoy bromeando).

Run a/two marathon/s
Not really a resolution as I committed to it months ago, but running both the Paris and Berlin marathons is my Big Challenge for 2010.

Find someone to cuddle
2009 was the first year of my adult life that i was single and it was immensely good for me in ways I wouldn’t have predicted. But now I’m ready to find someone to cuddle again.

No flying
I took 10 flights in 2009 - 9 of them after beginning my job in the Climate Change Campaign team… So this year I’m taking none.

Keep campaigning
I’ve made so many friends and found so much meaning in campaigning this year, and I can only see that passion and energy growing in 2010. I’d like to start physically campaigning on more than just climate change.

It’s going to be an exciting year…

Here’s a meme about 2009, for those who are interested.

Posted in Art and photographs, Books, Climate change, Oxfam, Oxford, Paris Marathon 2010, Personal, Politics, Trailwalker 2009, Travel, USA • No comments

I can’t believe this is the first time I’m writing about this. Thursday, October 15th, 2009

Today is Blog Action Day, and this year’s topic is climate change. That means that this post is one of over 7,000 in over 130 countries, with a readership of over 11,268,800 readers, writing about this issue today.

I first became engaged in the problem of climate change when I was offered a job fighting it. In fact, even that engagement happened pretty gradually - since it didn’t happen because it was necessary: it happened because it was unavoidable. Every day I’m exposed to two quite polar things: the evidence of the effects that climate change is already having on thousands of people every day; and the massive, powerful and inspiring movement working to combat it.

One of the researchers at Oxfam told me a story about workers at a banana plantation in Malawi. The plantation had been washed away by floods, and many of the (ex)workers, who were mostly women, headed to the towns to prostitute themselves, which of course led in turn to greater rates of HIV and AIDS. It’s astonishing just how broad and significant the far-reaching effects of climate change are. Even in my home town of Felixstowe businesses have been swept straight from the shore.

We have an opportunity not just to solve the problems of the present, but also to shape a beautiful future on an unprecedented scale

What’s equally strange, frustrating and wonderful is that the solutions to this problem are both readily available and very exciting. We have an opportunity not just to solve the problems of the present, but also to shape a beautiful future on an unprecedented scale. Finding and executing answers to climate change means creating new jobs, new communities, new businesses, new friendships, locally, nationally, internationally. It is a chance for a fresh start. And just as exciting - although we would prefer it to be unnecessary - is the movement campaigning for those with the power to support us in this fresh start to do so.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to meet - and be part of - another group in this movement: the UK Youth Climate Coalition. It was moving and motivating to spend several days with a group of people so selflessly and passionately dedicated to doing something so very vital. It was also reassuring: I feel secure in the knowledge that there are so many intelligent, brilliant people fighting for a clean and safe future for us all.

I would absolutely encourage you to do whatever you can, whatever you want to, to help combat the biggest problem humanity has ever faced

Getting involved can mean anything from civil disobedience to signing a petition, from climate camping or scaling the houses of parliament to painting your face blue or just dancing your socks off. But it is immensely rewarding to know that you have been involved in the fight for a better future for everyone, and I would absolutely encourage you to do whatever you can, whatever you want to, to help combat the biggest problem humanity has ever faced. This December, decision makers from around the world will gather in Copenhagen to decide what action to take on climate change. We need to ensure that the deal they come to is fair - insisting those most responsible for climate change support those least responsible, who are also those hit first and hardest - ambitious enough to tackle the problem, and binding. Now is our best - and perhaps last - chance to act.

Below are some great videos, and if you want to find out more I would recommend visiting the websites 350 and TckTckTck.

Posted in Books, Climate change, Films, Oxfam, Oxford, Personal, Politics, Science and technology • No comments

Footy, French fancy, Wii and good company: birthday break day two Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Photos from birthday break day one have now been added to the previous blog post.



Day two of my birthday break began with tour of Oxfam House for Ed and Cat, followed by a visit to cousin Adrian’s workplace, where we played with - and in the process destroyed - a football. We also learned about counseling sessions in which offenders face their victims, which sounded both fascinating and horrifying.




I have no idea what’s wrong in the middle photo

The soggy day ended with an open-top bus tour of Oxford (after 19 months in Oxford, I think it was overdue), and a trip back to cousins Rachel and Adrian’s flat for an oversized French fancy, some shell-chucking on the Wii, attempts to photograph head-launched poppers and a (quite gentle, compared to playing with the ruthless Robsons!) round of Munchkin. We also learned that we were being watched by Rachel’s kitchenbeast, the Gonk, which climbs down at night to enact evil deeds.

Aside from the ensuing nightmares, my two-day birthday break was utterly splendid. Thanks to everyone who joined in or sent words or gifts, you made it a very special birthday.

For the record, among other things, I got:

  • A Sesame Street t-shirt (my housemates think I look like The Count)
  • A greetings card-making kit
  • A journey into the 3.5-billion-year history of the human body (or at least a book about it [for some reason, while my copy says 3.5b years, the Amazon version says 375m...])
  • Very well fed
  • Well and truly flummoxed by Derren Brown
  • An interest in meditation
  • A massive French fancy

    • Posted in Oxford, Personal • No comments

    Murder, pasta and an Enigma: birthday break day one Saturday, May 16th, 2009

    Two counts, and the mad punters

    My birthday this year was lovely. Big brother Ed and his wife Cat came to Oxford for a couple of days. They were hoping to go on an Inspector Morse tour - so, because the official tour only runs on Saturdays, I gave them their very own private Morse tour. We started with a detour to the River Cherwell for some punting, which is far more fun and far more strenuous for the legs than I’d imagined. Then it was off to the Randolph Hotel for a round of drinks the cost of which reached double-digits, then to the Ashmolean - alas, closed, so we had to make do with a peek at their outdoor exhibition of celebrities with scribble on their faces - and on to the Eagle and Child, favourite watering hole of Tolkein and the other Lewis (CS) for a spot of lunch that cost less than the drinks at the Randolph. Next up was the recently refurbished Pitt Rivers Museum (Oxford’s natural history museum, and one of my favourites) and yet another drink, this time at the wonderful Turf Tavern.


    At the Randolph, the Eagle and Child, and the Turf



    Zizzi: cousin Adrian, and our massive table. (Other people did turn up.)

    It was nice to have such a structure to our tourism without the pressure of moving from stop to stop with a group of lost souls, but unfortunately that’s as far as our Morse tour got (we’ll have to do Brasenose College, the Sheldonian Theatre and the Bear Inn another month). The tour ended at Zizzi, where some friends from Felixstowe, Oxford and Edinburgh convened to get their fill of pasta and chat. Dinner was lovely (it’s always delightful when you introduce your friends and they seem to get on) and I was sad that we had to cut it short - but also for good reason: my birthday treat, a trip to see Derren Brown live!


    What’s in a name? A lot more than you think.

    Seeing Derren Brown live may not really count as a luxury any more, since I’ve now been four times to four different shows. However, I really think his latest show - Enigma - was, as usual, an improvement on the previous tours. I admit that his finale wasn’t as mind-bogglingly unlikely as during An Evening of Wonders (in which ultimately he spent most of the second half standing up seemingly half the audience, several at a time, and telling them all manner of details about their lives, before preceding to prove that he’d known right from the start what every member of the audience was going to do throughout the show), and I admit I’m such a DB geek that I unravelled at least one of his acts, but he has such fun with the whole show that you can’t fail to be standing with a big, silly grin on your face by the end. He also put us into a “trance” that left me feeling so peaceful I’m looking into learning to meditate, and featured at least one performance - an example of an old trick of the fake mediums of yesteryear - that was genuinely and brilliantly baffling. As with all of his shows, there’s a twist at the end that pulls you to your feet by its sheer, silly invention. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I’m going again for the West End run in July. Tickets aren’t yet booked and anyone’s welcome to join us if they let me know by this Friday (22nd).

    The evening ended, as it had to, with a discussion in the Three Goats’ Heads that posited that Derren is, variously, brilliant, foolish and literally devilish. Altogether one of my favourite birthdays yet.

    Posted in Oxford, Personal • No comments

    Me at the moment Saturday, September 20th, 2008

    Oxford is a really beautiful city. Today I ventured to a new area and found a park that I hadn’t visited before; one that, at the top of a hill on the north-east, provides a wonderful view across the city. For a city, Oxford is tiny, and I love it. It has everything you need without being big, imposing, dirty and antisocial. So that’s my ode to Oxford.

    Oxfam is such an inspiring place to work. Yesterday I was informed that Oxfam will make 26 times the profit from your donations that less capable (but well-known) charity shops do. Two thousand, six hundred per cent. Quite an incredible figure, I thought. This is not because Oxfam charges more; we just know what to do with our resources, and when, and how. Yesterday the Oxfam singing group gathered in the atrium and sang songs from around the world (some from Jamaica, New Zealand and Hawaii and, of course, the old traditional, \”It’s My Party and I’ll Cry If I Want To\”) for the whole, three-floor, open-plan office to hear. Where else does this happen, and how upset will I be if I have to find work elsewhere? Rhetorical questions to which the answers are, respectively: nowhere, I imagine, and: really really.

    My contract at Oxfam ends in December, so I’m currently looking for new and similar positions. I’ve been turned down for one but gained some great interview feedback and my prospects for finding another job in Oxfam look great. It would be great to move out of HR (interesting but no future for me) and into the International or Humanitarian division.

    I’m just beginning a BA in International Studies with the Open University (a part-time learning institution that allows me to plan my studying around the rest of my life). This means that I’ve rediscovered the nerdlish joy of notebooks and highlighter pens. Don’t laugh at me, I’m a student again, which means that I’m broke and have to find pleasure in simple things like stationery.

    Apologies if that was all quite dull. Here are some other things I’m excited about for the future:

    • Seeing old schoolfriends in London tonight
    • Meeting fellow Social Studies students (Social Students? Sounds presumptuous) in October
    • Giving Katie her birthday present in October
    • Returning to the States for Christmas
    • Seeing upcoming Oxford-set film The Butterfly Tattoo (and, while wishing it the greatest success, hoping I don’t feel any regret for turning down the generously offered opportunity to be involved)

    Posted in Oxfam, Oxford, Personal • 5 comments

    Lovely changes Saturday, November 17th, 2007

    I miss my Katie lots. Being in Oxford will be great for next year when she’s nextdoor in London, but right now it makes getting in touch harder, and when loneliness sometimes strikes it makes the blow even firmer.

    Anyway, here are some lovelier changes:

    1. I live in Oxford now. Oxford is actually a much smaller city than you might expect, and I like it a lot. There are grand old buildings peeking out against the skyline everywhere and everybody rides bicycles, which reminds me of Amsterdam and makes me happy.

    2. I’m volunteering at Oxfam now. Currently I’m working on the intranet, and it’s a fairly dull job but also one that I find quite easy, which means that I’ll have the task finished sooner than planned and I can have a look around other departments that I’m more interested in. The people I work with are all lovely and there is something a little liberating about working for free, at least for an organisation that deserves the support. I suppose the knowledge that you’re not prostituting yourself is quite a nice one.

    3. I’m going out now to send query letters to agents who may be interested in working with me to get my children’s stories published. I’ve been wanting to send out the queries for weeks but one complication after another has arisen and I’ve only just reached the point where it’s both possible and smart to do so. Perhaps now that I live in Oxford I will have greater credibility as a writer!

    4. I’m a vegetarian now. I’ve wanted to turn vegetarian for some years and only recently felt that I could handle it: this seemed like a good time to make the switch, given all of the other changes occurring (especially since I’m only just really learning to cook), and it’s worked out nicely.

    Posted in Books, Charles Charles and the Snow Morgle, Oxfam, Oxford, Personal, Short Tall Tales • 7 comments

    3-2-1 Monday, October 29th, 2007

    Some exciting things:

    1. I’m moving to Oxford. I’ll be staying in an amazing freshly refurbished house (”the loveliest house in Oxford,” one of my housemates correctly said) with three other guys, all lovely, and starting an internship with Oxfam, which will, I hope, lead to a permanent position in a few months. It’s all happening; I’ll be off within the next couple of weeks. I’m excited to gain my independence, to do something professionally that I think is worthwhile, and to move to one of the nicest locations in England. Yay!

    2. Katie was accepted to come to London with college next semester. With her in London and myself in Oxford, we can see each other at weekends and even some evenings and at not much expense. Yay!

    3. Charles Charles and the Snow Morgle is ready to send to prospective agents, and I’m very excited about getting query letters out there (I’m waiting until I’ve moved). Wish me luck!

    Some less exciting things:

    1. Anybody who had trouble seeing my web site before should be much better off now. I’ve made it much simpler and more streamlined so that it should work on any computer. It’s not as much fun as before but on the whole it’s an improvement. Fascinating, yes?

    2. There are fifty-seven days until Christmas.

    Something depressing:

    Why has it suddenly become de rigeur for huge corporations to cut thousands of jobs? Cadburys, Royal Mail and the BBC are all planning absurd quantities of redundancies because the people at the top still want more money for themselves. It’s “definitely in the best interests of the BBC,” says Michael Lyons. What about the interests of the people who work for the BBC, with families to feed and rent to pay?

    3-2-1. Not a bad ratio, I think.

    Posted in Books, Charles Charles and the Snow Morgle, Oxfam, Oxford, Personal, Short Tall Tales, kkcom • 5 comments

    Oxfam internship Tuesday, October 9th, 2007

    I’m off for an interview on Monday at Oxfam HQ in lovely Oxford for a voluntary internship in the HR department. The position lasts four months and could very likely lead to a paid position at Oxfam, which would make me very happy indeed. Mom and Dad and I have been saving up and, with an accompanying part-time job, I could live in Oxford for a net loss of about £25 a week. This may seem like insanity, but think of how much money most people spend studying at university to acquire a job that they care about, and apply relativity. It’s also possible that I could get a grant to help me along.

    I was really impressed when I called up that Karyn, the HR executive, knew offhand so much about me: my interests, skills, situation. It’s that kind of personal effort that makes for a really good working relationship.

    Living in Oxford would be wonderful: Oxford is a pretty city, fairly cheap and safe to live in and close enough to London to suit Katie and I while she’s here next year.

    As with the last time, I’m really trying not to get too excited and hopeful about the possibilities ahead. But I’m really, really bad at that.

    Wish me luck please!

    Posted in Oxfam, Oxford, Personal • 1 comment