Poor old Bloomsbury Bell has been unintentionally neglected over the past few weeks due to the impending 'big move'. I mentioned in my last post that things are afoot; I am pleased to say that they are still afoot and Mr Bell and I are packing up our books to go and live in Oxford.
I have lived in London for the past eight years and it is proving to be a wrench to leave, despite the fact that I have been longing for pastures new for a while. We are leaving all of our lovely friends and plunging into a totally new and different life. Both of us have new jobs doing completely different things and we are very much looking forward to getting started. Before we go however, we have a few 'last hurrah's' planned in London with various friends so I am looking forward to making the most of my last fortnight in the big city.
Whilst I have been planning and organising our new life I haven't been able to read anything too meaty. As soon as I found out we were going I cracked open my 50p copy of The Way Through the Woods by Colin Dexter to get me in the Oxford mood. I am now having to curb my perception that Oxford is all dreaming spires and multiple murders.
I have only been to Oxford for the odd day trip so I am excited about discovering what the city has to offer. I have been doing as much online research as possible and have found some interesting places to go for Burgers, Moroccan and Ice Cream. I just need to find a non-touristy tea room with real homemade cake. To this day I have not found a tea room to beat St Martin's Tea Rooms in my home town; Chichester. I wonder if Oxford can provide a rival?
One major source of excitement is that my old dutch bike, which I bought in 2007 for dirtbag cheap (and hardly used), has been tarted up and I even paid extra for a wicker basket to be put on the front. I am now having visions of pootling on my bike to the Covered Market for provisions and a paper before cycling along the river to a shady spot to while away the hours a la Brideshead.
