OXFORD
17Dec
The bus driver, John, was a crack up a really polite positive bloke who was really cheerful. His intro was pretty funny too. “If you need to use your mobile phones please consider your fellow passengers and if you intend to use personal headphones please remember what personal means. And if you do want to listen to your music very loud please come and talk to me I have a special seat reserved for you underneath the bus with the baggage.”
After arriving in Oxford I walked towards the centre and grabbed another of those red bus plans of the city, the plan being rather then to pay the 20 quid for the bus itself to just walk the route by myself later.
I went back to a bar I’d seen advertising for free WIFI and got a half pint of one of the English Ales. Luckily Chris had got my email and my telephone number. The problem was the number ii had stored of mine wasn’t actually the number but he’d emailed me with his anyway.
I rang him and organized for him to meet me in the centre after he’d had a shower and got his stuff together.
From there I walked around oxford. It’s all really beautiful but it’s kinda all the same so once I’d seen some of it I’d seen it all. I got to one edge of town and turned into the Botannical gardens.
Then Chris called he asked where I was. I said the Botannical gardens. His reply was. “Do you have your rucksack and a Santa hat on?” I said yeah and he hung up. “Lachy I heard from behind me” and turned round and Chris had just seen a figure that he thought could have been me. Lucky he called too other wise he would have called me from 15 minutes back into town.
2105 (18Dec)
From there we went back to Chris’s, then it was into town and to do a bit of exploring. Chris took me down through the back of Oxford University. It was fantastic. A lot of the Harry potter films were filmed around here and Cambridge.
After doing the general touristy stuff we caught the bus to some of his mates place. Here we just chilled out they’d had a massive Christmas farewell night the previous night so they were all talking about that, so I sorta sat around semi mute for a couple of hours but that was cool and after a while we went for a beer run to a supermaket here called the Co-op. It was 2 X 15 packs for 16quid. Not too bad

Day 139
Friday Dec18
1100(Dec 19)
I slept pretty well Thurs night. It was pretty cold but I just slept in my clothes under a light rug and I was fine. I woke eventually at 930 and started getting my stuff together to go for a run.
I knew it was going to be cold outside so I wore my tights and my long sleeved T. I threw in my headphones and opened the door. Everything was white. Not a thick coating but everything was white none the less. And it was freezing. After about 10 minutes I was almost going to double back to grab my gloves. But I just powered through carefully running on the slippery ground.
My tongue was a little sore on this run and a few times I felt like when I was coughing a layer of skin was being torn from the inside of my throat. It’s weird the infection that started on the roof of my mouth near my tonsils first spread to the back of my tongue and now has gone from the roof of my mouth only occupying the territory of the back oof my tongue. But apart from it being a little sore I’m not feeling anything else. Although I have been pretty tired the last couple of days but I think that’s more because of the broken nights sleep as opposed to anything else.
I ran from Chris’s into town. Oxford looked fantastic under the fine layer of snow. Really picturesque. I turned around and ran back past chris’s in the other direction and returned to his. I ran for just shy of 40 minutes and felt ok. I was stoked it’s been since Belfast since I went for a run. Although I’m feeling it today.
After that I packed and chris and I both caught the bus to the station. The bus itself was pretty chocas and the driver who I think could have been polish didn’t appreciate both Chris and I with our big travel bags blocking the aisles.