Oxford v Reading

Well now that we have moved into our new abode I think some reflection on our time in Oxford is called for.

Things I will miss about Oxford

• Lazing on our couch in the afternoon sun with a tub of M&S mini chocolate rolls and a great book
• Walking across the road to a few nice restaurants in Oxford Castle
• Being a 10min walk max from everything in Oxford city centre
• Having a 40min journey to work
• Being close to my friend Lisa
• Being able to go for a walk in the evening and stroll past so much history and beautiful old buildings

Things I wont miss about Oxford

• Being woken up at 3am by some drunken couple having a domestic outside our window
• Being woken up at 3am by some drunken lads fighting outside our window
• Watching two guys beat each other up with bits of wood
• Being a rather slack and up helpful witness to a break in across the stream
• Not having a garden or any outdoor area that is ours

So what has our new place got going for it, and what doesn't it have...

What it doesn't have

• Restaurants withing walking distance (but that's got to be good for the wallet)
• Anywhere that feels safe to walk after dark (but given that I have a 40min walk home from work, that's not too bad)
• A nice sunny lounge, in fact it's quite dark
• An instruction manual for the central heating, for us kiwi's that is a bit of an issue and certainly something we'd like to figure out before it gets much colder.

What it has

• A garden!!!! Complete with some outdoor chairs, an apple tree, a blackberry bush, two grapevines, and some wild strawberry plants. We have added a BBQ and had our first BBQ on Friday night, yum yum!
• A proper oven, I can actually bake a cake now and Peter is starting to believe that I can actually bake (although said cake is yet to be tried!). I could also cook a roast dinner that took as long as it should have done.
• A cupboard under the stairs where all things end up.
• Nice sunny(ish) rooms upstairs
• A very friendly cat, that just walks on in if the front door is open
• A lovely couple of loud wood pigeons that sit on the TV aerial and poop on the step and try to break into our bedroom window at 6am

So in summary, our new place isn't quite as nice as our old one, but our old place was pretty good. Being here will hopefully entice us to get out and see a lot more things around the UK and Europe. We are now a lot closer to Heathrow and also a fairly major train station that seems to have trains that go everywhere. I'm sure that Peter and I will be happy somewhere, if not here then we can always move in 6 months :-)