A proper Oxonian

Three events this week have made me feel like a proper Oxonian for the very first time...

First, I bought a bicycle. Everyone who is anyone in Oxford has a bicycle, and the city is quite well set up for them. Cycle paths are everywhere, and funky little loops embedded in footpaths and walls that people can chain up to, not to mention literally a thousand spaces outside the train station (it was one of the first things I noticed when I came for my interview here - ooh ah, bike friendly town!).

One of the weirdest things ever is to watch cyclists and buses jostling for position on the high street in morning peak hour (cars are, very sensibly, banned!), but that's another story.

My bike is purple (can you tell from this blog that I maybe like purple??) and it was 70 quid in a 'scratched and dented' sale in a local bike shop. And now I don't have to live my life according to the once-an-hour-on-Sundays bus timetables that run in Marston. And I feel like a proper Oxonian now.

Getting a bike meant acquiring new keys. I've lived for months now with just one key for my house, rattling loose in my wallet. (Compared to in Melbourne, where within 24 hrs of arriving, I found myself clutching two sets of car keys, two sets of housekeys and a key to our storage unit. I was only going back for a month!). Now, suddenly, I have a bike lock key, a key to the padlock on the shed where my bike sleeps at night, and a Tesco keyfob for accruing loyalty points. I lashed out and put them all on a keyring. Just like normal people who are based in one place and not travelling the world...

Last but not least, I knew I'd given my heart to this town when I got all bristly when I read Bill Bryson's rant about Oxford being ugly. How dare he? He can't slag off my new home like this... I forced myself to read to the end, and realised that he was actually having a go at that peculiar collection of buildings around the council chambers, which are indeed an eyesore, and which are also, tragically, on the main busroute for coaches to/from London so in full view of many tourists... but really, to write off the whole town like that is up there with saying all of Melbourne is unsightly just because of one Yellow Peril....