Nick's big party!

After my week in Ulm, ‘twas time to head straight to lovely old England. The occasion was rather important, our good friend Nick was turning 50 years old, and was organizing a party at his sister’s country house near Oxford. I met up with Mathilde, Olivier and Rapha at Heathrow, from where we made our way to Oxford our rental car. Upon arrival, we started by hecking into our “very English bed and breakfast”. By this I mean our room was very cute, but naturally had no heating, and the double glazing that did nothing to keep the cold out – it’s not as if though there’s any need for such things in December, right?

Having checked in, we made our way into town (as always, we were most impressed with the shortnerss of the skirts the English ladies were wearing), where we met up with Philppe and Aniko for dinner in a proper English pub. We were well into the Christmas season, we were also treated to Christmas crackers and the bad jokes that go with them. All in all, an excellent start to the weekend!

After a reassuringly greasy traditional English breakfast, we made our way to explore Oxford. Actually, the exploration turned out to be mostly running back and forth along the streets of Oxford, trying to meet up with everybody (we were joined by Nathalie and Patrick), doing shopping, paying for the parking (the parking meter was far too complex for me and Ollie to figure out – and we’re after all engineers!) and trying to find a place for lunch. We ended up lunching in a nice enough restaurant on the Thames – even though the place was a bit too trendy for my taste (they had organic cider, for god’s sake!).

In the afternoon we found a bit more time to explore the touristy side of Oxford – it has to be said it’s a rather lovely city. We visited Christchurch College (colleges in Oxford are self-governing organizations within the university, and offer accommodation for students, but also heavily contribute to the education) – probably the most famous of the 36 colleges of Oxford University. We were especially impressed with the Hall – which will be familiar to people who have seen the Harry Potter films or read Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carol was one of the many famous residents at Christ Church). Christ Church also houses the cathedral of the university – a most impressive edifice also.

Enough with the touristy stuff then – we had a rendez-vous at the pub, where we met up with some more party arrivals (Winston and Weng, arriving from Coventry; Sinhung from Fleet, Richard from Barcelone; Flore and Christian from France and Nick of course!). It was a most happy reunion, especially great to catch up with Winston, Weng and Richard, whom we’ve not seen for a while.

Then it was time to head to the party venue, tucked away in the Cotswolds, not far from Oxford (the Cotswolds are, I suppose, what one could call English countryside at its cutest – a really lovely part of the country). So well tucked away the place was that It was an absolutely miracle we found the place at all (forget about GPS’es here…), basically we randomly followed a car which happened was also going to the party!

The party was absolutely fantastic. The venue was amazing - a proper English country house with a modern touch, in the loveliest of settings. The party was great, of course. There was a great mix of people at the party – for us “ex-pat friends” it was a great reunion; of course. But it was great to get to know Nick’s family as well – and to see his mum again. Things kicked off in relatively civilized fashion with some initial socializing and some Indian food for dinner. We then continued by sending off some Chinese sky lanterns (and setting some on fire!). Great fun – something I’ve never tried before in my life.

After the fun with the sky lanterns, things degenerated predicatively (in the positive sense of the expression, of course!) as the booze flowed. One by one, the party goers had enough and went to bed – until only me, Nick, Richard, Philippe, Nick’s sister and childhood friend were standing. That’s when we were treated to childhood stories about Nick (something about an overturned car and stuff, it’s all a bit hazy unfortunately!). All in all, a great party then!

The next day, people were obviously a bit low on energy after the previous night’s activities, but we did get to appreciate the lovely country house and the surroundings in its full splendor. For lunch, the plan was to have a proper English pub lunch at the Falkland Arms. Unfortunately, we were in a hurry to catch our flight, but decided we could not pass on the chance for yet one more pint.

Good thing we decided to check out the pub, since it’s located in an unbelievably picturesque Cotswolds village called Great Tew. It reminded me of Hobbiton in the Lord of the Rings films. The pub itself was exactly what an English country pub should be like; cozy, with creaky tables, serving overcooked English food (oh well, that bit’s not mandatory) and most importantly, offering a good selection of real ales to its customers.

That was pretty much the perfect way to end a brilliant weekend in the UK! Almost made me want to move back… Next, it was time for Mathilde to head back to France, and for me to carry on to Finland.