locked outside

Back at the beginning of October, on Freddy's birthday, we tried to spend the afternoon at the Ashmolean. It turns out the museum is closed on Mondays so instead of going in we ate sushi and sandwiches outside in the sunshine.

a brief break...

spent the day yesterday lying in the park working on essays.... or at least attempting to work on essays. today i'm a bit sunburnt and stuck back inside to properly get some work done. oh well, it nice yesterday while it lasted.

p.s. yes, fred is pulling a very common english park faux-paux of having his shirt off - but i actually told him him should so he could avoid getting a horrible farmers tan.

edamame...

Oxford isn't particularly well known for it's incredible cuisine - but one restaurant that seriously stands out from the abundance of chains is Edamame. A tiny Japanese place that is open only a few hours a day and has special sushi nights only on Thursday. You can spot it by the long line of hungry and impatient people that stretches out the door. Get there for 5pm or be prepared to wait your turn.

the big bang...

we went to the Big Bang for a friend's birthday a couple weeks ago. i'm not going to lie, i was less than thrilled about going. i'd gone once before a couple years ago and really wasn't impressed. we had to sit in the basement which was dark and not very pleasant plus the sausages were pretty dry and not very tasty. so this time when we went my expectations were seriously low and on the way there i was asking fred if we could get mcdonalds on the way home, you know, as a back up plan. as it turned out i was totally wrong about the place and was so impressed. we got to sit up stairs where it was lovely, light, and provided a great view to the funny people going in and out of bars across the street. plus we ordered the most amazing meal. i think it was called the whole hog? maybe that's not right - but basically it was one of each sausage on the menu (the picture above isn't even all the ones we got - there was more) and one of each type of mashed potato on the menu. we shared it between four of us and it was seriously seriously divine. my opinion of the big bang in oxford was radically transformed - now i love it - so long as i can find 3 people to drag along to share the whole hog with. it's the only thing to order when you go.

the barbie cake that was made for the birthday girl. yum. actually, we got a bit bored and decided to light her head on fire (after it was dismantled from the cake)... but i'll spare you the photos.