A great day

Today we had a brilliant afternoon out. We were due to be meeting our friend, Elizabeth Berner, to whose husband, Tim, I dedicated I Choose Everything. He had MND for 20 years. He inspired me with the conviction that terminal illness is not a curse but even a blessing - a severe one admittedly. But we're certainly not victims. That has really helped me. Anyway, we'd arranged to meet at The High Table on the High Street in Oxford. http://www.thehightableoxford.co.uk/
So Jane and I drove in and, miraculously, found the last disabled parking space in the centre. Someone was just driving out of it. It was a clear crisp day, with bright blue skies shining on the mellow gold Oxford stone of the colleges. Getting in to the restaurant was a bit of comical struggle. Jane and a waitress heaved the wheelchair, and then a passing young man offered to help - and in I went. Soon Elizabeth walked in and we ordered our meal.

The food was excellent; the service was delightful; but what made the meal was just being with someone who exactly knew what we're going through, as she and Tim had been there before. So I could pass on some of my salad to Jane and Elizabeth. She was tuned in to me and understood what I was getting at. We talked about families, teaching, Shakespeare, faith, her time at Oxford, as well as incidentally illness. And it was just a really lovely time.

Life isn't bad, is it?

Erratum

My good friend, Richard Potter, has emailed me to correct me gently. "I loved my time in Oxford and loved looking round the odd nooks and crannies, like the end of Merton chapel that they couldn't afford to finish so they painted the back wall to make it look like the finished thing. You went to Magdalen deer park - when I was there Brasenose called one of their quads 'the deer park' because at some time students had 'encouraged' a deer from Magdalen up the road and kept it for a while (presumably until they were found out) in the quad. Then there is Corpus Christi; in the quad as you enter there is a rare statue of a representation of Christ as a pelican - the eucharistic (Corpus Christi) reference is to the belief that pelicans plucked flesh from their own breast to feed their young.

"... and so many more, but one of the reasons I am writing is to point out a small error. John Henry Newman is not being canonised, but is being beatified a sort of half way stage. There needs to be a further miracle ascribed to his intercession before he is declared a saint. From Sunday, he will be known as Blessed John Henry Newman."

We wondered by the way what Magdalen kept deer for. Is it to provide home-grown venison for the fellows' high table? 

A day out in Oxford

Had a great day on Saturday with friends Pete and Jane Beckley. Pete's appeared in this blog before - the award-winning furniture designer. We went to Oxford where they were holding a couple of heritage days, Open Doors 2010, which meant a lot of the historic buildings were opened free of charge.

Jesus chapel doorway

Since some colleges were open only the afternoon, we had to plan our itinerary. As is often the case, although we'd lived in and near the city for so long, we'd none of us visited many colleges. We started at Wadham, and then after a coffee/chocolate in the covered market it was on to Jesus College. We liked it. I especially liked the entry to the chapel, which has carved above it: "Ascendat oratio. Descendat gratias". That means: "Let prayer ascend. May grace descend," I think. Inside the chapel is light and unfussy.

We also called in at the University Church on the High. The history connected with it I found more impressive than the place. There's a most peculiar screen at the back under the gallery made of greeny glass bricks. Ugly. But it's the place where the university began, when the heresy trial of Cranmer took place, where John Wesley preached and John Henry Newman (soon to be canonised by Pope Benedict) was vicar - and where Oxfam began.

By now I was feeling hungry (again!) and so we headed for Magdalen College where there's a café. Let in by an obliging porter through the main doors, we headed for the cloisters. It's a big impressive college where C S Lewis was a fellow, and famous for its deer park. We spotted a white hart, or possibly doe.

Magdalen cloisters

Magdalen gardens

Deer park with white one in middle

To finish we threaded our way down Merton Lane and visited the oldest college in the university. While Pete fell into conversation with a fellow furniture designer, Jane pushed me round the chapel         a----------------------- atrium looking for odd photo-shots. The monument to Thomas Bodley - well, that would never be approved for a churchyard today! - founder of the Bodleian Library, "the oldest copyright library in the world", according to a passing tour guide. "I hope they've got my books," I commented to Jane. But to get back to that Bodley chap, he seems to have been a bit of a lad in his time to judge by his monument. Well, he's surrounded by naked women - as you can see. I'm sure they're classical muses or something. But as we wandered back to the car past the back gates of Christ Church, I mused on more contemporary Oxonians who enjoyed a jolly good time as members of the Bullingdon Club, the likes of Boris, David and George. I wonder what their memorials will be.