On waking the first thing I thought was that, the weather had broken. The rain had been tropical, fierce and prolonged and on my first look outside, to reload the car, the impression was of more rain to come. It was also chill, a damp chill. I was still governed by the heat rash so made a priority visiting a chemist as soon as I reached Oxford. Having walked Burford, through the town to its riverside and worked out where the Magistrates and Juvenile Courts had been located, there was no need to visit again. Burford marked one extremity of my patch as a child care officer 1964-1967. The Marques of Blanford chaired the Magistrate's Court, his wife the Juvenile Court, and once every six months we reported to the juvenile benches of Witney and Burford on the progress of those children committed to the care of the local authority by the courts instead of an Approved School, following an agreement reached between the Children's Officer and Magistrates in the County. Memories of individuals with whom I worked and of those for whom I worked remain vivid but on those of the children's officer and her husband can be included in the work. Barbara became deputy chief Inspector of Social Work, while her husband was an important child psychiatrist who gave me self confidence in my ability to understand and to communicate with clients in a constructive way. I had heard about the measures taken to cope with influx of visitors to Oxford city as the volume as built up since the 1960's but I had not idea that it had become impossible to park anywhere unless you held a resident's permit, except at the park and ride system and the few official public car parks around the city, The situation was not helped to day with work, to improve bus lanes, taking place along several of the main routes in and out and around the city. This was so along the road into Summertown where I had first lived after successfully completing the Certificate of Child Care Course at the University of Birmingham and awarded the Home Office Certificate to practice as a qualified officer. As a consequence of work along the shopping area I missed the entry to the car park, if it continued to exist. Summertown is the home of the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief and of Oxford City Radio. I had two partially furnished rooms at the top of the house and a tiny alcove of kitchenette, with other facilities shared, including a young couple and their first infant who I befriended as well as one of the other residents who lived at the house for a short period of time. Others I rarely saw, let alone knew. I took the road to Marston, this runs parallel to Ring road around North Oxford.
The existence of countryside within the city as well as the Parks and the river areas is a feature of Oxford which help creates its uniqueness and compactness. During the drive I did come across one small area of road where it was possible to park as the houses all had long drive ways, however by this time I was aware that the cooler conditions had not affected the inflammation rash which made walking difficult and I decided against leaving the car and taking a bus to the city centre. I would investigate if I could park within the city. I continued until joining the London Road turning down the Headington Hill passed where Sir Robert Maxwell had built up the Pergammon Press as well as his family home, before becoming a Member of Parliament briefly and buying the Daily Mirror. The site is close to the former City Polytechnic with both now forming the second city University. Reaching the bottom of the hill I decided against continuing to Magdalene Bridge with the College on the right and St Hilda's on the left and made the sharp right discovering a new college building in the process of completion and ended back along Marston road and this time decide to continue to Headington and the car park next to one side of the Bury Knowles Park and supermarket . I take a ticket for a four hour stay and park the car against the wall which forms a passage way along one side of the park. From the car park around the supermarket and turn left reaching the park where the public toilets comprised a building with a row of four facing the street and a row of four facing into the park each with their own door and available for both sexes. This is a novel approach which present undesirables although does provide personal space for drug users and for those on the street to have a home at night or when the weather is poor during a day, although from their state of cleanliness I assume their use is monitored. Across from the park entrance is the coop supermarket at the end of the road which leads to St Leonards Road where the pair of semi detached houses was made into a top and lower flat each with their own garden space. I occupied the top flat for over a year before buying a first home at Teddington in the Borough of Richmond and Twickenham. It has was demolished, soon after I departed and replaced by a small block of flats. On the corner still is the garden shop and five doors along the post office in the same building as before. It is still as busy with three assistants. I top up my mobile. The four shops between the garden and the post office are now involved with catering. The first offers coffees and pastries at this time of day with street tables and appears popular. Equally popular as the morning progressed is Posh Fish which in addition to the take aways, functions as a restaurant offering a range of fish dishes from £7. There is a Chinese which looks closed and a Turkish restaurant which looks pricey and popular. I try to remember what was the building opposite the cinema looking building. This is now a new block of flats nearing completion available only for key workers in the city. On the opposite side of the road there is an internet café and a bistro type restaurant with street tables. There is a pizza takeaway my side. The traffic light junction here is one of the busiest because of the constant stream of luxury Wifi buses coaches to London. One offers a service every ten minutes and the other appears to be just as frequent. Headington appears to be the second city stop after the central bus station en route to the capital city. From the junction I take the left turn where there is still the hardware and household store used over forty years before and the bakery with café, although there are also a couple restaurants one also looks closed. There are over a dozen such places including a fashionable looking bistro further down the main road, as well as two popular Inns and a small hotel. I found a chemist where during my examination of potentially suitable products a talkative young women who had lost he mobile phone while talking to a Russian man the previous night had come to consume her ration of Methadone which she said was going down well. The product selected appeared to be the most suitable and worked so that within twenty four hours I became fully mobile without discomfort. I debated having lunch at the Dew Drop Inn but decided on a carton of orange fruit juice, half of which replaced the cold water I had drunk from the flask. I bought a couple of rolls although I still had some of the baguette and a small tub of rice pudding which I fancied but no spread which I decided to do without. I enjoyed lunch al fresco using the Havant bought Ham, with the rice pudding and some orange. I finished off the flask coffee. It was then time to revisit Old Headington, where I lived in a converted stable block for my first year at Ruskin College. Old Headington is amazing, an ancient rural village within seconds of the car park and used to be the homes of Tolkein and C S Lewis and other notable academic such as Sir Isaiah Berlin and David Marquand, of Lord Nuffield who made his money from cars and founded Nuffield post graduate college. It is also the family home of Emma Watson who plays Harmione Granger in the Harry Potter films. There is one new building, a church and which is opposite the Christian Counselling centre. The Black Boys used by locals and the White Heart where in term time there is a mixture of accents between Oxford and Ruskin. I continued along what is a country lane as the main college building is set back in tree covered grounds with only the former stable block against the roadway wall. I lived on the first floor in cubicle cell like room with a single bed on one side and a desk on the other with limited area for clothing and books. If someone entertained a wife or girl friend the experienced was shared by everyone.
The majority of students were accommodated in the main house. Now it has become a teaching centre for a Certificate in Social Work Course and there are small residential blocks as well as an additional teach area built around the extensive grounds with border countryside. There were some cars parked by no movement of people so I saw on a seat under a tree for a while and reflected, I moved quickly when I saw the changing colour of the clouds and reached the White Heart when there was a heavy but brief shower I stopped inside for half a pint of diet cola. There was a party of student from diverse lands ordering lunch, and one other inside the Inn who stepped out into the garden area for a smoke when the rain stopped. There were to others in the garden who stayed out under protection during the rain There was only occasional traffic outside and no movement of people anyway in the village until leaving when someone came out of their attractive three storey country town house. On the way back I tool the side road entrance the public Library building located at one end of the park, It is a large park given the size of Headington. With a vast area of grass land and trees. Near the car park and main road there is a good children's safe play area and dotted around a few picnic tables. The area neat the Library building has attractive formal beds of flowers and plants and then an interesting garden of exotic bushes and plants. In the opposite corner there are several tennis courts and activity areas and some men were felling trees nearby. I sat again and reflected more. Down the hill used to be the Oxford City Football ground then dilapidated and playing outside the football league we went occasionally during term time in that first year. Oh dear me I have just lost again all that I have written over the past half hour and I need a bath, and to pack and journey home. The most interesting building in Headington used to be the Cinema where my most memorable experience while living in college during the second year was to see Les Enfant du Paradis with Marcel Marceau and which together with the cinema in Walton Street near the college were cinema art centres with the cinema next to the bus station and the theatre showing popular films from the Sound of Music to Marlene Dietrich and Tosca. The Oxford Playhouse theatre where Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor performed was in the a nearby street with the Randolph Hotel on the corner on the other side of the bus station. I digress because the well known building today in the whole of Oxford is also in Headington opposite the former cinema. This is the house with a full size shark embedded in the roof. I kid you not. My time was up in the car park without paying more and contact with the garage revealed the cost of the work and that a road test was still to be carried out. I therefore made my way towards Bicester and stopped at a service station with a Little Chef to one side and a garage with extended facilities for the traveller including small Wild Bean Café. I waited here until the call of ready came but then circumnavigated the town first to find the garage and then to find my way to the M40 and onto the A34 and A 43 to Northampton and the Motorway. I had a sleep and also loaded the software and inserted the hardware for Wifi connection. There were two available services at the stop but I waited until settling in to the travel Lodge for the next four nights at Trowell on the MI north of Nottingham City. The cost of repairs and services was £300 which I believe is of a similar order to having hired a car and where I had lost about three hours on the first day of travel and a couple of hours this day but where I also was not in any condition for activity. What did I get for £9 a night? A large first floor room with a king size double bed , a full size convertible into a second double bed settee, A large wall length desk with working TV at one end and tea making facilities before a large area to place my case and the hanging wardrobe and shelving plus a bath and other facilities. Admittedly this was an almost on motorway located room so noisy with windows open to let in the air. But I was able to sleep well after dining on red wine with large green olives, soup and a pasta. The rest of the grapes, a Danish and coffee. I had enjoyed fruit juice on arrival and later in the evening. At the Marks and Spencer's store I bought a two for £5 large carton of fresh fruit salad which included strawberries and grapes as well pieces of orange and apple. It was a good portion worth £2.50. I also bought a pack of four pan au chocolat and a single pasta salad. I also decided on an ordinance survey Map of the city area rather than a map booklet. Then miraculously I got myself on line and was sable to eliminate without reading of 90% of the accumulated emails. One alerted that I won £10.60 on the Euro Lottery and two were from cousins to ask that I join in an electronic petition to number 10 in support of a specialist hospital for service categories. Previously I supported the government view and that of the High Command that it was better for the injured to bet treated as close to their families as possible getting the best specialist treatment available. There is still a strong case for this especially as many of the wounded will not be able to continue their service career and therefore using a civilian hospital will help adjustment to what will be a major change again in their young lives. However given the number of casualties, that individuals can be transferred for specialist operations and that medical personnel can be given short term or sessional contracts I am in sympathy with those who want to be with others who have undergone similar experiences and to do so in a service. I suspect costs will be a factor. It is still shocking how we appear to be treating some of those who are wounded and the media could help more by keeping the public informed about what is happening on a daily basis
The existence of countryside within the city as well as the Parks and the river areas is a feature of Oxford which help creates its uniqueness and compactness. During the drive I did come across one small area of road where it was possible to park as the houses all had long drive ways, however by this time I was aware that the cooler conditions had not affected the inflammation rash which made walking difficult and I decided against leaving the car and taking a bus to the city centre. I would investigate if I could park within the city. I continued until joining the London Road turning down the Headington Hill passed where Sir Robert Maxwell had built up the Pergammon Press as well as his family home, before becoming a Member of Parliament briefly and buying the Daily Mirror. The site is close to the former City Polytechnic with both now forming the second city University. Reaching the bottom of the hill I decided against continuing to Magdalene Bridge with the College on the right and St Hilda's on the left and made the sharp right discovering a new college building in the process of completion and ended back along Marston road and this time decide to continue to Headington and the car park next to one side of the Bury Knowles Park and supermarket . I take a ticket for a four hour stay and park the car against the wall which forms a passage way along one side of the park. From the car park around the supermarket and turn left reaching the park where the public toilets comprised a building with a row of four facing the street and a row of four facing into the park each with their own door and available for both sexes. This is a novel approach which present undesirables although does provide personal space for drug users and for those on the street to have a home at night or when the weather is poor during a day, although from their state of cleanliness I assume their use is monitored. Across from the park entrance is the coop supermarket at the end of the road which leads to St Leonards Road where the pair of semi detached houses was made into a top and lower flat each with their own garden space. I occupied the top flat for over a year before buying a first home at Teddington in the Borough of Richmond and Twickenham. It has was demolished, soon after I departed and replaced by a small block of flats. On the corner still is the garden shop and five doors along the post office in the same building as before. It is still as busy with three assistants. I top up my mobile. The four shops between the garden and the post office are now involved with catering. The first offers coffees and pastries at this time of day with street tables and appears popular. Equally popular as the morning progressed is Posh Fish which in addition to the take aways, functions as a restaurant offering a range of fish dishes from £7. There is a Chinese which looks closed and a Turkish restaurant which looks pricey and popular. I try to remember what was the building opposite the cinema looking building. This is now a new block of flats nearing completion available only for key workers in the city. On the opposite side of the road there is an internet café and a bistro type restaurant with street tables. There is a pizza takeaway my side. The traffic light junction here is one of the busiest because of the constant stream of luxury Wifi buses coaches to London. One offers a service every ten minutes and the other appears to be just as frequent. Headington appears to be the second city stop after the central bus station en route to the capital city. From the junction I take the left turn where there is still the hardware and household store used over forty years before and the bakery with café, although there are also a couple restaurants one also looks closed. There are over a dozen such places including a fashionable looking bistro further down the main road, as well as two popular Inns and a small hotel. I found a chemist where during my examination of potentially suitable products a talkative young women who had lost he mobile phone while talking to a Russian man the previous night had come to consume her ration of Methadone which she said was going down well. The product selected appeared to be the most suitable and worked so that within twenty four hours I became fully mobile without discomfort. I debated having lunch at the Dew Drop Inn but decided on a carton of orange fruit juice, half of which replaced the cold water I had drunk from the flask. I bought a couple of rolls although I still had some of the baguette and a small tub of rice pudding which I fancied but no spread which I decided to do without. I enjoyed lunch al fresco using the Havant bought Ham, with the rice pudding and some orange. I finished off the flask coffee. It was then time to revisit Old Headington, where I lived in a converted stable block for my first year at Ruskin College. Old Headington is amazing, an ancient rural village within seconds of the car park and used to be the homes of Tolkein and C S Lewis and other notable academic such as Sir Isaiah Berlin and David Marquand, of Lord Nuffield who made his money from cars and founded Nuffield post graduate college. It is also the family home of Emma Watson who plays Harmione Granger in the Harry Potter films. There is one new building, a church and which is opposite the Christian Counselling centre. The Black Boys used by locals and the White Heart where in term time there is a mixture of accents between Oxford and Ruskin. I continued along what is a country lane as the main college building is set back in tree covered grounds with only the former stable block against the roadway wall. I lived on the first floor in cubicle cell like room with a single bed on one side and a desk on the other with limited area for clothing and books. If someone entertained a wife or girl friend the experienced was shared by everyone.
The majority of students were accommodated in the main house. Now it has become a teaching centre for a Certificate in Social Work Course and there are small residential blocks as well as an additional teach area built around the extensive grounds with border countryside. There were some cars parked by no movement of people so I saw on a seat under a tree for a while and reflected, I moved quickly when I saw the changing colour of the clouds and reached the White Heart when there was a heavy but brief shower I stopped inside for half a pint of diet cola. There was a party of student from diverse lands ordering lunch, and one other inside the Inn who stepped out into the garden area for a smoke when the rain stopped. There were to others in the garden who stayed out under protection during the rain There was only occasional traffic outside and no movement of people anyway in the village until leaving when someone came out of their attractive three storey country town house. On the way back I tool the side road entrance the public Library building located at one end of the park, It is a large park given the size of Headington. With a vast area of grass land and trees. Near the car park and main road there is a good children's safe play area and dotted around a few picnic tables. The area neat the Library building has attractive formal beds of flowers and plants and then an interesting garden of exotic bushes and plants. In the opposite corner there are several tennis courts and activity areas and some men were felling trees nearby. I sat again and reflected more. Down the hill used to be the Oxford City Football ground then dilapidated and playing outside the football league we went occasionally during term time in that first year. Oh dear me I have just lost again all that I have written over the past half hour and I need a bath, and to pack and journey home. The most interesting building in Headington used to be the Cinema where my most memorable experience while living in college during the second year was to see Les Enfant du Paradis with Marcel Marceau and which together with the cinema in Walton Street near the college were cinema art centres with the cinema next to the bus station and the theatre showing popular films from the Sound of Music to Marlene Dietrich and Tosca. The Oxford Playhouse theatre where Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor performed was in the a nearby street with the Randolph Hotel on the corner on the other side of the bus station. I digress because the well known building today in the whole of Oxford is also in Headington opposite the former cinema. This is the house with a full size shark embedded in the roof. I kid you not. My time was up in the car park without paying more and contact with the garage revealed the cost of the work and that a road test was still to be carried out. I therefore made my way towards Bicester and stopped at a service station with a Little Chef to one side and a garage with extended facilities for the traveller including small Wild Bean Café. I waited here until the call of ready came but then circumnavigated the town first to find the garage and then to find my way to the M40 and onto the A34 and A 43 to Northampton and the Motorway. I had a sleep and also loaded the software and inserted the hardware for Wifi connection. There were two available services at the stop but I waited until settling in to the travel Lodge for the next four nights at Trowell on the MI north of Nottingham City. The cost of repairs and services was £300 which I believe is of a similar order to having hired a car and where I had lost about three hours on the first day of travel and a couple of hours this day but where I also was not in any condition for activity. What did I get for £9 a night? A large first floor room with a king size double bed , a full size convertible into a second double bed settee, A large wall length desk with working TV at one end and tea making facilities before a large area to place my case and the hanging wardrobe and shelving plus a bath and other facilities. Admittedly this was an almost on motorway located room so noisy with windows open to let in the air. But I was able to sleep well after dining on red wine with large green olives, soup and a pasta. The rest of the grapes, a Danish and coffee. I had enjoyed fruit juice on arrival and later in the evening. At the Marks and Spencer's store I bought a two for £5 large carton of fresh fruit salad which included strawberries and grapes as well pieces of orange and apple. It was a good portion worth £2.50. I also bought a pack of four pan au chocolat and a single pasta salad. I also decided on an ordinance survey Map of the city area rather than a map booklet. Then miraculously I got myself on line and was sable to eliminate without reading of 90% of the accumulated emails. One alerted that I won £10.60 on the Euro Lottery and two were from cousins to ask that I join in an electronic petition to number 10 in support of a specialist hospital for service categories. Previously I supported the government view and that of the High Command that it was better for the injured to bet treated as close to their families as possible getting the best specialist treatment available. There is still a strong case for this especially as many of the wounded will not be able to continue their service career and therefore using a civilian hospital will help adjustment to what will be a major change again in their young lives. However given the number of casualties, that individuals can be transferred for specialist operations and that medical personnel can be given short term or sessional contracts I am in sympathy with those who want to be with others who have undergone similar experiences and to do so in a service. I suspect costs will be a factor. It is still shocking how we appear to be treating some of those who are wounded and the media could help more by keeping the public informed about what is happening on a daily basis
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