My little slice of Paradise (Square, that is)

As I mentioned this was a part of town I never spent much time in, and with reason--it was probably undergoing ghastly Thatcher-era "renewal," which meant bunker-like blocks and parking garages. This is the view out the window of the main room--yes, the sign says "Paradise Square," and the behemoth right behind it is the main car park for the Westgate Mall, Oxford's answer to DeMallition or Mallificence or perhaps Mallpractice.

One gets a sinking feeling right after opening the door (picture me late last night, rolling my luggage along wondering what I was getting myself into). I'm not a huge devotee of feng shui, but you don't have to spend a lot of consultant bucks to know that this place is a stagnant eddy of chi, a place where chi goes to the Dark Lord for awhile: Makes ya wanna c'mon in and study fantasy literature, dunnit?

Here's the main room, minus a couple of chairs I already took out last night: Clearly whoever laid this place out should be taken out and shot.

Now for some gourmet cooking, here's the kitchen nook--the trashcan is outside next to the dining table, which I am temporarily taking over for my desk, since the actual desk is on the other wall, is about 14" deep, and essentially unusable. Yes, those tiles are 10" squares, and yes, that is the washer-dryer next to the sink. And yeah, the hinges of the fridge are on the right, so if you're in the kitchen and want to open the door, you have to step into the main room. Convenient!

I think it's kind of funny that my predecessor who found this thing believed the advert that said it was 2-bedroom--her teenage son was going to be with her, along with her husband, but he'd have had a little trouble with this room. Cozy! Lucky for us A & A will be here for only about ten nights, if I calculate correctly, and if I can find some B & B in the Cotswolds to bail out to for a night, maybe I will do that to reduce the time here even further!

As you see, the master bedroom has a wee bit more floor space (two feet) but by the way, just beyond both of the bedroom windows is the main entrance to the block of eight flats: every time someone leaves in the morning, the wall shakes. Nice. So far, the weather has been cooperative (not so blazingly hot that one absolutely has to have the windows open (the ones that do open, open about 15 degrees of the 90, which is I suppose better than nothing, and at least some of them are up far enough off of street level that I don't feel insecure leaving them open).

Moral of the story: housing in Oxford is expensive (shudder) and a mixed bag. On the plus side, I am a five minute walk to where my students are staying (haven't actually seen their digs at Jesus as the porters' lodge was a hive of activity with another US group checking in when I swung by earlier today amidst my many wanderings).

Sorry this is such a downer. Gotta get psyched to meet my ducklings tomorrow, one of whom has already e-mailed to say her delayed flight means she has missed her connection to London and will probably be a day late!

One positive: I took a long slow and steady run this evening, savoring the late light, further down river along the towpath past the scene of long-ago rowing triumphs, past Iffley Locks and the weir and all the way to Sandford; to remind me of why this place is magic, I timed it perfectly so that the great bell of Tom Tower (in Chris Church) was ringing its 101 times at 9 PM just as I finished. Hope I'm not sore tomorrow.