Friday evening drive

Our perty car in front of Great Milton's church.

Last night the weather was finally nice again, so we took the new car out for a spin. It was the first time I've gotten to ride in it for any distance and I looovved it. So comfy! It's funny how fancy and luxurious an economy-sized Toyota feels to us, but it's all relative!

The first stop on our drive was Headington, which was once a separate village but is now a neighborhood of Oxford. We parked next to a pub with a name that I don't think would work in the States...



We had a look at the local church, of course, which is called St. Andrew's and was built in the 1100s. None of our photos came out too great, but it was an interesting church with an unusual tower. It was locked so we didn't see the inside.



Our next destination was Great Milton, to have another look at our potential new flat, especially the footpaths nearby.



We are trying to figure out whether we'd feel too isolated there, since it is very rural and there's no public transportation. The house is outside of the village itself (seen in the above right photo), so we'd have to walk about a mile just to get to the one pub and one convenience store. But sometimes that sounds really nice! Since there was a nice sunset, we also stopped by Great Milton's church again for some quick photos.



Next we drove up into the Chilterns, our local hills, where we discovered a pretty park with hiking trails that reminded us of Oregon, then weaved our way back home through various villages. Good fun.

This afternoon we are looking at a couple potential flats in the town of High Wycombe, which is not too far from Slough and on a train line.

Thursday Studying

In other happenings, on Thursday afternoon I went to a study group for my Historiography exam (on June 14). Historiography is about how to do history, objectivity vs subjectivity, moral judgments, etc. Not thrilling. The meeting was with this year's group of MSt (one-year master's) students who just finished doing the seminars I did a year and a half ago.

There were only three of them this year: two early-20s Americans named Jonathan and Tommy and a 40-something man named Fred who I think is Finnish. I know this because his accent is exactly the same as Kimi Räikkönen, the Finnish Formula One driver. Who says watching car racing isn't educational?

Anyway, it was very helpful. The head of the Christian History program was also there, and she is one of the examiners so has lots of experience from the other side. She gave us some excellent tips for exam day, including: 1) Bring pens of different widths to avoid hand cramping; and 2) Take deep breaths when the exam first starts, because that's when people have panic attacks.

We also went over some of the questions from past years' exams, which thankfully we are allowed and even encouraged to consult. That was quite useful. Sounds like we may meet again in a week.

The unfortunate thing is that I have a second exam also (on June 15). For whatever reason this one has not been done before, so I have no past tests to look at and no one to study with. And it's going to be at 9:30am, which is well before my usual functioning time. Eek! I guess Red Bull will have to give me wings.