We Can Work it Out

 For our last morning in London, we abandoned the hotel breakfast and headed to my a favourite London breakfast restaurant, 26 Grains in Neal’s Yard. It allowed us a lovely stroll through the quiet morning streets, and provided a delicious breakfast. I had 5 grain porridge with banana, tahini and black sesame.

Our Uber driver had to take a scenic route out of the city due to some roadworks so we said goodbye to London via Buckingham Palace, driving right up to the front and then along the side. The roads were clear and we settled in for the two hour trip. Half way to Oxford, I received an email from PayPal, saying I had a refund of about $2000. The only thing this expensive was the accommodation in Oxford…… Sure enough, a few emails later, I discovered that the air B&B had cancelled due to “operational difficulties”. I had booked and paid at a pretty good rate back in January, so I am deeply suspicious that the operational difficulties involved another, higher paying guest in the apartment. Oxford was booked solid for this week, presumably due to all the families here for graduations, but I did manage to secure hotel rooms, albeit at an eye watering rate. 

Dropping our bags at the hotel, we walked the short distance to my college, Pembroke, to do some much needed laundry. I had checked with them two weeks ago and they said it was completely fine, but the dragon at the gate today said no. She told me that there are children under 16 staying at Pembroke for a conference, so while we are free to go into the college and walk around, apparently doing laundry is a working with children security risk. Further, the children’s conference goes to the end of August (!). A very long conference, particularly for children. We did go in and walk around, sans my suitcase of laundry which remained with the porter lest I sneak into the laundry room for a guerrilla laundering operation. I was fuming. Here’s the Pembroke chapel.

My mother and I hiked the half hour trail to the nearest laundromat while Cam and my Dad went for a beer at the Crown. Hot and sweaty and $48 poorer for one wash and one dry (for real!) I rejoined the group at the hotel for an evening snack on my terrace. The Jericho Cheese shop is just around the corner from the hotel and it was fun to pick options and watch them slice and wrap them up in waxed paper. Mum and Dad had brought a lovely bottle of wine from home and Cam had purchased a new card game, so we chatted and relaxed and laughed and snacked. Dinner was accordingly a light meal, partaken at the Turf Tavern. Tucked down a narrow alleyway and looking every inch its 1400’s origins, the Turf was buzzing on a warm summer evening. We squeezed into a table inside next an old stone wall (under a ceiling requiring Cam to duck when he stood)for a relaxed meal before heading back to the hotel for bed. 

In the end, it was a day of minor disasters and absurdities: cancelled accommodation, fake child protection legislation and the most expensive wash cycle in my life. I’m Somehow none of it really matters . I’m here , in Oxford, with my family, graduating and life is good

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