Tag Archives: oxford

The Christmas Dinner that Spreads Joy

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secret santa

It’s only one day but what if you had nothing to look forward to over the Christmas period?

A lot of us might think of the elderly living alone, no-one to make their Christmas a special event but there are many people for whom Christmas can be a painful time. We may not give a passing thought to younger members of society yet many of them will be dreading Christmas too. And if it wasn’t for something that popped up on my Facebook feed I might still be guilty of that.

Facebook might be littered with photographs of what people had for dinner, indulgent cakes, cheesy cartoons and cute dogs – but now and then, among all the dross, something will catch your eye, as a friend’s Facebook post did mine. How would I like to be a Secret Santa? All I had to do was follow the link  to Amazon, choose a pressie and click. Simple yet stunning and I felt I had to share.

There are many young people leaving care, who may be living in B & Bs, bedsits, sleeping the streets or on friend’s sofas and many of them will be dreading Christmas. Lemn Sissay, award-winning official poet of London Olympics 2012 knows how that feels. He was a care leaver himself and he came up with this wonderful idea to make sure that those who are in a similar position have a fantastic Christmas.

Behold The Christmas Dinner  One big Christmas party when they can relax, have fun and be given gifts – this is where the Secret Santa comes in. A festive day for care leavers (those who are 18 – 25 who have been looked after by local authorities away from the home for at least thirteen weeks since the age of fourteen, as well as those with a background in care within the home).

The Christmas Dinner started in Manchester in 2013 but this year there will be similar events in Hackney, Leeds and Oxford.

I spoke with Jill Ambrazitis, who is organising The Christmas Dinner in Leeds to find out more about event and how to get involved.

How many people in the team to bring this sort of event to fruition?

The steering committee for the Leeds event comprised approximately 20 people.  We will also have additional volunteers assisting with set-up on Christmas Eve, more on Christmas Day to help with the actual event and then a further group on Boxing Day to assist with clear-up etc.

How many young people will receive gifts this year?

We anticipate that there will be 50 care leavers attending our event this year, all of whom will receive gifts.

Who devised the list, accepts delivery, wraps the presents etc?

Lemn suggested that we set up an Amazon wish list, (we believe Manchester and Hackney were already doing this).  I added the suggested gifts and required quantities to the Leeds Wish List on Amazon. All gifts purchased from the list will be delivered to me.  We have a group of volunteers participating in a marathon gift wrapping session on Saturday 17 December.

How can people get involved? 

At this stage, mostly by being Secret Santas and purchasing gifts via the Amazon Wish list using this link https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/registry/wishlist/1A1SAFC1KDL5B/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_2

Ideally, we would like to have as many of the gifts as possible delivered by 16 December (prior to the wrapping activity), however, having said that this does not mean that we would not accept contributions/donations thereafter!  In addition, our venue does not have any sofas/soft furnishings, so if there is anyone who has bean bags/sofas etc. that they are not using and would be prepared to lend/donate these to us  that would be amazing.

So, click on the link and choose your present. It’s quick and easy way of being Secret Santa and it will make someone’s day to receive a sackful of presents.

If anyone else is thinking of doing something similar you can find out exactly how to plan your event for 2017 on Lemn Sissay’s blog.

The best place for us to eat in Oxford – the Old Parsonage

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old parsonage oxford restaurant hotel

A good place for posh grub

We wanted to go to Oxford to see my daughter, who has just started a course there. And my mother wanted to come with us and buy us a nice lunch. So I started to look for somewhere nice to eat.

I did look online, but the internet was pretty useless: it provided us with a huge number of recommendations among which were a branch of Subway the sandwich bar and some suburban Indian restaurants with names like ‘Star of India’.

So I emailed my friend Andrew. Andrew is a professor who has worked at the university and still lives in the town. He emailed me back. ‘I’d suggest the Old Parsonage – I haven’t been for years but it’s always been good, traditional, on the pricey side and the sort of restaurant you’d imagine from all those films they set in early 20th century Oxford’. So I booked.

Anyway, we went along for a meal. The restaurant itself is about two minutes walk from my daughter’s college, which is very handy.

Old Parsonage Oxford restaurant

My children after a good meal

It is a lovely building, and is part of a hotel. It is made of old stone, and looks very rustic and historic. The dining room is hung with oil paintings – most of which appear to be from the first half of the twentieth century.

Now the menu isn’t cheap. Most of the starters are seven or eight pounds, while the mains range from £15 to £50. For starters my son and I had a wonderful French fish soup with aioli (garlic mayonnaise) and croutons. This was done really well done, very authentic – lots of great flavours of fish. My wife and daughter each had beautifully fresh smoked salmon.

The main courses were similarly good. My wife had some very good fish cakes, which were a relative bargain at £15. My mum and son had fillet steak – £32. I went absolutely mad and had a veal chop and kidney cooked in garlic and rosemary for £49.50. My chop was extremely expensive, but immensely tasty. It was cooked beautifully – and it was a big chunk of meat. OK, it wasn’t cheap, but it was a real treat. Oh, and because it was lunchtime, we didn’t drink very much. My daughter and I each had a very acceptable glass of Languedoc rose.

The portions were big, so we weren’t really in the mood for pudding. My son had a very nice pear and apple crumble. Anyone can knock out a reasonable crumble, but what was particularly nice was the delicious custard, which was made of real eggs and was flavoured with fresh vanilla. Add a couple of coffee and the bill for the five of us came to £250.

It was a lovely meal. Not just because of the food – which was very good. It was just a nice place to sit, the staff was helpful and it was pleasantly busy – but not packed.

And in the front there is a sort of bar, which had a stone floor. As we were leaving we got talking to a very nice academic, who had brought his dog and was having a drink with a friend. We were just remarking what a lovely dog he had, when the animal produced a great spray of yellow diarrhoea. My daughter and I fell about laughing. I’m not sure that this is a regular part of the entertainment offered at the Old Parsonage, but it meant that we left with a smile.

 

see also Silk – a posh Indian food in a remarkable venue

Applying to university or college next year? Read these top dos and don’ts

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Applying to university or college next year? Read these top dos and don’ts from UCAS.

 

Applying to university or college next year? Read these top dos and dont’s by Cathy Gilbert, Director of Customer Strategy at UCAS

Do – research your university and degree course choices carefully before applying. For me, that should include going to open days as well as looking at the online information. You’ll spend three or four years studying in higher education, so you should be really passionate about the course content and your chosen place of study.

Do – remember the UCAS application deadlines. The first date on the horizon this year is the 15 October deadline for applying to Oxford and Cambridge, and for courses anywhere in medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and veterinary science. The key deadline for most other courses is 15 January next year. You’ll have to send your application to us by this time to be certain of consideration.

Do – make the most of the help available from UCAS on ucas.com. Working through our Six steps to applying will make the process much easier. You can also watch videos on UCAStv featuring students who have already started and been through big events like Freshers’ Week. If you have a burning question at any stage of the process why not ask our team of experts on Twitter (@ucas_online) and Facebook (/ucasonline)? You’ll get a clear answer back very quickly.

Don’t – forget that some universities and colleges will ask you to sit an admissions test in addition to the standard qualifications. The Admissions tests section of the UCAS website will help you understand some of these and the UCAS bookstore has guides dedicated to many of them.

Don’t – be tempted to submit a copied personal statement or one downloaded from a website. Thankfully, only one percent of applicants did this last year. UCAS is quite clear that personal statements should be an applicant’s own work, although we do advise that parents and teachers check them over. Our computer system has tens of thousands of personal statements on file and similarities will be flagged up to the universities.

Don’t – panic about tuition fees. There is a wealth of information out there to help you understand the costs of higher education – and remember you won’t have to pay anything upfront. You can visit the Student finance section of our website to find out more, or visit Moneysavingexpert’s Students section.

King of Cats – America | Music Review

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King of Cats is a boy called Max from Oxford but I’m afraid I don’t know about the name. I don’t like to ask. He sends me nice emails and is very polite but I do need to get one thing off my chest: I don’t much like cats. My sister has one that looks like it is going to defecate when you look at it. My parents have one called Pumpkin who drew blood from me the first day we met, and 19 years later she’s nothing if not Machiavellian. What I do like, though, is the King of Cats.

This album is what happens when a singer-songwriter from Oxford takes himself off to America to travel around on greyhound buses armed with only an acoustic guitar and a four track. I say only but I hoped he’d taken some clean pants and a toothbrush but Max hasn’t let on to me about that so we’ll have to assume.

America, the debut record by KoC, was committed to tape in some odd places whilst on his travels in the USA. Max recorded on a cherry picker in Seattle, in the mountains of Oregon and at a hardcore show in San Fransisco. Having sat in on more recording sessions than is enjoyable I wish more were conducted in such delightful surroundings. The results are really rather good.

Each song on the album is named after where it was recorded. My personal favourite is “Hooters Casino, Las Vegas, whilst Mike was showering” but other stand out titles include “Next to the train-tracks in Flagstaff, Arizona” and “on a plane, in the high desert and Seattle”. It’s a nice record.

The album begins with the aforementioned “One a plane . . . “which builds with each of the many plucking of guitar strings. It sounds like Super XX Man were they to have been from Middle England.

Each song captures not only the sound of Max’s guitars and vocals but also incidental sounds such as dogs barking and the sounds of people clapping and talking. At the end of “Golden Gate Park . . .” a couple can be heard arguing between themselves including the female, Suzie, uttering the cutting line of “I’m not trying to be mean but I just don’t give a shit.” She’s set her stall out clearly there and so I will do the same for you: this is a good record. If you like the idea of the folky acoustic sound of the Mouldy Peaches with the vocals of Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel then this is a record for you. Otherwise move along, because, like Suzie, you just won’t give a shit.

America is released on 19th May 2012 via http://kingofcats.bandcamp.com/album/america

 

Leading scientists ask British public to measure their sleep

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· International survey findings to be discussed at The Times Cheltenham Science Festival

· What is sleep, why do we need it and how much of it do we really require?

Researchers from the universities of Oxford and Munich have called on the British public to contribute to an international survey looking at the quantity – and quality – of sleep amongst the population.

Professor Russell Foster, Chair of The Times Cheltenham Science Festival, and Professor Dr Till Roenneberg from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, who are both experts in chronobiology – the study of the circadian rhythms which govern our waking and sleeping patterns, and their interaction with daylight – will discuss the responses to the survey at the Festival in June 2012. The pair will discuss the regenerative powers of sleep as well as comparing and contrasting the sleep patterns of the UK respondents with their continental counterparts.

The survey takes just a few minutes to complete online, and asks questions relating to work schedule, differing sleep habits during the week and at the weekend, consumption of alcoholic and caffeinated drinks, exposure to cigarettes and the time taken to fall asleep each night.

So far, more than 65,000 people in Germany have taken Professor Dr Roenneberg’s simple online survey relating their sleeping habits, and the scientists are keen to capture more data relating to the British population.

Russell Foster, a professor of circadian neuroscience at Brasenose College, Oxford, and Chair of The Times Cheltenham Science Festival said, “We felt that the arrival of British Summer Time, with its lighter mornings and longer evenings – plus people perhaps feeling like they’ve ‘lost’ an hour’s sleep – was an excellent moment to get people thinking about the quality and quantity of sleep they get.

“With the help of this questionnaire, we aim to understand the underlying complexity of the biological clock by gathering a picture of everyday behaviour. We all know that individuals show distinct preferences for various activities over the course of a day. A simple example is the time at which an individual prefers to go to bed and get up. Collecting this information will help us understand how and why the biological clock ticks.”

Each participant will receive a personal profile which evaluates their chronotype, and compares their results to those of other participants. A person’s chronotype relates to their preference for mornings or evenings – those who are at their best at the crack of dawn are often described as ‘larks’, whereas people who brighten up in the evenings are known as ‘owls’.

Professor Dr Till Roenneberg, of the Munich Centre of Chronobiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, adds, “It will be particularly interesting to gather more information on British sleep patterns in order to compare chronotypes of people living in different geographical locations.

“This will enable us to consider factors such as longitude and latitude, which can make a difference to the amount of daylight to which people are exposed.”

People are encouraged to take the survey online.

Professor Russell Foster will be talking about the regenerative power of sleep at The Times Cheltenham Science Festival on Tuesday 12 June 2012 at 6:30pm.

Priority booking is open to Cheltenham Festivals Members from Monday 26th March, ahead of public booking from 2nd April. The full programme is available at www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/science

Muay Thai International Match of England v Thailand

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On Saturday 22nd October 2011 six incredible fights will take place in Oxford with the final two bouts being an International Match of England v Thailand
The fight is organised by Oxford Martial Arts Academy (OMAA) which is the UK’s leading martial arts academy with over 6,500 square foot of dedicated matted area, over 60 martial arts classes per week, the only Olympic size Boxing ring in Oxford and the only 28ft Cage in the UK!
Muay Thai is one of the oldest and most exciting Martial Arts known for being a favourite in Jean Claude Van Damme Films such as Kickboxer and popularised through games such as Street-fighter and Tekken.  Muay Thai is full contact with no protective head gear or clothing is worn and fighters can use punches, kicks, knees and even their elbows to win bouts.
The final two fights are both for England v Thailand but spilt into Adult & Junior categories. The England Junior representative Daniel Mc Gowan is just 15 years old and the youngest person ever in history to have a Thai National flow over to contend him.
This is the first time such a high level fight has been brought to Oxfordshire with the founders of OMAA, Vahram Papazyan & Tihomir Lalic spending over £25,000 on producing the evening.
“We started out with a little room just for us to train in – now we’re hosting International fights! These fighters are ones to watch out for” said Vahram, a keen wrestler and sportsman.
The family friendly evening will host six fights, starting with British fighters battling it out for Southern Area fights, moving onto to European Titles from Denmark, Sweden, England & Ireland with the Ultimate World Title Fight of Thailand v England – which is split into Adult and Junior bouts.
Tihomir Lalic, co-founder of OMAA said “Since we first set up OMAA in 2000 this has been our dream, to hold such an exciting and exclusive event – we plan to combine the very best service, food and drink with the most exciting live entertainment ever to be seen in Oxford!”
The event will be held at the picturesque Regal on Cowley Road, Oxford. Doors open at 4.30pm, with the fight card commencing 5.30pm.
Tickets are limited and selling fast.
Ticket Prices:
£25.00 Standard Ticket
£35.00 Stage Ticket
£75.00 VIP – including Champagne, Dinner & Event Programme.
Box Office:
Oxford Martial Arts Academy
21 Templar’s Square, Oxford, OX4 3XQ
Tel: 01865 774 998