Shopping, Chocolate & Socks

It's been a fab Tuesday. Last night Nicky travelled up from Southampton and we spent the evening (and early hours of the morning) having a good old natter. She brought all her wonderful silver jewellery with her for me to have a look at and to ooh-and-aah over. Such prettiness!

Today we went to Oxford and we had lunch in a nice cafe in the Covered Market. This is Nicky posing with her chic new hairdo and enjoying her panini.

Then after a couple of hours mooching around the shops we went to the Thorntons Café where Nicky had the slice of rather naughty-looking chocolate gateau at the top of this post and I had a piece of chocolate caramel shortbread. And a hot chocolate. With whipped cream. And they gave us each a chocolate truffle too. Cocoa overload! Nicky snapped this shot of me licking melted chocolate off my fingers.

One thing I did buy today was a book about knitting socks. I've mentioned before that I have a bit of a sock obsession (hmmm, that's an understatement) and I decided the other week that I want to have a go at making my own. The book I bought has loads of interesting sock patterns including one for a freakish-looking pair that kind of turns your feet into cloven hooves so - get this - you can wear them with flip-flops. That is a heinous fashion crime! Needless to say I won't be knitting those ones but I will keep you posted with my sock-making progress.

Love the lovely brolly!

I did post this yesterday but because I detest photos of myself so much I un-posted it. Then I had an email from Nicky this morning asking where the post had disappeared to. I explained that I hate photos of me and that I thought I looked like an idiot. She assured me that I didn't so I've re-posted it. Drama!

Anyway, I saw this umbrella in Oxford the other week and I just knew it had to be mine so I went and bought it yesterday. I love it! It came from a fabulous little shop called Aspire which sells all sorts of gorgeous things. Click here to visit their website.

Sightseeing

Dad took me to Oxford today. I've been there before but I was really young and don't remember much about it. Mum and Dad were both born in Oxford and grew up here so wandering around the city with Dad was like wandering around with some kind of personal tour guide! I took these pictures with my mobile phone camera. Next time I'll take my proper camera with me and I'll get some better shots. The picture above shows the Radcliffe Camera. This used to house books but is now used as a reading room for the nearby Bodleian Library. The photo below is of Hertford Bridge which is more commonly known as the 'Bridge Of Sighs' because of its similarity to the 'Ponte Dei Sospiri' in Venice. Apparently Cambridge has a Bridge Of Sighs too. I'm going to try and find it when I visit Chris next weekend.

I can't believe how big Oxford is compared to Cambridge. Some of the buildings are similar although the ones in Oxford seem taller. There are many fabulous shops - all the usual chain store suspects but they're mixed in with lots of independent shops and boutiques. There's also a wonderful covered market.

It's amazing how some of the shops look really small from the outside but seem to have some kind of Tardis technology that makes them ginormous on the inside. A good example of this is Blackwell's bookshop, pictured above. This is just a tiny part of it, but look - so many books upon so many shelves for as far as the eye can see!