The Luck of the Irish

It's that time of the year again, when everyone in the UK, Europe and even some parts of America unite to celebrate...being Irish. I don't know if it's the beer theme, the good luck or just the love of novelty leprechaun and four-leaved clover hats, but St Patrick's Day has really captured the public imagination.

Oxford is certainly no exception. Here's my pick of the top events:

Oxford Irish Society (Over-50s)

Where: Lord Nuffield Club, Cowley

What: Lunch of bacon, cabbage and apple pie, traditional Irish music and dancing.

Rosie O'Grady's

Where: Park End Street

What: Irish music from 2pm, with three bands playing. Special Irish food, including Irish stew and Ulster fry.
Rumour has it that Rosie O'Grady's will soon become an English pub, so make the most of it this year!

Special beer!

Witney's own Wychwood Brewery will be distributing 'Paddy's Tout', a special beer for the day. You can try it in pubs around Marston.

Pitt Rivers Postulation

The Pitt Rivers Museum is currently shut until May 1st for renovation. A great disappointment if you were planning on going, but it's only a few months away, and it sounds like it's going to be a really exciting improvment.

The basic aim seems to be to bring the museum back to its original state after everything was moved around a bit in the 1960s:

- When you go in, you should be able to see right through to the huge totem pole at the back.
- Original display cases will be at the front.
- There will be new family acitivites and holiday workshops in the Lower Gallery.
- The entrance will be the same height as the Natural History Museum and there will be a big lift for wheelchairs and pushchairs.
- The shop and reception areas will be different.
- An environmental control system will be in place to help keep all the strange items in good nick and help to eliminate that rather stuffy museum smell (although I quite liked that!).
- There will be 8 new displays on painting, with items that haven't been on display for decades.

This is all costing around £1.5m - pretty impressive for a museum that's free to enter.

I'm looking forward to exploring when it re-opens!

Museums for le Monde?

I just heard on the news that the French president, Sarkozy, is bringing in a new law in April that makes all museums and 'monuments' free to under-25s. This got me thinking: what if Oxford did the same?! Imagine that; free education, culture and art for all young people. What a brilliant idea in a town so full of students.

Well, yes, then it occured to me that, actually, there are an awful lot of free museums in Oxford, especially if you're a student and have access to university buildings.

- Even for normal people, there are an awful lots of underrated college chapels, such as Keble College Chapel, with its famous artwork.

- There's Oxford University itself, which makes the town of Oxford into a living museum. Loads of lovely old buildings, gargoyles, cathedrals and the like.

- Not to mention the actual museums:
The Ashmolean
The Natural History Museum

- And the smaller, but equally interesting players:
- The History of Science Museum
- The Pitt Rivers Museum (currently shut until April)

Simply Sarnies

I just wanted to take a minute to praise the wonderful sandwich chain 'Mortons'. Okay, so it's not the cheapest place to buy a sarnie, but really, is it ever good value to buy a sandwich in a shop? When a loaf of bread costs around a quid (well, I'm going to stubbornly live in the pre-financial-doom days!), it's hardly good value to buy two slices that are filled for three or four times that...

But, oh, it's so worth it! Mortons doesn't just stop with sliced bread. Oh, no. It does baguettes, paninis, wraps and all sorts of different types of normal bread. Whoever knew there was so much choice?! The fillings are brilliant as well - enough variety and combinations to last a lot of lunchtimes, if you can get past your favourites. I just love the chicken and mango chutney baguette. It really shouldn't work, but somehow it does! The staff are always willing to personalise your sandwich a bit, so no worries about being fussy, and if you pick one of the eat-in cafes, you'll get a side salad and maybe even some nachos as well. Awesome.

And I haven't even started on the cakes! Just think: award-winning, chocolate, filling. Yum. Just don't eat them all before I've got there!

With several Mortons dotted around Oxford and even an office-delivery service, it's a lovely independent service that hardly fills a gap in the market, but shows why it's so popular.

Student Shennanigans

The Oxford student paper the Cherwell is in trouble again. I'm not sure why the local media is so interested in the student press, but I suppose it's always exciting when supposedly intelligent and well-educated middle-class students do something stupid or are in trouble. This time they've been forced to resign after a spoof copy of the paper was released with pornographic and racist images and comments. The website I read it on (as a cutting headline!) tells me that students' face were superimposed onto rather scandalous images and jokes were made about a busking bagpipe player (you know the one!).

This story shocks me in several ways. I'm not in the slightest bit surprised that students made a satirical paper. I'm not surprised that their company felt it best to chastise them, especially when it became public. What I am surprised about is that it's seen as something scandalous. Surely that's what students do; they do silly things, they joke around with their mates, and they're not afraid of being a bit non-PC. The other great surprise is that it came up on my search for Oxford news. Not university news, just general news for a city with lots going on. Surely a student prank should not take priority over more widespread news? Or has it really been such an uneventful week in Oxford?

Smartville?

If you've been following University Challenge recently, you might have seen Oxford's Corpus Christi team with 26-year-old Gail Trimble blazing an incredible trail of general knowledge. It makes you wonder if Oxford makes you brainer. Obviously the university has a huge effect on the town, but I do get the impression sometimes that just living around here makes me smarter.

You can barely walk 10 metres down a street without seeing a poster for a special lecture or for a highbrow cultural event. Even modern shops are set in old buildings, so you feel like you're absorbing culture with every step.

Let's not even get started on all the bookshops! Even non-academic cafes are crammed full of people studying, reading and writing. There are academics wandering around deep in conversation, and you can bet some of those joggers in the park are listening to lecture notes.

If my theory is correct, and Oxford makes us smarter, all the more reason to not feel guilty about lazing around. Education!

Paper Chase

I've been thinking about the journalistic side of Oxford. Oxford's an eclectic mix of students, academics, inhabitants and industry. Lots of people commute to Oxford to work, lots of people go to school in Oxford and an awful lot of people live in Oxford. It must be pretty hard to get a local newspaper to fit such a range of audiences. I must admit, I normally buy nationals and only read the locals when I'm skimming the news in newsagents or waiting for a Chinese takeaway.

So, what have we got?

Oxford Mail

Oxford Eagle

The Oxford Times

The Oxford Star

These are all actually run by the same company, 'This is Oxford' hence the frequent repetition of stories. Perhaps surprisingly, some of them actually have the tone of a smaller town local newspaper, with stories of bin fires, lost cats and Boy Scouts winning awards. It's enough to bring a warm fuzzy feeling into the coldest of hearts. They've all got information on local events and so on, so it's really just a matter of choosing the writing style. The names give them away; think local version of the national equivalents to choose between the more tabloidy prints and the more broadsheety editions, although none of them are quite the Financial Times.