Oxford Odyssey

After a brief interlude (read: no computer access) here I am to share another chapter of the Samara Family vacation.

I have lost track of days, but I think it was last Wednesday that we decided to venture to Oxford for the day. We started out at about 10am (again, a slow start due to the teenage contingent) and headed north on the motorway from Bath to Oxford. It had been very cold, and had snowed in Oxford, so the countryside surrounding it was white and very pretty.

We had arranged to spend the day with Corinne (my lecturer from first year at uni) who is working in Oxford as an agency nurse (they call them 'bank nurses' in England) for twelve months while her husband has a contract and is attached to the university there. They live just outside Oxford, in a small village called Sanford-on-Thames...which like many other english towns has three pubs, but no shop! Corinne had the day off work, and was happy to take us on a tour of Oxford. We started at the University (where else?) and walked along past Christchurch College and Magdalene (pronounced maw_dlin) College to a smaller chapel on campus. We climbed the tower of the chapel, and had a fantastic view of the whole of Oxford. It was a clear day, and we were able to see for miles.

The first thing that struck me was the difference between Oxford and Cambridge. While Cambridge is largely built from lighter stone, the buildings in Oxford are much darker. The second difference is that Cambridge is a bit more open and welcoming - Oxford is very much a closed university, with each college enclosed by walls and very secluded. It is definitely the City of Spires - the architecture is very pointy with tall spires everywhere. The public can pay to tour some of the colleges, so Anura, Catherine and Jonathan toured Christchurch college (and saw the dining room that was used in the Harry Potter movies) while Corinne took me to one of the local hospitals that she works in.

For the nurses reading this, let me tell you just one or two of the differences between the hospitals in Canberra and the very old one I saw in Oxford. The first thing that struck me was the age of the building - everything is so old, and well and truly looks it! The hospital is a specialist hospital so has no emergency section, no paediatrics etc. It has renal services, thoracic and I think neuro wards. It is a real rabbit warren of different buildings - no two of which look alike. Some are timber, some brick, others are portable buildings that you see on building sites! The second major difference - cardboard bedpans, sick bowls, urine bottles and syringe trays! They have a pulping machine in the sluice rooms which compacts it all and somehow washes it into the sewerage system and gets rid of it. While I can see the benefits (reduced risk of infection due to poor sterilising technique and having pans sitting around waiting to be used), I couldn't help thinking about the poor soul who asks for a pan and uses it, only to discover that the nurse doesn't answer the call bell to take it away because she has rushed of to another patient. Apparently they do go soggy, so you have to be very prompt in disposing of them! More info on the hospital system to follow when I get back - won't bore the non-nurses with details!

It was great to catch up with Corinne. She is expecting to return to Canberra in June/July, and is not sure what she will do when she gets there - possibly more agency nursing for the time being.

We left Oxford at about 5.30 and it took us an hour or so to get back to Bath for dinner, packing our bags and a reasonably early night. Next stop...London. Stay tuned!