Sisters on the Run

I am very behind in blogging. Lots going on at the moment. But I am now finally sitting down and will gush:
Last week, my mom came to visit, and we had so much fun together. She made me spaghetti and meatballs, eggs, pancakes, lemon chicken... the works. I gained a few pounds, but it was soul food, and I couldn't say no :)

On Friday, my mom and I went for a long walk starting from my flat to North Parade, which is a tiny little street with art galleries, pubs and restaurants. We stopped in one of the pubs for a hoegarden and read a book. British pubs always have some sort of games and bookshelves to keep their customers happy and occupied (to buy more beer). So I spied a book of epigrams and funny sayings (basically, a book of one liners). So we sat and giggled through it.

Afterwards, we went to Brown's restaurant for a Cosmo cocktail. Then, we met up with my friend Stephanie and decided to go to the Duke of Cambridge bar/lounge, where it was happy hour with half-priced cocktails. Then, all of a sudden, we ran into my Realtors from Scott Fraser, and chatted with them for a bit.

At this point, we decided to head on over to the Jericho Tavern for more hoegarden. My mom always tries to buy the beer glasses and mugs because it is a reminder of the trip and a collectible. So we asked the bartender and he told us to just take them. So we ended up with 5 hoegarden glasses, the big heavy thick ones. It was hilarious. I tipped the bartender five pounds because we had so many :)

Later in the night, we also got some chips and cheese from the local kebab vans (lunch trucks). They were delicious as usual.

It was a very fun night, partly because it happened to be red nose day, a holiday in which a financial appeal is made on behalf of children in Africa. The red nose symbolizes humor, as the comedians are the organizers of this particular appeal. The British always have some sort of appeal going on....

Along comes Saturday night, and St. Patty's Day. Originally, we were supposed to go to London, but we were so tired from the night before, we decided to stay in Oxford. On this particular night, there was a lights festival called Luminox, it coincided with Oxford's 1,000 year birthday. Basically, it was a bunch of fire pits right in front of the Bodleian library. Of course, Saturday night also happened to be extremely windy, and when we got there, the fires were kind of burning out. There were ambulances and cops on the scene. The winds were so strong that the embers from the fires were flying all over the place, not to mention the thick smoke the surrounded the street. I call it 'a plan gone bust', some pyromaniac had a little bit too much fun with this brainiac idea.

Later, we met up with some more friends at the King's Arms pub, which I had the honor of receiving the VERY LAST GUINNESS! No joke. No lie. The kegs were all kicked and the bottled Guinness all sold out. Strange because the King's Arms isn't even an Irish pub... hmmmm.

Then, we went to a real Irish pub, O'Neil's. There was a line out the door, and it was freezing cold. My mom made some friends with the locals in line who were young women wearing skimpy clothing and no coats. She said they were all crazy, hahahah. Inside, the place was packed but we did find a table to lean on. It was great, people were loud, drunk and impeccably happy! Everyone was wearing green and there was a live band playing in their underwear ?!?!

Stephanie and Sah came too, and we had fun goofing off and dancing to whatever song they played, from Bon Jovi to Aerosmith to Guns and Roses to Arctic Monkeys to Van Morrison ? ?

The rest of my mom's trip was filled with shopping at Primark, a student favorite, studying in Blackwell's bookshop and taking a day trip to London for Mexican food, the National Gallery, the Dali Universe Museum, and Jazz at a Pizza joint. We had a great time together and I will post more pics soon. xoxoxo



Make your own Zing!





Make your own Zing!