Tag: Oxford

Why I don’t like en suites

In 45 years, I had only ever lived in one house that had an en suite. This was in 1998-2002. The house was in Oxford. Here is a picture of a house on the same street (thanks to RightMove).

Not number 18, but the same street.

Not number 18, but the same street.

In those four years I refused to use the en suite toilet, even when poorly (I’m not sure I was poorly while living there). I hate them. I don’t know if that is unusual. But I’ve never understood why people like them.

I think I may be weird as there are a lot of houses that have en suite toilets.

Now I am now 45 (far too old for my liking) and I have temporarily moved into a rented house that has an en suite. I haven’t yet used it. I can’t do it. I couldn’t even put my toiletries in there. They are in the bathroom across the landing.

If I can see the toilet from my bed, I'm not going to use it, ever

If I can see the toilet from my bed, I’m not going to use it, ever

‘What do you have against en suite toilets?’ I hear you cry. I think there are two reasons why I don’t like en suite toilets. I’ll tell you both of them. Firstly, I don’t think it is normal to have a toilet close to where you sleep. That’s just odd to me, on all levels, hygienically or otherwise. Secondly, I have always struggled with the idea of other people hearing me use the toilet. I don’t like to be heard at all. I can just about cope in a public toilet as it is generally going to be strangers listening to me but I don’t want people I know, let alone those I live with, to hear me. It unsettles me. I want them to go away, go downstairs, out of the house if possible, so I can wee (or otherwise) and read in peace.

So for as long as we live in this house, I will be using the bathroom across the landing, even if, or especially if, I’m in a hurry.

Thoughts about people on trains

Today I’ve been to Oxford and back for a work meeting to talk about the next edition of this book. And while on my travels and while in the toilets of Oxford city (two of them), I had a few thoughts about train travel and train travellers.

Will this train get to Birmingham in one piece?

Will this train get to Birmingham in one piece?

 

You need to sit next to likeable people Just In Case

This first thought is quite a morbid one, but I have it quite a lot. And it goes as follows: were there were to be some sort of crisis, such as a train crash or a terrorist take-over / kidnapping, the people who are sitting around you on the train could become your future best friends. What I mean is, if you end up experiencing something quite traumatic with them, you would probably want to stay in touch.

Also, you’d probably want some very practical, calm types with you who know first aid (so seek such people out if you can).

This terrorist take-over or non-fatal crash I worry about has yet to happen of course. This thought only came to me in 1999 after watching an ITV drama about such an event called The Last Train.

So even today, sat on the 16.07 from Reading to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I looked at the man sat next to me and thought ‘would you be a good in a crisis?’ If we have a crisis, will we be friends forever?

Predictably, this didn’t happen and the man got off the train at Leamington Spa.

 

It is better to sit next to someone already sat down than it is to find two empty seats or an empty table with four seats

Why, I hear you ask. This goes against instinct, surely? Most people when they get on a train that is relatively empty, will choose empty seats so they can stretch out their legs and belongings rather than seats with occupants nearby. They are wrong to do this because if you choose an empty seat, you cannot control who will then come and sit next to or opposite you. You might get someone smelly or unsavory (or someone who likely doesn’t know any first aid). However, if you sit next to someone already sat down, you can deliberately select a nice little old lady with a bag of sweets and bags of common sense to sit next to, or a likely-to-mind-his-own-business business man who has been on a first aid course for work.

 

 Despite the above, I always seem to sit with the eccentrics of this world

Most train journeys I take, I end up being sat next to by or opposite life’s interesting characters. I’ve been given Christmas cake on a train (and other food stuffs including sandwiches, fruit, and sweets). I once sat opposite a fat business man eating a very smelly bacon buttie whilst reading a paperback of short stories that you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see you read in public. People have fallen asleep on me. Strangers always engage me in conversation. People like to tell me their life stories and ask me mine.

Today’s interesting character was an elderly lady with a Sony Walkman (yes, in the year 2014, she was listening to a mixed tape). We talked about hot chocolate vs coffee, her wires which got muddled with her coat and trains.

A real Sony Walkman in the 21st century

A real Sony Walkman in the 21st century

 

It is in your best interest to be as normal as you can

Be normal, so that you don’t irritate your fellow passengers by being odd or smelly. Also, and more importantly, so that you reassure them in case they are also worried about a terrorist kidnapping or train crash. I find this tactic works well.

 

But in conclusion, I love train travel. I don’t get to do it very often these days (I used to commute to work by train every day) so it’s a real treat to me now to spend a couple of hours with a book and a coffee, and with life’s oddballs.

My favourite train station

My favourite train station

 

I like collecting interesting roundabouts and scary corners

I’m not sure that this classifies as a ‘weird thought’ but I think it classifies as weird so I’m half way there. I like to collect interesting roundabouts and scary corners. I will introduce a few here. I’d like to explore more.

There is a roundabout in Oxford affectionately known in our family as T.S.R. which stands for The Scary Roundabout. The real name of this roundabout is the Headington Roundabout. It was this roundabout that was responsible for sending me hurtling down the M4 to London with a boot full of food shopping, including icecream, on a very hot August Sunday afternoon many years ago. That was a very scary moment. I had taken the wrong exit.

Does this look scary to you?

Does this look scary to you?

I used to DREAD going around this roundabout when we lived in Oxford. I had a temping job once where I had no choice but to go on this roundabout to get from home to the place of work. I was so glad that that job only lasted only two weeks.

There is a roundabout in Shrewsbury that, in contrast to T.S.R., I find quite lovely because of its unusual shape. It is known to us in the Collins family as The 50p Roundabout. It isn’t even a roundabout as it is shaped like a 50p so it isn’t round (albeit a 50p with too many sides). My children also call it the rabbit roundabout after we were told that a colony of rabbits live on the roundabout (I’ve never seen any rabbits there). It is officially known as Meole Brace Roundabout (incidentally I like to call Meole Brace Melrose Brace after a rather naff US drama of the past).

Do these live on the 50p roundabout?

Do these live on the 50p roundabout?

The famous 50p roundabout

The famous 50p roundabout

There is a famous roundabout in Swindon I’d like to visit someday. It is known as the ‘Magic Roundabout’ and looks like a dalliance with death to me.

And the winner of the best roundabout in the UK is...

And the winner of the best roundabout in the UK is…

Another roundabout worth a visit might be the roundabout that was voted the best roundabout in the UK by the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society (yes, such an organisation does exist) in 2013. It circles a duck pond (almost as cute as rabbits).

The duck pond roundabout in Kent

The duck pond roundabout in Kent

And after visiting that one, I want to visit the roundabout that houses a windmill (winner of the best roundabout vote in 2012).

Have you ever been around this roundabout near York?

Have you ever been around this roundabout near York?

As for corners, I have two corners I am especially fond of. The first one is between Aberystwyth and Borth. It is the scariest corner I have ever had the pleasure to drive along. It is on a mountain side and it has an angle of about 40 degrees (or 320 degrees from the outside).

Which way to the scariest corner in Britain?

Which way to the scariest corner in Britain?

The second scary corner in my collection is between Charlbury and Chipping Norton. This corner sticks in my memory because my husband had to drive me from Charlbury, where we lived, to Chipping Norton, where the nearest hospital was, while I struggled not to give birth to my second son in the car. It was a particularly icy night in early March. I will never forget that roundabout. It marked the half way mark from home to hospital.

Do you know the scary corner between Charlbury and Chipping Norton?

Do you know the scary corner between Charlbury and Chipping Norton?

I hope this odd hobby of mine makes me more interesting than a train spotter. Perhaps I ought to start a note book of corners and roundabouts. But first, I want this book!

This is going on my Christmas list

This is going on my Christmas list

Why do I like charity shops so much?

I am back at home now and yesterday on the way home from West Wales while we were on our lunch stop I dragged my family around the charity shops of Machynlleth. Every city we go to I drag them around charity shops: Edinburgh, Plymouth, and Aberystwyth to name just three. They are used to it now. They are very tolerant.

I had to take a trip to the local public conveniences shortly after our lunch stop in Machynlleth and while there I pondered: why am I so obsessed with charity shops?

I think the answer is partly genetic, partly historical and partly nostalgia.

These books make me feel nostalgic

These books make me feel nostalgic

My family are a family of charity shop lovers. We are bargain hunters. We don’t go to ‘normal’ shops very often (unless there is a sale on). However, cheap we like but we’d rather find something of value second hand that something cheaply made selling at a low price. We favour Severn Hospice over George at Asda.

Cheap and cheerful?

Cheap and cheerful?

I’d say that about half of my clothes are second hand. I own some lovely items from Coast, Jigsaw, Mexx, Boden and White Stuff. Most of them pre-owned.I am sure my friends think I have lots of clothes (I do). I’m sure they think I am frivolous with my money (I am, but only in Oxfam).

One of my favourites in Shrewbsury

One of my favourites in Shrewbsury

My mum, sister and I meet regularly to mooch around the local charity shops. So I blame them for the genetic and historic reasons for my love of charity shops. I remember going around charity shops and factory shops as a child (being dragged around to some extent). Then I remember going through a period of rebellion against charity shops from the age of about 14 to 18, believing that charity clothes were ‘cuffy‘. Later, while living in Exeter during my degree years, I re-discovered my love of second hand, when I discovered the most amazing vintage / second-hand clothes shop called The Real McCoy (and it is still there). Shopping by myself, I’d visit that shop to feel the fabrics, try on the ball gowns, and image myself in the vintage 1960s and 1970s dresses.

Next came a few years living in Oxford and Oxford town center is weirdly devoid of charity shops. Moving to Shrewsbury was a blessing in this respect, there are lots of charity shops here and I love them all. It felt like coming home.

Where are the charity shops?

Where are the charity shops?

The final reason for my love of charity shops I think comes from my craving for nostalgia and my love of the past. I think I am secretly looking to get that feeling of nostalgia, or the uncanny as Freud would call it, that we get from finding an object that reminds us of something or somewhere else (in time or space). I love to find objects that remind me of my past. I enjoy that warm, comforting feeling of recognition (such as I had from finding the ‘rock concert‘ in New Quay). A year ago I found an ornament in Oxfam in Shrewsbury that we had had in the house when I was a child. I bought it, even though it is really quite unattractive. I had to have it. I had no need for it. But the feeling of nostalgia that seeing it had engendered in me was something I wanted to keep.

This was one of a pair of statues we owned

This was one of a pair of statues we owned

I like to browse the children’s books to find old Beanos, Blue Peter annuals or The Bash Street Kids annuals that I owned for that same reason. Looking through the pages of these books takes me straight back to my childhood. Watch out, Proust is about to rear his head again.

And here he is. I’m sure he’d be a big fan of charity shops had they had them in 19th-century France (perhaps they did).

This man again?

This man again?

 

I really do have a Chandler Bing Job, a job that nobody understands

I have a friend who calls my job a Chandler Bing job. When she says that I tend to get a bit defensive because to me it sounds as if she is saying my job is boring. But she’s not saying that. She’s not trying to be mean, in fact what she means is that even if I can explain my job in the easiest, simplest way possible, nobody will understand what I do.

So I thought about this yesterday, while on the toilet of course, and thought I’d better write a blog entry about what I do so in the hope that I can explain exactly what my job is and to try to shed the Chandler Bing image.

Job title: Freelance Online and Print Publishing Manager (don’t be deceived by the word ‘manager’ – this refers more to project management than people management).

Work for: Oxford University Press and Bloomsbury Publishing

Please keep reading, it gets better, I promise.

Work on: academic monographs that get published on a subscription website owned by OUP, mainly published by OUP but also by other University Presses. I also work on or have worked on Trove Law (law higher education titles online), Very Short Introductions Online (fabulous little books about a variety of subjects from the eye to the earth) and Oxford Handbooks Online. I also am a Listings Editor for the annual Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook and Children’s Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook. Still awake? Then read on.

What do I do every day?

Besides drink coffee in coffee shops in town, you mean? Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO) is the main love of my life (we have a bit of a love hate relationship sometimes but it is mostly the former). For OSO I maintain all forthcoming and past title lists, update the database of forthcoming titles, attend phone meetings, liaise with editors and production staff in Oxford and New York, work with the datateam in Oxford, and circulate lists to Sales and Marketing and royalty departments every month. I also commission and check abstracts and keywords. I check OSO titles on a pre-live server every month. I might also write and / or check abstracts and keywords for other University Presses (e.g. MIT Press, Chicago University Press) or for Trove, or occasionally VSIs. This is the part of my work which makes me feel clever and academic, as if I really am mingling with great minds.

What I work on most of the day

What I work on most of the day

For the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook: I am responsible for all the book publishers listed in the book, the art agencies, the national and regional newspapers and the card and stationery companies. I have to email them all every year and gather updates to their entries. I update their entries in a database and from this proofs are generated which I have to check. I also have to research new companies to add. This is the part of my job which makes me feel like a trendy trade publisher, as if I am mingling with the likes of Oliver Jeffers, Nathan Filer and Terry Pratchett.

My baby

My baby

Makes sense?

I get it but then I get it because I’ve been doing it on and off for around seven years. More importantly, are you still awake and if so, do you get it?

The baby of the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook - my favourite of the two

The baby of the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook – my favourite of the two

Do I like it?

Yep, I love it! I am so lucky that I can work from home for the same wage (if I were to measure my old full-time job by the hour) I’d earn working in Oxford in-house. I can still take the children to school, pick them up, do a part-time foundation art degree, go to school plays and sneak off for the odd coffee in the middle of the day. And I get the odd day trip to London or Oxford where I can pretend I am important with a laptop on a train.

One of the perks of the freelance life

One of the perks of the freelance life

Do I mind being thought of as a bit of a Chandler Bing?

Not at all! I love having a job nobody gets.

I do statistical analysis and data reconfiguration

I do statistical analysis and data reconfiguration