A New Oxford Year
What did I get up to in the first few weeks of 2025 in Oxford? Life in Oxford is always busy, even outside of term time! January certainly kick-started the year with some good progress on my thesis, a busy extra-curricular calendar, and some unexpected events!
Early January – pre-term prep
We started the new year in Radcliffe Square. I couldn’t think of a prettier view to have as the backdrop to the start of 2025! There is something timeless about being surrounded by centuries of history as the clock strikes midnight. The first two weeks of 2025 were spent in a mix of studying and general life admin. I was pushing to get a chapter of my thesis ready for my supervisors, it’s slow going, but progress is progress!
In classic Oxford fashion, our academic calendar includes “Minus” weeks. 0th week is the unofficial start of term, when students start arriving back to the city and settling into their colleges. In -1st week, two cool things happened. Firstly, is my new fascination with decoy ducks. Just look at them! They’re just really cute! Secondly, a Lunar Ring appeared over College one night! I couldn’t get good photos on my proper camera, but an iphone did the trick! Since I was up at midnight, Flapjack and I had a little midnight snack!
0th Week saw the start of mock exams for students, and I was the invigilator. In these mock exams I can still use my computer, so I was working on my own beaver research while the students completed their exams.
First Week – Ducks, vets, and abseiling police
One of my 2025 resolutions is to take better advantage of the free training and talks offered by Oxford’s IT Services and Career Service. This week I attended two online workshops: one on Open Access Publishing, and another on navigating academic career paths. I’ll need to keep my eye open for more training to attend throughout the year.
On the 19th, I went for a long walk in Port Meadow with a friend. Another 2025 goal is to use apps like iNaturalist and eBird more often and to spend some more time in nature practicing my photography and adding new species to my Life List. Well today certainly delivered, with several new species for my Life List; Wigeons, Teals, Skylarks and one single Pintail spotted amongst a sea of several hundred other birds!
On the 21st, I took the cats to the vet. This is never a fun day out for them, but Flapjack was very brave! Biscuit was a little more cautious. He has unfortunately gained weight, AGAIN, which means I need to more closely monitor his diet (and probably remind students not to feed him, no matter how much he begs!)
One of the biggest events this month happened by chance. I was in Duke Humphreys with a friend, when we could hear the sound of a distant protest. After a few hours work, feeling nosey, we grabbed lunch and went to have a look. Students from the OA4P had stormed the Radcliffe Camera, and several of them were sitting outside a window on a small ledge. I managed to get a taxi home, grab my camera kit, and get back just in time to see police abseiling down the side of the Radcliffe Camera! They could be seen on the roof for ages, maybe debating how to best abseil down without hurting anyone or damaging the building. I sent the images out to newspapers and my photos were used in the Oxford Mail! Sadly my photos weren’t used in any of the student newspapers, but I was invited to be a photographer for the Oxford Student newspaper and invited to a gallery event next month using these images!
The same evening, College hosted its annual Burns Night Formal. This year saw the traditional speeches, toast to the Haggis, and readings of Burns’ works. It was a nice way to end a very eventful day.
The next morning, bright and early, the Clay Pigeon Shooting Club headed off to AGL, a shooting ground in St Albans for a bit of friendly shooting with Cambridge’s Club. A little rivalry always leads to better performances!
2nd Week – Warhammer, Karate, and Bodleian studying
The last week of January flew by. In nerdy fashion, I finally cashed in the Titus voucher before the deadline and paid a visit to the Warhammer shop. There was a fantastic display in there, and at some point I will paint Titus to join my little army.
Outside of work (and I spent A LOT of time in the Bodleian this week), it ended up being a remarkably sport filled week. On Monday we had a session with Ohta Sensei, which are in equal parts utterly fantastic and utterly exhausting. The next day, I had to attend my online French class in the Oxford Union bar. When you think about it, there aren’t that many places in the middle of town where you can sit with a laptop for 2 hours without spending a lot of money topping up drinks and be able to speak out loud. I finished French and almost ran to the Blues Committee Meeting at Vincent’s Club. I didn’t expect to be attending these meetings this term, but I quite enjoy them and learning about the other sports clubs.
Finally, the month closed on the Hartpury Challenge on the 31st. The ladies team had a lovely day out shooting, though it was a challenging set up!
Coming Up
Well, what do I have lined up for February? Oxford is always full of last minute adventures and last minute sign ups, but I do know already that I have two rounds of Demonstrating in February. I’m very excited to get to talk about that. I’ve signed up for some more courses from the IT Services, keeping up with that resolution, plus another shooting competition!