Oxford Redux

Man, time and memory are weird things. I'm not even sure this is going to be a coherent post, maybe just a list of impressions / observations, we'll see.

Well, I'm back visiting Oxford nearly 3 years after moving here for the first time. It's weird to see what's changed and what's the same. A bunch of my favourite small shops have closed (though not all), and that's sad. Equally sad are the homeless people I recognize who are still sitting in the exact same spots, selling the Big Issue or begging for change. I had hoped that some of them would have pulled life together by now.

On the other hand, so much stays exactly the same. I mean, it's not as if they're about to pick up Magdalen College and move it to a different part of the city. There's some 1000+ year history to parts of this city. And while walking the streets today I ran into one of my regular customers from when I worked at coffee republic -- an aussie guy whose name I can no longer recall. Also on the plus side, I'm still friendly with the managers of Krispy Kreme and the Phoenix Picturehouse, which means I get free donuts and movies whenever I'm in town :)

I guess what always shocks me is how places which were once so familiar go on living and changing even when I'm not there. I guess that speaks more to my own self-centred worldview than perhaps anything else, but there you have it. I feel the same way when I go back to southern Ontario these days...life goes on even though I'm off experiencing different things.

I suppose Oslo will feel like that one day. Maybe 5 years from now I will return to Norway to see friends and have these same conflicting feelings of nostalgia and remorse. Or maybe I'll be used to those feelings by then. Or maybe I won't end up leaving Oslo, who really knows.

One thing I can say is that spending time with my friends here in Oxford is as if I've never been away. Even in the case of Matt & Pip, who have since had a CHILD and had their life dramatically altered in the past year, it feels as if I've never been away. Rich was a bit more flustered cuz, well, the guy got MARRIED (my main reason for visiting) but I could tell the bonds were as strong as ever. And Jim remains the kind, wise man that I have always known. It is wonderful to be in their company again -- I will have to make more of an effort to return to this place over the next two years.

UPDATE: Perhaps wisely, they have finally changed the code on the door to the office at Coffee Republic. I tried the old one on my way back from the toilet but it no longer worked :(