New Sainsbury's On Cowley Road

Bye Bye Blockbuster and Hello Sainsbury's Local. Out on my ride I came across a new Sainsbury's store on the Cowley Road where the last time I looked was a Blockbuster Video store, that is two of the video stores that have closed in recent years in Oxford, the one in Summertown closed October 2008. I think there is a little supermarket war going on in Oxford with this store opening just across the road from Tesco and just up the road from another Sainsbury's at The Plain. I think Sainsbury's don't want to give Oxford up.

Scaffolding In Cornmarket

Start of the working day in Cornmarket. Loads of delivery vans and this morning there is the extra obstacle of two business opposite each other with scaffolding around the buildings. Barlcays Bank and Starbucks are having what looks like to be major external work being carried out, which is making it a little harder to navigate Cornmarket, especially with all the tourist coming into Oxford at the moment.

Shoe's In A Box

You often see this when walking past the boat houses, boxes of shoes or just lose shoes around the place, from the rowers who are out on the river. I think this box might belong to the crew that are in this photo, as all the other boats on the river when this photo was taken were single scull.

Early Morning On The River

I am off to Germany for a couple of days tomorrow so this morning I took a ride along the river up to Iffley Lock and back in to Oxford long the Cowley Road, so the next few days photo's will be from this ride.

The photo is of a rower on the River Thames, not many rowers out today perhaps they are all celebrating the win over Cambridge on Saturday.

Census Night Tonight 2011

Spotted this advert on the side of a bus stop this morning. It reminded me that I need to fill my census out this afternoon and send it back so that I don't get fined, I think it is about £1000 if you don't fill it in. The advert says that you can fill it in online, however I am not sure that I want to do that, so I am going to be doing it in the traditional way by post.

Enjoying Night At The Drew Drop Summertown

Nice to be able to sit outside in the evening and enjoy a tipple, chat amongst friends and watch the world go by, well maybe not the world. Congratulations to the Oxford team for winning the Boat Race today, go Oxford!

And The Sun Keeps Shinning

Bright and Light that was the way it has been all day today. Look at the end of the Oxford Canal, people out everywhere enjoying the sun, walking, sitting, relaxing. Just hope that it will be like this at the weekend so all those you work during the week and get to enjoy it as well.

Oxford Literary Festival Taking Shape

The hottest day of the year so far, so I was out walking about the colleges and come across this very large marque right out the front of Christ Church College next to the meadows. Started to chat with a couple of people and found out that it is being set up ready for the Oxford Literary Festival which starts on the 2nd of April, will have to pop back for more photo's when the Festival is up and running. Very nice setting for a Literary Festival, top marks.

Have I Missed A Couple Of Days?

I was thinking that I had gone mad when I walked past this store in Cornmarket this afternoon. Big signs saying "Closing down 4 days left" and then "Last day 22nd March" which was today? So I am confused, do they have 4 days left or was today the last day that this store will be trading? I will find out tomorrow when I go past I think.

This store was operating out of the old Virgin Mega Store, which closed a couple of years ago if I remember correctly?

Spring On Sunderland Avenue

This is a photo of Sunderland Avenue on the first day of Spring. The trees are just about to bud, so I decided to take this photo and then come back in a couple of months and take another photo so we can see the difference. The sign in the photo reads "LONDON 58", so from Sunderland Avenue in North Oxford, you are only 58 miles from the capital. This part of Sunderland Avenue is also the A40, and the Ring Road.

Bollywood Arrives In Oxford

We often see similar signs to these around Oxford directing the crew and caste of films and TV shows that are being filmed in and around Oxford on street corners. Most of them you can guess who they are for, but this one had me stumped for a couple of days, I could not work out was "BB" was. It turns out to be Dezi Boyz, a Bollywood film staring Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, who are very big stars in Bollywood according the sites I have read. They will be filming Oxford and around the University for the next couple of days.

Moon Over St. Mary the Virgin Church

Tried to get a nice photo of the moon over Oxford this evening as apparently this evening we had a Super Moon, the last was in 1993. We had nice clear sky's however I was unable to capture it exactly as I had hoped. Took a number of photo's however I feel this one looking towards St. Mary the Virgin Church with the bright moon in the back ground was must atmospheric.

Cherry Blossom On High Street

As it is starting to get a little warmer around Oxford, it is time for more of the flowering plants to shine, like the Blossom Tree on the High Street. This afternoon I was close by this great old tree and it was flowering, so it had to be my photo of the day. I stayed around for a 10 minutes after taking this photo and watched as nearly every tourist who walked by stopped to get a photo. It is a great tree in a fabulous location, right next to St. Mary the Virgin Church.

Red Phone Boxes Big Hit

Following a number of comments and emails about my photo taken a couple of days ago of the new style telephone box in Cornmarket, I am posting today photo of a more traditional telephone box at Carfax. These two visitors to Oxford from Strasbourg France, where having a photo taken by a couple of friends, with the classic British red phone box, which we still have in Oxford. This box must be the most photographed in Oxford as it is next to Carfax just around the corner from the photo of a couple of days ago.

Oxford University Japan Society Collection

Back online after a couple of days without a computer, sorry about that guys. Today while in Oxford I could not help but donate to these Japanese students from Oxford University who were collecting on behalf of the Japanese Red Cross.

I had just twittered a couple of hours before how I was reading about what was happening in Japan and said that I would like to help, when I spotted these guys taking time out of there studies to collect for the victims of that shocking earthquake last Friday.

I was not even aware that there was a Oxford University Japanese Society until I gut talking to this couple, they told me that there were about 20 students at the University from Japan and more who attend Oxford Brookes. Well done guys, and from the Red Cross website it looks like students around the UK have collected/donated over £10000 for the appeal.

New Style Telephone Box In Cornmarket

Noticed this new duel phone box/ATM in Cornmarket this afternoon. There was a bank of telephone booths in this location a couple of days ago, but this afternoon I noticed this new box where the old ones were. On the other side on this phone is an AMT/Cash Point. Not sure who own or controls this?

Lone Man In Launderette

I don't know about you but I think that the launderette is a lonely place. A place that the time you spend there you wish you could be doing something else, as you are tired down in the launderette and your machine. You can not go to far away cause you never know when your machine will end or run out of money. I also wonder why people are still using launderettes, as they appear to be expensive compared to the cost of a machine for home?

Redbridge Road Works Continue

Down the end of the Abingdon Road at Redbridge there has been work raising the hight of the railway bridge since before Christmas. The Oxford County Council's website states that the works should be complete by the end of the month, but I am not sure if this dead line will be met as this morning there looks like alot of work that still needs to be done. Lets hope that they are on time as this is a total road closure and I am sure the residents of Kennington would like to see this road link to Oxford reopened.

International Woman's Day Oxford Town Hall

It was International Woman's Day today and in Oxford like other cities all around the world there have been community events taking place to mark this day. In Oxford Town Hall this afternoon there was a open event allowing organisations who support women in Oxford, show others how they can help. Many more events are being held around Oxford all this week.

Shadow's On St Michael's Street

I can feel Spring around the corner, the sun was shining this afternoon and my photo's have shadows for the first time in months. Shadows on St Michael's Street, sun on the lens looking forward to getting out and about to capture Spring in Oxford.

Culpeper Just About To Close

This will be one of the last trading Culpeper stores in the UK, as the company has gone into administration closing all but a couple of stores in the UK at once. The Oxford store on New Inn Hall will be closing for good in the coming weeks, and when I visited today had 30% off most if not all if the remaining stock. It is always sad to see unique business like this one close with the loss of jobs and the reduction of choice for the consumer

World Book Night Along The Oxford Canal

What a great afternoon travelling down the Oxford Canal and taking part in World Book Night at the same time. I had 48 copies of of The Reluctant Fundamentalist to give away and I wanted to do it in an area that was a little different, along the Oxford Canal I decided. When I was telling my friend, Tucker who is pictured giving a book away, he said lets do it on the water from my boat, so we did.

Now to the totally random event that happened while giving our books away. We gave our books away to people on the boats and walkers, one of those walkers just happened to be Mark Haddon, who's novel The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Night was one of the books that was also being given away tonight. He said hello and even posted a photo saying that he had seen us on his website. More photo's here, including the one we took from the boat of Mark Haddon.

Departing Oxford Station

Left Oxford early this morning for London to take part in the launch of World Book Night, which is tomorrow evening. To promote this event 20000 book givers will be giving away a million books tomorrow night around the UK. I have been lucky enough to be a book giver and have 48 copies of The Reluctant Fundamentalist to give away, which I will be by canal boat tomorrow. This photo was taken as the train left Oxford Station this morning.

Earl Of Pembroke Supervises Work In Quad

The Earl of Pembroke looks on as work continues in the Old Schools Quadrangle of the Bodleian Library. There has been work in this area of the university since the middle of December, however I was reading this afternoon that this work should be finished in April. Not sure how the library users are feeling with all the noise being made in the Quad. Please have a look at the link above for an interactive view of the area before the works started.

Sunny But Cold Day

Just love getting out in the sun, even when it is chilly. These guys are enjoying the sun, the River and also a nice drop while out watching all those students rowing up and down the Thames. Looks a little strange with all the winter clothing on, and sitting in the sun, oh the photo was taken at The Head Of The River.

Team Work

I am not exactly sure of when the big University boat race is taking place, but from all the activity on the river at the moment I have a funny feeling that it is not going to be too far away. These guys really have to work together to achieve success and they are out there practising from the early morning to nights end, must take up a lot of the days hours. I do like it when the river is full of boats.