If you are mulling over possible New Year’s resolutions, you may be fortified by these words of encouragement from 19th-century writer Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”
From ‘pocket parks’ tucked into housing estates to ‘destination play areas’ like Cuttleslowe Park, Oxford has an unusually large number of playgrounds for a city of its size. Oxford City Council manages 92 of its own, as well as 11 owned by other bodies.
Suddenly, reindeer are everywhere — in shop windows and Santas’ grottos; on greetings cards and advent calendars; and in the songs that form the soundtrack to our festivities.
The year is 1699. Darkmans is falling as your rattler toils up Shooter’s Hill from Blackheath; you can hear the horses’ laboured breathing and feel every pothole. “This is a jumble-gut-lane”, you think to yourself. Suddenly men in masks and dark cloaks step from the bushes and utter those dreaded words: “Stand and deliver!”
Modern languages teacher Monica Hyde knew that music helped her pupils to learn French, but was frustrated that there weren't enough good songs around. So she decided to write her own, helped by the fact that her husband, John, is a professional composer.
The jeans on sale at Oxford’s newest shop, Exclusive Roots, are not for washing the car in. Elegant and beautifully-tailored, they look as if they come from the cutting tables of a Paris fashion house.
Organic flower grower Rachel Siegfried recently spent her first day off for weeks at a specialist dahlia nursery where she chose no fewer than 80 new varieties for her cutting garden at Littlestoke, near Wallingford.
As you try to take euros out of a cash machine in Bilbao or Bremen, the screen may present you with a dilemma: do you want your transaction to be calculated from euros to pounds or vice versa?
Smalls' used to mean breeches' but around 1943, according to The Oxford Dictionary of Slang, the word began to be applied to underwear. This euphemistic usage does suggest that many people feel slightly embarrassed about what they wear under their clothes, an awkwardness that can extend to the business of buying pants.
Smalls' used to mean breeches' but around 1943, according to The Oxford Dictionary of Slang, the word began to be applied to underwear. This euphemistic usage does suggest that many people feel slightly embarrassed about what they wear under their clothes, an awkwardness that can extend to the business of buying pants.
