Houseboats and Tea

I had my first experience of going out and having tea the other day. Not drinking tea, but going to a place with the specific intention of drinking tea around the middle of the day. We went to a small tea drinking establishment called "The Grand Cafe" around 2:30 in the afternoon. It was a group of 8 of us, but it was very crowded inside, so we couldn't all sit together.

It was however very cozy inside and not too expensive. Only 2.50 for a small pot of tea (I got a kind called ceylon) which was about 4 cups of tea. I discovered that I like both milk and sugar in my tea and I very much enjoyed the sugar cubes.

It was very nice to sit in this warm, cream colored cafe with copper chandeliers and get to know each other better.

I can see how this could easily could become a tradition. It did very nicely in tiding me over until dinner and it was an excellent break from work. Well, it would have been an excellent break from work if I had been doing some earlier, but instead Tess and I had gone to see the houseboats.

In reality, we only saw the houseboats accidentally. We had gone out to see if we could find Port Meadow, a large field west of the city centre. In searching, we wandered along a canal path, the Oxford Canal, thinking it might lead us there. It didn't.

We walked only part of the path and then turned back but later saw if we had stayed on it we might have gotten there. It was a little confusing. But anyways: houseboats.

Along the side of the canal, tied to the bank were a row of houseboats. I had never really seen anything like this before and at first I thought they were just moored because they were for tours and it was icy and winter. In fact, they were residences. I knew because they had mailboxes and there were people inside of them cooking and cleaning. Here's a picture. Unfortunately the pictures on this post aren't mine (I really should take my camera more places and not be so shy about using it).

I really wander if the houseboatpeople have their own separate community and what that's like. Do they visit each other? How many people can a houseboat hold? What are interactions like? Do they mind being tied up along a pedestrian footpath (but I guess they could move very easily)?

It was also very strange because this houseboatcommunitycollective was only about two minutes away from the city centre. Oxford, I am finding, has many different parts that seem very mashed together, but yet somehow it seems to work.

After the houseboats, Tess and I continued to try to find Port Meadow, since it was a nice sunny, warmish day. We walked down a main road, didn't really find it, so we turned around. Upon later reviewing our journey on a map we found that right where we turned around, if we had gone up that street, would have taken us directly to Port Meadow. Oh well, maybe another day. But we will go, because when I searched for pictures of Port Meadow, this came up.

I hope there are tiny ponies everywhere.