Amazing Oxford spiders!!!

I am striked by the webbing capability of the spiders here in Oxford. Some of the spiders here are much bigger then the spiders in Beijing. The picture on the left is not what the spiders here look like.

It is very commen that I invade some webs in front of the gate of my flat by accident when I get out in the morning or come back in the midnight. More suprisingly, the spiders here can make web crossing the road!!! Sometimes on my way back to my flat, I was stuck by spider webs!!! I never ever come across this when I was in China. It's amazing!!! How could they do so?

I felt a little guilty everytime when I broke spider web since I knew it's not a easy job to make the web and maybe it would cost the spider few hours. But it's very hard to avoid the webs because I can not see where are them.

Now a spider is on the wall in my room making web(maybe), I am afraid I have to talk to him politely to stop webbing in my room. Hope he agree with the idea!!!

My dear son's growing up!!!

I would say this is most lovely, cute, and innocent smile!
He was just born for 10 days when I captured this.

and now he is almost 15 months old. You can feel he's growing up.

No short! No hat! With shoes and girls!!!

It's kind of ridiculous, but it's true.

When you hang out with friends in drinking and dancing pubs here in Oxford, (by far, I am not quite sure if it is the case in London), remember, do not wear short; take off you hat; wear the shoes that can cover every area of your foots; and take some girls with you, otherwise, it is probably that you are not allowed to enter the pub!!!

Believe it or not, but it's true. I got all these from my own experience.

In terms of the reasons, I figured them out like below:

1. no short--to be polite aparently

2. no hat--show respect to others in the pub; show your whole face unter minitor camera

3. with shoes--in case the beer bottles drop down and cut your foots

4. with girls--not all pubs have this regulation. maybe for the sake of safety.

maybe there's some other weird rules I have not found.

Trip -- Waddesdon Manor

We went to Waddesdon Manor today. I consider the trip every Wednesday as a great opportunity for me to learn British history and culture by actually touching the house, the painting and talking with local ppl.

The house we covered today was built from 1874 to 1889 by a member of Rothschild family called Baron Ferdinand(the same name with the central defence of England National Football Team) for the purpose to display his outstanding collection of art treasures and for entertaining. The house was just used for weekends in the summer months. So luxurious. ha? However, compared to the gardens built for Kings in China, it's not very striking.

The Rothschild family is very famous in 19th century Europe for its immensely powerful banking dynasty. The family has FIVE ARROWS which located in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Naples and Vienna. Five Arrows set up a vast banking network which enabled Rothschild family to dominate the banking sector in Europe.

There are so many invaluable paintings, furnitures and services. Some of them made me a very deep impression.

For example, there are six paintings on the wall in a room telling people a fairy story-"Sleeping Princess". They are painted on the 30s of 20th century under the requirement of the host of this house at that time, and interestingly, the roles in the paintings are the ppl who in the family themselves.

and the fan collection is also very impressive, especially some goose feather fans. In the UK, diffrent positions ppl hold fan convey different meanings. f.g. put the fan in front of face means "follow me". put the fan on the left ear means "I hate you". haha

and most striking stuff is a light called "PORCA MISERIA" hangs in a dining room. The light was created on about 2003. It is stunning because the light was made of broken white porcelain dishes. I like the idea very much. Sometimes, ppl like broken things since it represents breaking the rules that restrict them. To memory Porca Miseria and the idea, I bought a bookmark with the picture of the light as a souvenir.

It's a nice trip. I enjoyed it very much.
Pubs again tonight, to celebrate the wonderful trip.

Pubs and Food!!!!

Covering as more pubs as possible and tasting as more foods from diffrent places as possible are also my expectations here in Oxford as well.

By now, I've already covered several pubs. some of them are:

King's Arms and The furt: these are troditional british pubs, all kinds of beers and wines are provided. ppl go there mostly for chatting indoors or outdoors; sitting or standing.


Copa and O'nniel: kind of drinking pub with more loudly music. They are the pubs you should drop beford going to dancing pubs.



The Bridge/ Mood and Cue pasa: dancing pubs with local pop music and music from different places. mostly young ppl often hang out there.



In terms of food, some I've tasted are as below:

Zizzi: Troditional Italian Pizza
Kebab: Turkey wrap
Fellefa: Arab wrap
Rassion food: Fish and Salad. treated by friends from Rassia.
Indian food: Curry Chicken. treated by Indian friends.

To be continued.....

Cheers for Football!!!

Almost one month has past since I arrived at Oxford. One of my expectations before I came here was to feel British football culture. after my arrival, I've played nearly ten times at university park. Of course, that not necessarily means I already can assess English football, since I have not seen Blues and College teams. However, through playing with native ppl, I got some feeling of the football culture here.

Firstly, ppl here focus on attack. I saw very seldom passing back. Most of the cases, it is direct passes and long passes.

Secondly, ppl here are very polite. you can always hear "Sorry, man!" for a not very good pass. After game, ppl tend to say "Tks for the game." to each other.

Thirdly, international profile. I've already played with ppl from Brazil/Italy/Rassia/Albania/Saudi/Columbia..... So you can feel the different football culture here.

I am quite sure I will find more about football during my stay here.