another Western Colorado guy

No prob with the highjack. By the way, when my wife lived in Edinburgh, she lived on Royal Circus. No idea where the circus suffix originates.

Real estate in Oxford is silly, seemingly driven by the London financial types who want to live in Oxford for their families' sake and choose to commute to London. Their annual multi-million pound bonuses allow them to outbid Oxford residents, and the prices just kept going up. Now they are softening, meaning that they have dropped from stratospheric to merely nauseating, and there are no longer bidding wars every time a nice house comes on the market. You get a much better deal in the surrounding picturesque villages, but the roads are so congested that a few miles out translates into an hour commute in bumper-to-bumper traffic, so we opted for a small, rather depressing hovel in Summertown. The irony is that it cost considerably more than the custom, sun-flooded, large adobe house that I designed and built on 23 acres here in Durango!

I don't even want to know what Logans go for in the UK. I bought my Summits new two months ago from an authorized dealer for $6k. I am a bit annoyed that before my purchase, I was assured by a gal in sales at ML that they would be fully upgradeable to Summit Xs, and now that appears not to be the case....Now I just need to round up those Vantages for the rears!

CCH, what took you to Oxford and Cambridge? We looked at Cambridge too (beautiful place) but there was a wider school choice in Oxford, and we found a school there that was a perfect fit for our oldest son, who was the impetus for our move.

Was just talking to the wife about Oxford. She thinks it's expensive because it's a premium University town - not because of the commute to London factor, as you could argue that for many of the surrounding towns. She's also interested in why your wife thinks the UK has become more aggressive...

It seems to us that many Londoners commute from Oxford (as opposed to from other towns and villages) for the combination of semi-rural living (compared to London) with the excellent schools there. It is a hard combination to beat. One of our friends in Oxford, London born and bred and educated at St.Paul's, swore she would never live anywhere else and when her husband initiated the move to Oxford, she was convinced they were in the boonies! Quite funny for us, as my wife was worried that Oxford would be too big a city for me!

The "aggressive" behavior that is most striking to my wife is the kamikazi driving - cutting in front of others, giving them the finger, etc that she rarely experienced growing up in Bedfordshire. She was also struck by the flaunting of wealth - double parking your Ferrari, not caring about the fine involved because, hey, it's chicken feed to a guy like me....

She was also amazed at the number of Dragon Mummies careening through our narrow roads in giant SUVs - just the car for Oxford, and surprised that there are far more Priuses in the snowy mountain town of Durango than in the "green" town of Oxford.

There are, however, many things that she enjoys in Oxford - cultural events, school sporting fixtures, etc.

Mark

Oxford days

I was a student twice at Oxford, once during my masters then a few years later for a doctorate (called a "D.Phil." there instead of a Ph.D.). My colleges is Christ Church. More recently, I was a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge. I retain membership in both universities, so I get back from time to time. (Also, D.C. has a terrific Oxford grads organization that puts on a lot of wonderful events.) 'Loved both places, but I couldn't possibly afford to live in either! Our son attended The Leys school in Cambridge, which was first rate and a great fit for him. 'Really hated to pull him out of there when we returned to the States.

edmiston said:

The "aggressive" behavior that is most striking to my wife is the kamikazi driving - cutting in front of others, giving them the finger, etc that she rarely experienced growing up in Bedfordshire. She was also struck by the flaunting of wealth - double parking your Ferrari, not caring about the fine involved because, hey, it's chicken feed to a guy like me....

She was also amazed at the number of Dragon Mummies careening through our narrow roads in giant SUVs - just the car for Oxford, and surprised that there are far more Priuses in the snowy mountain town of Durango than in the "green" town of Oxford.

There are, however, many things that she enjoys in Oxford - cultural events, school sporting fixtures, etc.

Mark

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Hi Mark,

How you are treated in a car over here seems to depend on what you are driving. I am amazed how people behave when we are in my wife's Honda Civic, but when we are in my Merc SLK, we never seem to get cut up, pushed out of the way, treated with disrespect etc i.e. you are not a person - you are a car.

Basically, the wife agrees with the points you have made.

But the thing that really annoys me about the UK is the "government versus the people" surveillance. Speed cameras and cameras in the cities means it is impossible to go anywhere without being spied on. As my "big brother" said (pun intended), it is becoming an unpleasant place to live in.

At the end of the day, nearly all of it is down to p!ss poor government.

Justin

Hi Justin,

My wife drives a Volvo estate, not a prestige car, but not a small car either. I think she may over react a bit because she initiated the UK move, and part of her is thinking "oh my god, what have I done?". I realize that the more crowded and busier the place, the more anonymous people feel, so that those with an inclination towards bad behavior think they can get away with it. It is not specific to any country.
The funny thing is that before we were married, my wife's main impressions of the US were gleaned from negative reporting (which is pervasive) on the BBC and other British media. We first lived in Gainesville, Florida, and she was certain that it would be just like Miami Vice. She was astonished to find that people cycled everywhere and seldom locked their doors.
The surveillance camera obsession is a bit creepy, but then, how else can you hand out ASBOS? My wife also detests the Labour government, but then, coming out of eight dark years of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Rove, bad government can be shared by all!

Labour you say? Their latest policy seems to be if an opposition party member leaks facts you don't want the general public to know, send round the Police to arrest him, ramshackle his home, hold him for 9 hours, then pretend that you didn't instigate it.

There's no way the Police would do this unprovoked. Jacqui Smith is lying through her teeth when she says that isn't the case. Both opposition leaders think she is too.

Yep - you guessed it - we hate Labour too - for stealing our pensions, spending our gold reserves, imposing punitive taxes on the self-employed, invading Iraq - the list is endless.

Anyway, at the end of the day, the best way to escape from it all it is to fire up the Logans, and relax with your favourite tipple!