So this weekend was Collette’s birthday, in a bizarre twist of fate one of Colette’s closest friends from university was one of my close friends from college (we had no idea of this before we met, and indeed only found out via facebook sometime 
after). Me and the mutual friend (Joey) had been planning to go and see folk/idlewild legend Roddy Woomble and his band at the Union Chapel in London (that was the closest gig to Oxford) and happily that weekend was also Collette’s birthday, so she came too! We travelled down on the
Sun morning (a bit later than planned due to the hour coming off) and met up with the rest of the Nottingham uni crowd Pip and Liz. We then went to meet Joey and another college friend Stu (who is now a Russian translator) 
at a pub near the venue. Unfortunately for us Brazil were playing Scotland at football so there were drunk scots all over the pavement, not so good. We sought sanctuary in the gig venue and what a place! The Union Chapel as it’s name would suggest is indeed a church half the time and accoustic gig venue outside church hours (stained glass, pews and everything). Roddy Woomble (lead singer of Idlewild, my favourite band in the world) was as always magical playing most of his new solo record and some previous material but most of the audience seemed to reserve their biggest cheer for the accoustic version of Idlewild’s ‘You held the world in your arms’ (and why not, awesome song).
in Oxford exhausted we booked the Monday off so the morning was spent wandering round Camden market (ad buying a few pretty things) and then heading over to meet Joey at work for lunch in the American Embassy (we had to have our passports and go through security to get in and the building is surrounded by armed guards but even more scary has a giant American Eagle on the top, eeek!) Once inside it was really really like America (they have a shopette selling American goods and lots of famous American paintings/photographs on the walls), so we ate at the diner and smiled when the man serving us told us to have a nice 
day now. All too soon (but not before posing beside a radom elephant) it was time to return to Oxford, but what a weekend 🙂
