Can you pick Emily's response on learning that we'd be visiting Oxford yesterday?

A. Ah, at last a chance to see the dreaming spires!
B. Another learning opportunity! You guys are the best parents ever!
C. Cool, Kirsty says they have the best ever make-up shop ever there.

Moments like this make me smirk when I think what parents who buy things like this have in store for them when their biddable little tots become teenagers with their own agendas.

We didn't find the make-up shop (well, okay, we refused to look for it) but we did all enjoy strolling along the river, admiring the university buildings, eating ice-cream, browsing in this book-store, and then moving over to Borders for coffee and more browsing. I'm very glad we all enjoy books.

Oxford seemed like a wonderful place to live, by the way. We are suffering from house-buying cold feet; suddenly every town we visit seems immensely alluring (we loved the bicycle-ness of Oxford, for instance) and we are panicky at the thought of actually tying ourselves down here.

Not that our last two house-buying experiences were very successful at tying us down, of course. 18 months in the house in Durban, not even a year in the Florida house.