#117 Hertford College, Oxford

Mark and I went back up to Oxford as we do from time to time. We walk around reminiscing, go down to the river, have a pub lunch in the city and coffee in the Queens Lane Coffee House. (June 2011) When I think back on my Oxford days, I probably have a tendency to exaggerate the goods and play down the frustrations. Time delivers at least a strong opinion and sometimes a clear verdict on decisions that were misty at the time. There are so many different ways I could have attacked, experienced or floated along with life afterwards that I did not take. I might have gone in to politics (David Cameron was a contemporary though not actively involved in university politics), I might have gone into finance. Looking back, I was very cavalier about ignoring those options. That - being cavalier - is of course the prerogative of youth, often taken. For some, it works, and if they become famous, millions follow. For most, it doesn't. At that age time seems to yawn and stretch out and a mistake at 24 seems uncorrectable at 26. But 20 years later, two years seems a laughably short period of time with perhaps 10 being to long to turn out of. Even now, I know that I could U-turn if I wanted the next (last?) 20 years to be something different but turning the wheel is a lot harder than typing the phrase into a blog.