Author: Nat Rachman

Oxford University’s Local Delegacy exams, first set for school-leavers in 1857, had more riding on them than simply grades: the top candidate would also be offered an exhibition scholarship to the university itself, either at Balliol or Worcester College. On calculating the results for the papers of 1873, there was no doubt as to who […]

Sunday evening was a quiet time for Pizza Pilgrims at the Westgate Centre. On first impressions, you can tell that this restaurant would become hectic at busy times, with its open kitchen complete with pizza ovens, and the tables stretching far back into the main space of the room. The waitress led us to a […]

Ever since the new Westgate Centre opened I’ve found it slightly daunting and a bit too busy for Oxford; it feels like stepping into a London shopping centre, with its huge John Lewis outlet and a different pricey clothes shop in every direction. For students, the Westgate is a double-edged sword of tempting shopping opportunities […]

Get a large mixing bowl Add half a bottle of vodka Add half a bottle of peach schnapps Top up with orange juice and cranberry juice Finish with chopped fruit (strawberries/limes) This cocktail’s for you to share with a group of your close friends (or complete strangers –you’ll probably meet a few while you wait […]

I’ve been meaning to try out the Bodleian’s keepcups for some time now, and at last I have the perfect excuse of writing a review. I got mine for £6 from the Taylorian Institute, one of the nine Bodleian libraries to sell the reusable coffee cups to Oxford students. Just £6 seems like a bargain […]

This week our cocktail represents all sides of an essay crisis. The base flavour is chocolate: undoubtedly a core source of fuel for any last-minute essay as you attempt to eat your way through the stress. On top of that, the chilli vodka burns and adds a little discomfort, just like the experience of writing […]

This cocktail, a mixture of liquorice and red bull, won’t be to everyone’s taste – just like scholar’s gowns. That’s ok though, because the red bull will still be there to carry you through till morning in your desperate quest for a first. When mixing this drink, the colour you’re aiming for should reflect not […]

This week’s cocktail is a pre-emptive pick-me-up before 5th week finally hits, with orange-flavoured Curaçao to sweeten up this sad, sad time. The salt-rimmed glass is worth putting in the effort for –one might say it’s rubbing salt in the wound of your mid-term despair. So if you’re feeling blue this week, then just look […]

Just down Little Clarendon Street, set back slightly from the road in a fairly ugly concrete building, GAIL’s offers a glowing array of breads, pastries, quiches, tarts, and all manner of baked delicacies. Walking in from the rain on a cold, rainy February afternoon in the hope of getting a good lunch, we weren’t quite […]

Nestled in the second best ‘top floor’ in Oxford to date [Wahoo], Dirty Bones is an incongruously cosy, American style diner that offers ‘classic comfort food’, according to its website. Brand-wise, the restaurant is undeniably cool: everything from its menu to its Instagram account oozes a youthful sophistication. In the knowledge that this branch is […]

International communication has always been an issue in discussions of the future of the human race, but the situation is now becoming a crisis. A large amount of responsibility and hope is placed in the hands of the UN and the EU, and particularly with the recent threats of nuclear attack made by Donald Trump […]

I may have eaten before eight, but that’s the only part of this writer’s visit to the Folly that reflected Tony Bennet and Lady Gaga’s rendition of ‘The Lady is a Tramp’, one of the highlights of their jazzy evening playlist. A few minutes from the music faculty, on the riverside of the Thames, sits […]

This past summer I began giving up my body to the scientific community for a fiver at a time. As a right-handed English speaker with 20/20 vision and no mental health struggles I came prepared with just the skills I needed to be involved in this kind of research—none. The first time I walked out […]

If you’ve ever walked along St Giles on a Thursday night you might have seen a big sign for ‘free jazz’ at the Ashmolean Rooftop Restaurant – it’s true, right in the centre of town you can hear some amazing live music over dinner, on the rooftop of the most famous museum in Oxford. Alternatively, […]

I’ve been a Christian since early childhood, and when I first came up to Oxford I was excited at the prospect of joining the Christian Union and finding other Christians when there had been so few at school. However, now a third year, I’m not part of any faith societies. And I’m not the only […]

A step away from the Oxford Playhouse sits Bella Italia, a chain that feels like a small family-run restaurant in Italy. It’s authentically Italian in almost every way, from its décor to its menu packed with Italian ingredients including their new fresh pasta made by the Gaetarelli family ‘pastificio’ in Lake Garda. The one thing […]

Macarons are the hardest thing to bake in all the world. To create perfectly puffed, crisp yet fluffy, vibrantly coloured circles of exactly the same shape is supposed to be nigh on impossible. But the shops do it, so how hard can it be? That is precisely what BakeSoc intended to find out this week. […]

A career in science is not for the faint-hearted. It involves years of training, achieving a PhD and multiple post-doctoral positions, before the ultimate goal of having your own lab or even a prestigious professorship is achieved. A recent survey in the journal Nature has suggested this already difficult path is harder than we all […]

Today, we communicate without actually talking or displaying facial expressions. The fact that our iMessages, tweets and instas don’t require us to move our vocal chords is convenient, yes, but also worrying. As the Freshers dust settles around Oxford, we should take care to connect with strangers all around us, because we never know who […]