Oxford 23-25 June 2014

From Stratford-upon-Avon we caught the train to Oxford via Banbury, which was about a 1.5 hour trip.

Walking out of the train station we saw a large statue of a bull.... there was no name or plaque on it. Athol is a big fan of bulls, in his younger years, others called him "Bull".

We then walked to our guesthouse which was called White House View Guesthouse just off Abdington Street, it was about a 20 min walk from the station.

After checking in, we decided to walk into the city centre. We passed the Thames River (yes the very same river which is connected to London!). It is a very small city but busy around peak times. We had lunch at Cafe Loco, a Alice in wonderland themed cafe. There was a shop next door called Lewis Carroll's Alice shop.

We saw Christ Church College which was very grand. There are many Oxford Colleges, probably over 40 and each of them as grand as the next. We sat on a bench for a while just watching the cars and people go by. I pointed out a "bull" on some water sign which I kept seeing. Then it occurred to us, it was an Ox! After all we are in Oxford! :) So the "bull" which we had seen at the station was in fact meant to be an Ox. Technically an Ox is just a castrated bull. So it all made sense now :)

On our way back to the guesthouse, we found a footpath (or should I say cycle path!) along the river so there a while and watched the rowers practice. People also park their canal boats there.

We had supper at the White House Pub, which was a little dingy but I guess most pubs are :) we even did a crossword. We have a crossword book which we take on all our travels and we do at least one wherever we go. We write in the date and comments depending on where we are. Coincidentally, we got all the answers right in the crossword - I guess that we are just smarter in Oxford ;)

On the Tuesday, we wandered back into the city centre and saw a lot more of the Colleges. We had bought some fruit and ate it in the Christ Church College Park. The building in Oxford re so impressive! We walked past the Botanical Gardens, the one entrance had a grand ancient arch with a little maze garden outside.

We wandered around the city. There was a covered market along High Street, we stopped by a cafe called Brothers for lunch. The sandwiches were huge. We saw the Bodleian Library which was a grand round building.

We walked past some of the places which Athol had been to on previous visits. This was my first visit to Oxford.

Oxford is a lovely, academic city. There was even a small mall and Cornmarket street is a closed pedestrian street for shoppers.

The Randolph Hotel, where Athol stayed once for a conference

Postboxes in Oxford

  Christ Church

Trip to Stratford-Upon-Avon 21-23 June 2014

We were invited to an English wedding in Charlecote near Stratford-upon-Avon which is about a 1.5hrs train ride from London.

We left from Charing Cross station along the Bakerloo line to Marylebone Station. We saw the Betjaman plaque again, one of Athol's favourite writers.

We then grabbed breakfast from one of our favourite sandwich shops, Upper Crust, and hopped on the First Western Train to Stratford-Upon Avon.

From the station, we walked through the town along the main street and had our favourite Bruschetta at Prezzo. Then checked in at The Premier Inn. Strangely there was no reception except a Self Service Check In. This was the first that I've seen! We then went to the St Lenard's Church in Charlecote by taxi, it was about 12 min drive. The church was a lovely, small, old English Church. There were about 80 or so people. We knew the groom, who used to work with both Athol and I. The ceremony started at 4pm, it was a short ceremony with hymns and two readings. The second reading was an excerpt from the Velvetine Rabbit! Quite unusual :)

The reception was at the bride's parent's farm nearby. There was a big white marqee set up in the lovely garden. The English countryside is beautiful. Athol had a rather bad case of hay fever, and was sneezing constantly - perhaps too much fresh air :) It was a sit down meal with cheese and cold meats for starters, lamb, potatoes and veggies for mains and meringues and strawberries for dessert. The wedding cake was a home baked red velvet cake. There was a dancefloor and a band as well as a photobooth for guests to take pictures. A bus took guests back to the hotels at 1pm.

http://www.clarewestphotography.co.uk/index.php/2014/06/family-farm-wedding/

Stratford-Upon-Avon is a little town where Williams Shakespeare was born.

The Avon River flows through the little town. You can cross the river at one point via a Chain Ferry for 50c.

There was a band playing in the park.

Above is the RSC - the Royal Shakespeare Company, where they host Shakespeare plays.

Stratford-upon-Avon is a nice, small quaint town.

How tall am I?! :)

The Police Station

 The Railway station

Some of our favourites while in London

As our adventure in London slowly draws to an end, I'd like to reflect on some of the our most memorable favourite/worst things.

Favourite Indian Food - Vegetable/Chicken Tikka Masala from the Tamarind Tree near Regents Park.

Favourite Sitcoms - The Office, Modern Family, Big Bang Theory, House of Cards, Homeland, Scrubs

Favourite Sushi - You Me Sushi

Favourite Vegetarian Place - Food For Thought in Covent Garden

Favourite London foods - Falafels, Bruschetta, Burritos

Worst things about London -  The noise along Northumberland Avenue! Small spaces. It is expensive! Pollution is bad. The constant grey rainy weather days are depressing. All the walking can be tiring. London is crazy over Easter and Christmas.

Favourite things about London - The ability to just walk around with complete peace of mind. The vast amount of things to do. Things just work. Service is great. The parks are beautiful. Self service tills at shops and the post office :) it doesn't matter how you dress, nobody cares :)

Lessons learnt - One can survive with very little. The less you have, the less worries you have. The only way that we can change the world is by either changing the institutions (which is virtually impossible!) or by changing the way people think (which too is virtually impossible!).

Watching 1984 at The Playhouse

We decided to go watch George Orwell's play 1984 at The Playhouse, which is just down our road.

I have hear about the book and was interested to see how they would do the play, as it was written in 1949 and was about what the world would be like in 1984 and Big Brother is watching you!

It was brilliantly done. A thought-provoking play, somewhat disturbing as the world they describe is pretty much like the world is today.

"Big Brother" is like a communist party which controls everything and everyone.

It paints a world where everybody is watched all the time and ignorance to the truth is bliss. "Big Brother" will make you believe what they want you to believe. They will torture those who seek the truth and try to go against "Big Brother".

People wear only clothes that the party gives them, eat only what the party allocates to them and speak how the party want them to speak!

Newspeak is the new language which has a smaller amount of words. For example, there's the word "good" and "ungood" - you don't need the word "bad" :)

There is "thought crime" and "though police" so people are not allowed to have impure thoughts or wish to go against the party.

The story revolves around a character Winston Smith who finds love but wants to overthrow the party. He seems like a madman. The play is done quite cleverly, with repetitions of the same/similar scenes and jumping from scene to scene, you often don't know what is real from Winston's point of view.

The party tortures Winston until he accepts the party and becomes ignorant like the rest of the people, which they refer to as sanity.

If you are up for an intense, thought-provoking play, I highly recommend it :)