Ride a Cock Horse

Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross

to see a fine lady upon a white horse

with rings on her fingers and bells on her toes

she will have music where she goes.

Well we have made it to Banbury, which is famous for the nursery rhyme and Banbury cakes (not the urban dictionary version). The town is also known for having the highest percentage of single mothers and you can easily see where Little Britain got their Vicki Pollard.

The weather has been absolutely glorious with temps of around 30 for the past 3 weeks and continuing. The Brits are not happy as nowhere has air conditioning so the warnings and press coverage has been hysterical saying that schools and work should stop at 82F (27c).  They are reporting that the heat wave has contributed to over 600 deaths so far.

Michael had been working in Bicester, which is a short train trip from Banbury.

Headed down to Oxford last Sunday and had a great time looking around the wonderful buildings and college grounds. Amazed at how many young tour groups were going through the city. We had lunch at the Lamb and Flag pub where JRR Toking read the first part of the Hobbit to

Thomas Hardy, Graham Greene and CS Lewis used to meet known as the "Inklings".  Michael thought that maybe the beer was better in this pub.

The college library had an exhibition called Magical Middle Ages to Middle Earth, which featured Tolkien, Lewis Carol, JK Rowling and other authors, which was very good.

Whose this wag that has his picture on the sign and why is it in Oxford?

We are able to explore the area until late, as it is still remaining dark until 10.00pm.

The town also has a lot of canals so it is interesting walking along the banks seeing the boats and how they have kitted them out. All are holiday makers, as the trade boats stopped when the trains came in. The waterways were fixed up in the 60’s and apparently in 10 years time they will not be maintained by the waterway authority, which is sad to think of a bit of history going. In saying that the whole country is covered in canals.

 

On our last night we toasted the memory of Heather Trott (Hev) with a Woo Woo.  The drink tasted just like the Nyall Decongestant my mother used to give me as a child.

Oh, and please don’t mention the cricket!