We have made our way to Bicester, which is
south of Banbury and 1 hour north of London. It is a lovely little town, with
its main attraction being a shopping village of up market goods that attracts
travellers from all over world. It is not a mall, but a well laid out village.
Accommodation was in short supply so we decided
to stay at the Kings Arms Pub, which was close to the office Michael was
working at. As with most places it had no air conditioning so with all windows
open it was still warm. This was fine until Thursday night when it was karaoke
night till 12 pm and we learned that most people can’t sing.
It was a friendly little pub, although they
seemed to be out of most things including cask ale and crisps, which reminded
me of The Vicar of Dibley episode where one of the characters went on about the
time that the pub ran out of cheese and onion crisps.
Enjoyed a good chippy meal watching the
patrons debating over which was the best battered jumbo sausage. The discussion
continued on for quite a while. I suppose you don’t wish to get a low fat one.
We dined at a nice Thai restaurant called
Cabbage and Condoms. Upon speaking to the owner, we discovered that it is a not
for profit venture that provides sexual consulting services for the poor in
Thailand and has a number of restaurants throughout the world.
After the heat and excitement of Bicester,
we decided to go to another country so headed off to Wales. Three trains from
Bicester to Cardiff which was very pleasant and the high speed trains can move.
Booked to stay at the Royal Cardiff Hotel,
which is in the centre of town and on St Mary’s St. The room had fans and air-conditioning
going full bore with little result, but a nice hotel.
The city is lovely with all the old
buildings and arcades that have been kept to a high standard. Most of the inner
city has been closed off to traffic so walking around is very easy.
Decided to go for a walk around and Cardiff
Castle is at the end of the street. Noticed a few zombies lurching around the
main centre complete with make up. They
actually gave me the creeps. The local beer is brewed by Brains, and all the
hotels are tied to the brand, so I guess you could expect no less.
Michael was reading all about Welsh cheese
and wine and was really looking forward to sampling some however the hotel ran
out of cheese for the weekend and did not sell Welsh wine. Even the bottle shop
only had a sparkling wine and the shop assistant said you would get better
value drinking French wine than Welsh. We will still keep our eye out for some.
Michael is enjoying the cask ales, even the celebratory one to the new Prince George.
 |
| Dragons for everyone in Cardiff |
One thing we have noticed is the well-organized
hen and bucks parties, to the extent that they have matching shirts made up and/or
themes. We have seen bumble bees and ladybirds, Where’s Wally, sashes with the
bride’s name on it and obligatory blow up doll, t-shirts with the buck’s
picture on it. Some of the bucks have been wearing pink tutus and/or large
inflatable rubber ducks around them. We even saw one wearing a wedding dress
however, we were not sure if he was a buck or celebrating a divorce. Size does not matter with the outfit as we
saw one large girl dressed as snow white with the shortest skirt. The English
do like to get dressed up for these events and the doormen must shake their
heads.
 |
| how do you get to this Tardis? |
As a treat I took Michael to the Dr Who
Experience, which we enjoyed and I thought there was a lot of nerds in
attendance, just like at the Lord of the Rings. There were people of all ages
with Dr Who paraphernalia, and the show and displays were pretty good. The
weather had turned with lots of rain so we did not get to check out the docklands
area much, which would have been the reclaimed industrial area and the BBC has
moved into part of it. Michael behaved so he was allowed to have a T-Shirt with
K9 on it.
 |
| The night of his last episode |
