A trip to the Cotswolds with Auntie Abi

Natasha's old work friend Abi visited us for the public holiday whilst she was working on a case in London. After showing her the sights and sounds of Banbury.. which took about 10 minutes ;) ... we bundled into the car and headed off to Stratford-upon Avon.. the home of the great bard himself, William Shakespeare.

The plan was to take the long way around and go via the Cotswolds, stopping off in Hook Norton for some local pub food and Hook Norton beers.










After a local pub meal at the Pear Tree Inn (featuring Hook Norton ales brewed about 20 metres up the road at the main Hook Norton Brewery) we took the 'scenic' route to Statford via Chipping Norton, Churchill and Bledington. Bledington was a pleasant surprise, as we were greeted with a 'ducks crossing' sign in the middle of the city center. Normally such signs are a let down.. but this time we saw a lovely gaggle of ducks crossing the road to frolic in a nearby stream.

As an aside, I know that one has a gaggle of geese.. what is the correct word for a flock of ducks... is a flock correct?




We then proceeded to Stow-on-the-Wold.. a delightful town smack bang in the middle of the Cotswolds that just screams 'tourist trap'! We'll perhaps visit there some other time, not on a public holiday.

We then proceeded to Stratford, descening along the A44 from the hills on the Cotswolds into the plains of Warwickshire.. the section that descends into Broadway is spectacular. We arrived in Stratford at about quarter past four.. to be confronted with bumper-to-bumper traffic outside of the town centre. So we turned away from the town centre and headed back to Banbury. Oh well.. we'll head out to Stratford another day!

The family go to Oxford

Nat has never been to Oxford, so we decided to jump on the train (7 pounds return from Banbury) and travel into one of the most famous cities in the world.

Lucas looked fetching in his bright red jacket. We walked into town and had a look at the various bookstores. I was looking for a textbook for work on finite volume schemes for hyperperbolic differential equations. We looked at Border's, Waterstones, and England's oldest bookstor Blackwell's.. which has to be seen to be believed and is probably worth a trip to Oxford for alone.



After that, we headed to the Turf Taven for some refreshing ales and a very good pub meal. The Turf is a very 'out of the way' locals pub, tucked away in between two or three colleges.



Dan also met up with us to show us around. Dan is an aerodynamicist from work who has been living in Oxford for the past year or so. Oxford has a 'Bridge of Sighs' which they ripped off from the Venetians.



One of Oxford's colleges is home to the 'orginal' ivory towers (pictured on the right). Oxford is also home to a 'covered market', which is just like South Melbourne Market, but probably 500 years older.

More baby photos

Lucas sitting up.



Some taken for his 4th-month day!


Lucas does Dr. Evil impersonations!



"One million dummies!"

A tribute to those daredevil drivers of Rush

For those of you who are unaware, San Franciso Rush Racing was an Atari Arcade game released in the mid 1990's. As wikipedia says :

"The game is notable because of the high level of detail that went into recreating the city of San Francisco and the fast arcade-style physics and exaggeration of gravity."

Wikepedia link

Essentially, the game was the spiritual descendant of Stunt Car Racer. You could fly through the air with the greatest of ease. The best part of the game was that you didn't have to follow the race track, so you could take short cuts through San Franciso's China Town, leap Lombard St (the windiest Street in the world) in a single bound. Other short cuts included 1st floor office bulding car parks, a 'half pipe' though San Francisco city park as well as racing down a drain.

An extended version was released a few years later with a few new tracks (including some great short cuts around the San Francisco water front) and a bonus track "Alcatraz", based around the rock itself.

My friends and I played this game relentlessly. We made the top 10 high score lists in all the machines located in Melbourne, and but for some snotty-nosed kid from a Camberwell high school we would have dominated them all. The game also became the inspiration for a lesser-known upfront progressive-house combo who burst onto the 1998 music scene with a great tune called 'Regret'.

Here are some screen shots.
















Go here Midway link and click on the video trailer for a taste of the action.

Word came across the old bush telegraph on Friday that there is now an X-box port for Rush Racing. And once again, my brave friends are taking to the streets and skies of San Francisco for more acts of daredevilry.

To those magnificent men in their driving and flying machines.. this post is for you ;)

I call thee vomit boy

Strangely enough, after having vomited all over his face.. he was happy as Larry.

I have a confession to make.

So I was listening to a new song on Radio One on the way home.

Vocals were brilliant, almost sounded like Bono in his good days. In fact the production of the entire record was great, very 'Zooropa esque', although a bit more minimalist.... in an 80's Europop kind of way.

So towards the end of the song... as I was thinking to myself why can't all songs be this good... and just how overall brilliant the track was...

.. it turns out that it is Thom Yorke's latest effort!

I told Nat and she laughed her head off.. and she praised my honesty.

For those of you who don't know, Thom Yorke was the lead singer of Radiohead, one of Nat's favourite bands... and who I personally think are one of the most overrated bands in the world with a habit of producing absolute rubbish.

Off to the Flower show

Once again we spent a pleasant Saturday afternoon travelling through the Cotswolds. We took the scenic route, travelling from Banbury via Tadmarton, Wigginton, Hook Norton and Greater Rollwright to Little Tew.
Hook Norton was in particular very pretty, the nicest 'town' I have seen so far. It is also home to the Hook Norton brewery (pictured), so we will be sure to spend a few more days travelling in that area. Sadly the brewery is closed on Saturday.

Natasha loved Little Tew.. it is probably the prettiest Village I have seen so far. In fact, Natasha was so overcome (even gasping at one point) that she said that she could gladly live there. Guess I'll start saving now...

Onto the flower show, which was quite a nice quaint little country event, situated between Great and Little Tew. Many of the stalls were fund raisers for the local schools. We even saw Patrick Stewart there (of Star Trek/X-Men/Royal Shakespeare company fame), in his gumboots talking to the local yokels. Natasha went ballistic and wanted to take a photo.. she's such a sucker for a celebrity ;) I managed to maintain our dignity and refrain. After all, if Patrick can't spend a nice quiet Saturday afternoon wearing gumboots standing in the middle of a paddock without someone asking him for picture, when can he??

It was amusing to overhear someone say "Isn't that the guy from Star Wars?"



There was a horse ride featuring a wheeled wooden pony that rolled down a long slide.



And yes, these flowers are real.

Why I watch Formula One

This is one of the greatest overtaking moves in the last decade of Formula One. At the time, I actually fell asleep late on a Sunday night in Melbourne and missed it, and it was only recently (thanks to the power of the internet) that I managed to watch it for the first time.

Belgium Grand Prix 2000 - Spa Francochamps. Watch Mika Hakkinen in the silver McLaren stick it to Michael Schumacher in his Ferrari in the most emphatic possible manner. The post-race conference was a classic.. as were all Mika's comments.

Oh Mika.. how we miss you!

You tube video

I call thee Fistsucker!

My beer of the week

Is Bishops Finger!

Web Page


Highly recommded.. two thumbs up! Brewed entirely in Kent. Who would have thought that the poncy Southerners could actually be good at something ;)

Lucas goes to London

The family caught the Banbury train at 9:10 am and arrived at London Marylebone at about 10:30 am. Natasha's old uni friends Anthony and Cam were there to show Lucas around for his first day in London.



We walked through St Christopher's Place on our way to Oxford St for some shopping, followed by lunch and afternoon tea in Marylebone. We even managed to find a semi-geniune Yum Cha. A new chain has openened in London called 'Ping Pong'.. apparently traditional Chinese Yum Cha is becoming trendy outside of Chinatown.