A trip to Rugby

Last weekend the family travelled far and wide throughout the counties of England. We started of at Bicester Village, half an hour south of Banbury. Bicester Village is actually a massive factory outlet located on the edge of Bicester (it is pronounced Bister). If you want Zegna, Calvin Klein, Boss, Ralph Lauren, Christian Dior, Salvatore Ferragamo, North Face, Helly Hansen, Puma.. whatever.. it's all here. And cheap too!



Instead of building a huge shopping mall, the entire site is made in 'faux-village' style..so it ends up looking like a bizarre reconstruction of the Truman show.

Following our morning shopping, we then travelled up the A361 to Rugby.



Rugby is of course home to the famous Ruby school, which was founded by one of Queen Elizabeth's grocers. It became even more famous when, according to legend, a young student called William Ellis picked up the ball with his hands during a football match.. and thus invented Rugby.



Needless to say it sort of puts Melbourne's "exclusive schools" into context.

Lucas at 7 months

Just some extra pics of Lucas playing with a box of Coco pops on his 7-month day.

Sunday afternoons at home

So, now that I'm no longer a slave to a PhD, I get Sunday afternoons at home. Here is an example of what we get up to.



Lucas will amuse himself on his playmat. Wifey likes to read the paper, either The Guardian or the Times on Sunday.



Then there is always a feet puppet show.



Riveting, eh?

Work Christmas Party

So the wife and I went to the work Christmas party last weekend, which was also a celebration for winning both championships!

The celebrations were held at Eynsham Hall.


You can find out more information about Eynsham Hall here :

Eynsham Hall website

We arrived a little late, as poor Lucas took a while to settle (it later turned about that he was coming down with a cold, as he woke up the next morning with his face covered in snot).

There was a nice water feature upon our arrival.



We had a great night out, dancing and romancing. In fact it was the first time we had gone out dancing in over a year. We left just after midnight. Special thanks to Jo who drove up from Oxford to babysit for us, we couldn't have managed it without her!

More Star Wars hi-jinks