On the edge of the Cotswolds

We were planning on a trip to Windsor Castle but their exhibitions are closed until next month so we thought we'd check out the other University town for lunch and have our first foray into the Cotswold district.

Oxford, a town on the Thames where the cows could walk across and the first University Town in England.
The first Uni was established here in 1096 beaten only in the world by one in Bologna.
Cambridge is England's second University established in 1209 by those escaping religious exclusion at Oxford.

Oxford - Main Street - We didn't even go into the book store.

Oldest Building - Saxon Tower of St Michael
at the North Gate c1020CE

Crooked Tudor house across the street
from the Saxon Tower

Oxford seemed bigger than Cambridge with a very wide main street now paved off for pedestrians and it was full of people. We grabbed a Cornish pasty for lunch and ate on the run, people were much to busy to notice the pastry flakes on our chins in the press of the crowds. Although one woman noticed and asked if Willow and I would like to sign up for a 'styling experience' in London the following week!

Rowan Atkinson fan club members will be interested to know that Willow and Petal have now walked at least one street that Bean's creator did. He completed his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering at Queen's College in Oxford. Tony Abbott studied here in 1981 as a Rhodes Scholar. The current UK Prime Minister, David Cameron graduated with firsts in Political science and Economics at an Oxford College and Margaret Thatcher managed a 2nd class Chemistry degree here - apparently she spent more time in student union politics than her studies. More at http://www.oxforduniversityfilm.com/oxford-alumni.html

Christ Church Cathedral and dorms behind the English garden

Dinning Hall  M was impressed with Plum pudding for 1pound
2 sittings every evening for all students and Dons

Petal off to the sorting hat.

Gate Tower and Quad

We paid 14GBP to walk through Christ Church College (Ch Ch). The Canterbury city in Sth NZ is named after this college who had its first female students graduate in 1980. When we left, the queue to enter was back to the famous Christ church Meadow - what luck to be able to have walked straight in. Lewis Carol wrote Alice in Wonderland here and the gift shop was full of souvenirs from his fiction. Howard Goodall and Richard Curtis are also famous Alumni with their CDs and DVDs stocked in the shop. The stairway up to the dining hall was where Neville found his toad in the Philosopher's stone and the dinning hall was used as a model for Hogwarts. Many other fantasy and historical films have used this beautiful old place as a setting. I thought it interesting that a place who teaches the future clergy of England should sell merchandise from fantasies damned by many conservative Christians. Petal was delighted to content her pyromania cravings by being allowed to buy an advent candle with the dates of December marked down the side, not sure that she'll be quite so happy when she discovers that it is used to time prayers during the advent season!  http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/visiting/harry-potter 

The College educated the clergy and politicians of England's elite in the three 'Greats' Classical Languages, Philosophy and History. They now have a much broader subject choice and student enrollment is not limited to the aristocracy. Henry VIII took the College property from Cardinal Wosley and rebuilt much as well as establishing a sister College(Trinity) in Cambridge at the same time. Christopher Wren designed the Gate Tower leading into Wosley's Quad. A bell called Great Tom was rung 101(the number of original students) times at midnight to announce curfew.  All the other College's had a curfew of midnight but because it takes 20 mins to ring the 101 peels Christ Church College students could stay out that much later. Now it is rung at 9pm Oxford standard time but ChCh students still have 12:20 as their curfew.

This is Bourton-on-the-water. Being the quintessential Cotswold it is very touristy but we are tourists so we loved it.
Looks like M, Petal and Willow will be another tourist's video.

Autumnal Ivy

One of the many places available for holiday rent

Driving from Oxford to Bourton-on-the-water took us through Little and Greater Barrington through narrow roads and tight corners. Beautiful little villages - if we'd just stayed put on the road for a while I'm sure we would have been surrounded by deer, rabbits, badgers and squirrels. Weekend afternoons are obviously a good time for locals to visit the pub because there were quite a few with very full car parks along the 10km road between the A40 and Bourton ...

The sun came out and the autumn colours glowed. There were lots of little shops that we enjoyed poking our noses into. Crafty stores that Willow dubs skip fodder shops and a model railway store for the boys. There was even the 'Home of Brum' with a motor and toy museum attached. Petal's favourite were the many sweet and ice cream shops. I liked the Christmas shop and found a non-chocolate, Biblical Advent calendar that wouldn't burn down the house. With the nearby Bird zoo the girls reckon this must be Granny Eden.

Nana would like this shop

Good Raspberry hand made chocs in here

Gramps might even enjoy a look through here

This little window is jutting out right over the strem

M telling another yarn over yet another cream tea.

20p needed for the nicest public loos I've seen in a while and very clean. After all that tea it was worth a visit before the trip back home. The weather was closing in and Charlie doesn't like being left alone in the dark.

Laurie Lee (1914-97) wrote this poem, he is from a village on the Western edge of the Cotswolds (Slad). He bought a cottage in his childhood village with the proceeds from his first book. Part of one that suits the autumn colours we saw follows.

Day of These Days

Such a morning it is when love

leans through geranium windows

and calls with a cockerel's tongue.

When red-haired girls scamper like roses

over the rain-green grass;

and the sun drips honey.

...

Such a morning it is when mice

run whispering from the church,

dragging dropped ears of harvest.

...

When no table is bare

and no beast dry,

and the tramp feeds on ribs of rabbit.

Reading:  A Curious Earth by Gerard Woodward -  Vintage Books 2007
Widower and retired art teacher nearly dies, finds a desire to paint again and reconnect with his children. He becomes obsessed with Rembrandt and decides that his wife's passing does not mean he is a dried up old fossil after all; although he does have difficulties convincing the ladies after losing his false teeth on the Channel crossing to Belgium. I am loving the word pictures put in the mouths and minds of an unlikely bunch of characters.

"All this time Aldous had spent looking at the cupboard, when in fact the cupboard had been looking at him, insistently, unblinkingly.  It took a while for him to accept this fact and the uncomfortable conclusion that resulted - that some old potatoes in his cupboard were more actively interested inlife than he was." p6

"Not all the pancreatitis sufferers were alcoholics. Some were very resentful of the fact that the illness should be associated with alcohol at all....One of them once confided in Aldous, assuming him to be one of their non-drinking number, 'It's like we've gone to the doctor's with a headache and been put in a lunatic asylum..." p37

"It made him laugh and the laughter, in combination with the tugging Channel gale, helped unseat that which he'd guarded so carefully before, had guarded so carefully all his life, but which this time was taken from him in a second - both sets. With a short rasp and slurp his false teeth were out of his head and snatched away by the wind, uppers and lowers both.  He made a grab at them but was far too late.  For what seemed like an hour, they hung in mid-air in front of him, glittering, whiplashing strings of spittle dangling from them.  They had rotated to face him, still in their pairing, smiling at him out of the sky, a grin without a face, receding, laughing at him, until they'd shrunk to two little white dots, enough to make (so he imagined) a visible splash as they entered the sea a hundred feet below and a quarter of a mile behind him."  p61-62. 

Sparkles at the Tower of London

The building that  houses the Crown Jewels

I'm not sure that this little fellow
will scare would be thieves away

A friendly Yoeman Warder (Beefeater). All retired from the armed forces
with at least 22yrs of service and the long service - good conduct medal.
Their costume is a Tudor design, this is not
their dress costume which has an Elizabethean ruff.
They act as guards, tour guides and one is the Ravenmaster! 

We drove down to London to see the Queen's Jewels. M found Minories council parking station only a block away from the Tower of London that wasn't going to cost a King's ransom. We got there just too late to see the Yoeman Warders performing the ceremony to unlock the gates for the day and decided not to stay for the closing at 5:30.

Edward I's bedroom in the Medieval Tower

The Crown Jewels are housed in the Waterloo barracks, in transparent boxes with a travelater running past the main collection, guards, cameras and pressure alarms no doubt - just like the Johnny English film suggests. Before this they were kept in a safe and guarded by the 'Keeper of the Crown Jewels' in a refurbished section of the Medieval Palace. In 1671 a thrill seeker called Thomas Blunt and his gang tried to steal the jewels after tying up the poor guard and stuffing a piece of wood in his mouth but luckily his son returned from his travels unexpectedly and raised the alarm. You would think these reckless thieves would have been hung drawn and quartered for their treason but Charles II pardoned them.

Not keen for a little needlework ladies?
A window bay in the Medieval throne room

Imperial Crown

CullinanI Diamond in scepter

 The Crown Jewels sparkle with brilliant stones collected from through out  the colonies. The largest top quality cut diamond in the world is the Star of Africa (Cullian I) which is set in the scepter with the cross (this apparently is to symbolise Christian rule), held by the Queen in the photo above from http://www.royal.gov.uk  The orb represents wordly power, it is a hollow golden sphere made for the coronation of Charles II. After Charles I's beheading, Oliver Cromwell had the royal jewels dismantled, sold off and melted down for coins. When the monarchy was restored after 11 years of parliamentary rule, many of the historically precious gems were sold back to the nation and Charles II had them made into the Coronation collection that have been used ever since.

The Imperial Crown has the Black Prince's Ruby at the front. Prince Edward (saved Heath Ledger's character in 'A Knight's Tale') took this in 1367 as payment for helping Don Pedro of Seville put down a civil uprising in Spain. It was originally owned by the Moorish Prince of Granada whom Don Pedro killed during the expulsion of the Jews and Moors from the Iberian peninsula. The Black Prince died a year before his father from an intestinal parasite and became the first ever Prince of Wales not to become King. Below the egg sized red gem is Cullinan II, another huge diamond from Africa. At the back of the crown is the Stuart Sapphire which was taken from the King of Scots in 1296 by Edward I when he also took the Stone of Scone, the place Scottish Kings are crowned. Hanging at the apex of the crossbars are four huge tear drop pearls. Two of these were earrings worn by Elizabeth I. The Imperial Crown celebrates the longest surviving monarchy in the world.

Willow would have loved to pose against this impressive collection of sparkles but the Yoeman guards jumped on anybody with a camera! We had to make do with a beaded lion rampant and unicorn to decorate the Christmas tree that were for sale in the Jewel House shop.

See the original paintings by Ivan Lapper at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings

The Tower of London has so many layers of history from the Romans till today. There are towers with torture devices though it would seem that torture wasn't often used in England. One exception is in the uncovering of treasonous plots. We read about one woman who was racked so much she couldn't walk to her own stake to be burnt. Anne Askew was one of the earliest English poets, she had to marry William Kyme because her older sister died just before the wedding but rebelled by refusing to take his surname. She was the first English woman to demand a divorce from her husband and the only woman to be tortured and executed at the Tower . The jailers were trying to get names of reformation extremists from her - Henry VIII didn't want things getting too out of hand, he liked the control and fear of the old church. Luckily for Katherine Parr, Henry's last wife and sympathetic to Anne's teachings,  Anne did not say a word.

There are towers where the aristocracy were imprisoned. Sir Walter Raleigh was locked up by James I because he was accused of spying for the Spanish, while here he wrote the Greek and Roman installment of 'The History of the World' (A copy of this very fat book is there to be seen).  The conditions weren't too bad though, his wife was allowed to visit and his second son conceived. They had both been in the Tower before but kept separated by the jealous Queen for getting married without her permission.

The White Tower has the original Norman Chapel, where William the Conqueror would have worshiped, restored.  It was an amazing feeling to be looking at masonry with simple but beautiful carvings that were nearly 1000 years old. The armory display is also here. The Duke of Wellington put his hand to the collection and display of military stuff after his success at Waterloo. The wooden horses carved to have examples of armour sitting on them are amazing. HenryVIII's armor is there from when he was a young and lithe sportsman. One set from Italy is covered with double headed dragons wearing crowns and was thought to be too intricate to be real until just recently. The canons, guns and hands on activities would thrill most young boys. Petal preferred the shop at the end that stocked a large variety of rock candy sticks.

Medieval Tower across the Raven run

Ghostly Willow in the Tower

M not moving fast enough along the
battlements above Traitors gate

A special wooden platform for fighting, perhaps Medieval
armies always attacked from NNE.  A 21st C tower behind

Royal residence built for Anne Boleyn
The Shard with the highest viewing
platform in London at 72 stories.

Yeoman residences - between the fighting platform
and the approach to Tower Bridge.

Morning tea - almond slice, Victoria sponge
Jam tart, scones, choc cookie with teas and
Hot Chocs. M keeping an eye out for arrows

Getting up and down the Towers

A tight squeeze in places

A treasure hunt for the most
rebellious carved prisoner calligraphy

The White Tower

Very few people were executed within the walls of the Tower
Anne Boleyn was executed here with a French sword, her
daughter Elizabeth was  2.5yrs old and declared illegitimate.

An archers peep

Traitors Gate - VIPs to be tried for treason entered here by boat
from the Thames.  Edward I palace rooms above, later where the guard
of the crown jewels and his family lived with the safe.

We left the Tower of London and walked across the Tower bridge.  Thanks to many children's book illustrators who used this bridge as a model for the nursery rhyme 'London Bridge is falling down', many people think it is London bridge which is actually one further up the river. It was designed so that pedestrians could cross the river even when the bridge was up for boats to pass. There are stair cases (300 stairs in each) in both towers and a walkway across the top between them. This practical design wasn't popular as most chose to wait for the bridge to lower and walk across.

Gold topped internal staircase

The TOWER Bridge

The Tower of London from across the Thames

We had lunch at a bistro beside the river so M could overlook the HMS Belfast anchored as a naval museum. After our meals had been served we were stunned to silence as the people at the table behind me loudly announced, "Jeez, you got a good city here mate, reminds me of Melbourne mate." When the waiter asked for their drink order we heard "VB or any other Aussie beer thanks mate". Soon there was talk of visiting 'Brisie' and when the waiter inquired if all was well with their meals he was treated to a "Sweet mate". As we rose to leave I expected to see a couple of blokes in boardies but no - pinstriped suit pants and tie less business shirts clothed those words which I truly have always thought were just the stuff of comedy.  Willow has been caught out at school with the "Yeah - nah." expression and the internationals just can't get their heads around sarcasm. I hear myself saying gidday and Petal's friends just call her the genius from Oz because she does her homework every night - she is beginning to realise that perhaps it is an option - help!

A baby Gherkin? - The pickle?
I wondered if this was the trial
for the 30 St Mary Axe building
(real name of the Gherkin) by
the architectural firm Foster and Partners

Booking Macbeth at the Globe - maybe a day off school!

St Peters across the Thames
from the Tate Modern

 Walking down the Thames there are so many new buildings mixed in with the very old.  Shops and eateries everywhere. M was keen for Petal to be able to have a look through the Tate Modern but Willow protested because she hadn't been able to mentally prepare herself for a gallery afternoon. We walked across the footbridge that used to swing until they attached stabilisers, the Millennium bridge, know world wide by Potter fans from the opening scenes of The Half Blood Prince. The side of St Paul's Cathedral sits right at the end, past a very fancy Salvation army headquarters.

As we stood at the crossing waiting for the walk sign a couple of cyclists zoomed through, a guy jay walking almost got collected and then the walk sign lit up and an older guy deliberately stepped in front of the second cyclist and shouldered him.  The cyclist regained his balance and swore at the old guy who was putting on a good display of righteous anger. A couple of tipsy Londoners ran at the cyclist, the woman swinging her hand bag with wild abandon.  They stood either side of the poor Kiwi(he had an All Black jumper on - great win against the Boks to keep them No.1) on his hired Barclay's bike and started shaking him around.  We had crossed the road by now and by the time a couple of double deckers had driven past he had gotten himself free. I must say I was considering going to assist my countryman if things were still going on because my bag was big and full of raincoats, guidebooks and souvenirs so could have done some proper damage!

After deciding not to pay 18GBP each to walk around inside Christopher Wren's amazing building we walked back out and caught a cab back to the Tower, bought some hot caramel peanuts and went back to the car.  It was Charlie's first ever day being left outside with us away all day so we wanted to be before dark.

Watch out for the Paparazzi - the doors automatically
locked when the cab stopped at lights.

So where is the red carpet?

 Just Read: More Than This by Patrick Ness Walker Books 2013
Patrick Ness has won every major prize in children's fiction and the Carnegie Medal twice. This novel tackles isolation v intimacy in a very Matrixesque plot whose main character sounds so real that you feel you are in conversation with him. Pain, hope, despair and purpose for being are shuffled around with skill and a few confronting moments for parents and teens (suicide). The burdens of intelligence, guilt, grief and betrayal are balanced with trust and understanding of what is important and of purpose.

"Here is the boy, drowning .... The sudden gasping horror of knowing this makes him panic even more." p9,10 (they are the first 2 pages of chapter one -not sure why they're numbered this way)

"I'm going to be killed, he thinks, by a PIG. In Hell. The thought was so stupidly outrageous, so insanely anfry-making, that he almost misses the chance to save himself."  p127

"... he thinks that what is forever certain is that there is always more. Always.....Love and care have all kinds of different faces, and within them, there's room for understanding, and for forgiveness, and for more." p479  Commas before 'and' really annoy me but it seems to be a definite trend.

The Day our Stuff Arrived

A little while ago we had a phone call from the shipping company telling us that the 23 boxes from our house in Sydney was going to arrive on Tuesday, September 24; and it did! M watched the ship our stuff was travelling on go up through the Suez and across the Mediterranean, have a little stop by Gibraltar and sail on into Port at Felixstowe. Our stuff has been to places we haven't!

We were very impressed that instead of being a several months later than originally quoted (as was our experience when we moved from Christchurch to Sydney and went without our belongs for 5 months because they lost our container on the Lyttelton wharves) it arrived earlier than the earliest date quoted. Now the bother is of course that instead of having those boxes to unwrap at Christmas we'll have to provide others for the girls after all.

Trying to guess what is inside - Charlie can smell home,
He was very excited by it all.

How much can I carry in one trip down?

Two people smuggled over upside down in the box?

A bit sad for the girls to find after school Corn!

Once again our house was full of cardboard, bubble wrap and  foam sheets. M took the afternoon off work so we could empty the boxes and take all the wrapping waste straight to the recycling centre at Milton.  This is a glorious place where you sort your junk into massive metal boxes for free and they take it somewhere for it to be made into something else. Sweet!

The towels and sheets that had been used to pack between the things we wanted were washed, dried and stored. With no linen cupboard in the house the challenge became where to put it all. Precious family photos were unwrapped and stood upon window frames. A bit teary to get messages from the friends who helped pack us up at home and wrote messages on the wrappings and box flaps.

http://www.steamer.co.uk/

Mixer with the cleaners.

My marvellous mixer - that was given to me one Mother's day for Willow to use - has had to be put under the sink as it is the only cupboard in the kitchen big enough to take it.  I can't believe that I didn't put my whisk in! Oh well there are plenty of wonderful kitchen shops in Cambridge to visit for another. (Two of my favourites are 'The Steamer Trading Cookshop' opposite the markets and 'Lakeland' on Sidney St. Both have great online shopping sites too.) It is amazing how much you can miss your own kitchen utensils.

M found his gadgets - handy for bird watching

M found gadgets galore and filled his desk drawers with glee. Little Charlie got the shakes when he pulled out the laser pointer from a box and put it in the drawer. Charlie dug and dug at it until M pulled it out and played chase the spot for 1/2hr. Now everytime that drawer is opened Charlie is right there waiting for more fun and games.

We hired OSS to move our stuff internationally and they arranged for Movecorp to pick it up from the wharf and take it to us.  Somewhere along the way box 18 went missing - this happened to have M's bike in it. Movecorp were rung straight away by their cheerful and polite delivery crew of two and they phoned back within ten minutes to confirm that it hadn't been loaded onto the truck that morning and a search was being instigated.  The next day the lovely lady (is everyone in this company happy?) rang back to say that what was lost was found and would be delivered next Monday between 1/2 10 and 1/2 11!  WOW an hour window for a delivery time. I still can't get over their efficiency and caring customer service.

I am actually typing this sad little blog because I am housebound by 'UPS' whose contact details refuse to let you speak to a person to find out a time of delivery.  The company sending out the monogrammed uniform for Petal are demanding an ADULT signature so they wouldn't drop it behind the side fence as allowed yesterday or let Petal who is home because of a teacher's strike, collect it. So just because a few snotty kids have chucked away their uniform after signing for it and a freight company is too UPs themselves to recognise that customers may have commitments or appointments I have to distract myself from distasteful tasks by telling you of these mundane things.  I have also written a complaint letter to Samsung about their stick vacuum which sucks- not!

All that we needed has arrived - Me videos, LOR, Potter, BBC versions of Jane Austin's novels, Blackadder and Mr Bean included, Willow kindly packed some of my CDs so now I can listen to something decent because I haven't quite worked out what my apple password is or how to put songs onto my phone or computer - one of those time consuming, distasteful jobs I put off. M has just shown me how to connect my computer to the Jongo so watch out neighbours!  With Leelee sending good ole Sanitarium Nutmeat and Nutolene over with Gav to cuddle up to Poss' Marmite in the larder, it almost feels like home. Just missing the Massal stock cubes and some Gravox gravy sachets but Nana arrives soon!

Just read: Two books for Petal who is unenthusiastic but HAS to read something for English. To give a verbal report on. Both have strengths.

Confessions of a Murder Suspect James Patterson collaboration with Maxine Paetro
-  Young Arrow, Random House 2013
Super rich and controlling parents, exclusive NY residence, sport hero and concert pianist siblings but it is Tandoori who is suspected of murder in her own home. She speaks directly to the reader as a self analysis device. Motives and suspects litter the scene, secrets and retrieved memories bend the plot focus from the crime to an unusually extreme reenactment of the typical adolescent finding who they really are. Sequel with Tandy as a teen Detective out in hard back now.
"I have some really bad secrets to share with someone and it might as well be you - a stranger, a reader of books but most of all, a person who can't hurt me." First sentence.

How I live Now  Meg Rosoff  -  Penguin books 2004
Set in  future not far from now, a 15yr old girl struggles against a sneering stepmother and manipulated father, but this is no Cinderella tale.  When expensive psychs can't seem to fix what is 'wrong' with her she is shipped out to live with her dead mother's sister and kids in country England. A story of finding your place in the world and what is really important beyond the silly power plays we battle with against each other. Strong characters with a persuasive adolescent voice, interesting setting and WW III concept, the political wills almost mirroring her personal experience.
"Somewhere along the line I'd lost the will not to eat. Partly I wouldn't be good ole Daisy if I didn't get my appetite back just when everyone else in the world was learning how to starve and partly the idea of wanting to be thin in a world full of people dying from lack of food struck even me as stupid.  Well what do you know? Every war has its silver lining." p172