Crest vs. Colgate ⇒
Whew, a lot has happened since my last entry. Epic UK has a wonderful Friday tradition of going to the pub together around lunch time. Before going there, I had to pick up my rental car and try my hand at driving on the wrong side of the road. Grabbed my car and headed off to the pub. Hmmmm...quite the challenge. Thankfully there weren't too many other cars on the road and only small roundabouts. This was an unusual pub in that it actually had good food!! Quite the shocker!! After the pub we decided to hold off on training for that day as there were a couple people that weren't taking it, but could on Tuesday. So I had a chance to locate all the required maps for my weekend adventure.
First stop, Oxford. Or Magdelene College School, to be more precise. My friend Gary works there as head of the ICT program. I knew Gary from our CSc. courses at UVic and I hadn't seen him in a few years. I made my way to Oxford and I only got lost at the very end! Turns out that I didn't see the school until I had looped around Oxford a couple of times. Thankfully both Gary and I had mobiles and we were able to connect. We made our way to the Angel and Greyhound to meet up with several of Gary's collegues. I learned that school teachers here are treated basically the same as school teachers at home. Too many kids and not enough money, although Magdelene is a private school so their problems are lessened. Eventually we got hungry and wanted some non-pub food. We walked around the international restaurant section and settled on some Polish food. I had never had Polish food before so I didn't know what to expect; but my meal was quite good. On the way back to Cholsey (where Gary lives) I only slightly freaked him out with my driving!
Sleep is good. I finally had a chance to catch up on my sleep and woke up just before noon on Saturday. After a typical English breakfast (eggs, sausage, ham and tomatoes) we headed out to Oxford to tootle around. Had a nice walk along the Thames, hit a pub for a pint, the market for some cheese and then some dinner at the Mongolian Wok. This is a restaurant that lets you choose the food and then they cook it over a huge fire right in front of you. Yummy. After dinner we caught Trainspotting, the show at the Old Fire Station theatre. I don't what I expected, but I didn't get it! The stage has on the floor between the audience, so sometimes you couldn't hear them that well as they were facing away from you. There were only four actors so they each played several roles. The gentleman who played Renton was excellent; he had the right attitude and look. Man, do I ever love the sound of the Scottish accent; it is so lyrical. All in all, an excellent trip to Oxford.
On Sunday I made my way to East Markham, in Nottinghamshire. Again, I only got lost at the very end. The streets and maps are not very well marked in small villages. For example, Mark Lane is only signed on one side so I didn't see it until I looked behind me! Crazy. Anyway, I finally found Jim at his parents place. Our plan was wait for the others to arrive and then head to, where else, the pub for some food. We had originally planned a BBQ, but the weather was not co-operating. So instead we just started drinking. Pauline came down first and Philippa arrived at half-seven (7:30 to you North Americans) and then we went to the pub. For more drinking. We got booted out of there when it closed (pubs close at 11PM here) and went back to Jim's for more wine. At 2:30AM we had enough and went to bed.
Monday morning brought a reasonably significant hang-over. And goodbyes. Which is bad. It was so good to share our stories again and to catch up with each other. I hope that it won't be so long next time. Maybe they will come out to visit us some times.
Anyway, if Jim, Phil, Catherine (Kathryn??) or Pauline reads this, thanks for the good times and great memories. Let's do this again.