Thrupp Circular Walk

15 mile circular walk

I have now created a page on my website that provides information about this walk in more detail, including a couple of Google Maps.

On Bank Holiday Monday we completed a 15 mile circular walk from Thrupp via Bletchingdon, Kirtlington, Blenheim Palace and Woodstock. Full details will appear on my website shortly.

The Demise of the English Village Pub

One of the many joys of walking in the British countryside is the village pub. Towards the latter part of a walk a hearty pub meal and a couple of pints of real ale are enjoyed with a feeling that we deserve it. So, as we came out of Kirtlington Park on Monday, heading towards Tackley, we were pleased that the OS map showed a PH (public house) in the middle of the village.

We were soon to be disappointed however. The Dashwood Arms is no quaint village pub, rather it is a modern hotel and restaurant. A quick glance at the lunch menu dissuaded us from planning a lunch stop. Still we thought they might do a pint and a pack of crisps. On entering I found that they did have a bar and I immediately asked what beer they had. The foreign sounding girl behind the bar asked whether I wanted draught or bottled. "Draught" I replied, only to be told that they only had one draught beer – which was actually a lager – which we had not heard of. "So that is a lager then" I said " and not a beer". The girl behind the bar looked daggers at me.

We finally settled on two Oxfordshire beers – from bottles from the fridge! Our request for a pack of crisps resulted in the girl delving into the depths of a cupboard and finally retrieving a single pack of salt and crushed peppercorn crips, that looked like they might be close to their best before date. Total cost for two pints of beer and a pack of crisps? £8.20!! £3.60 per pint!!

Outrageous!

In contrast, we stopped at Sturdy’s Castle, where the beer was a more reasonable £2.50 a pint and was proper Hook Norton beer. I thought I would just go for a jacket potato and cheese. It was huge! A great rock of a spud, covered in a mountain of cheese. As a final bonus the staff were all non pretentious, friendly and local!

Jousting

Just got back from a two hour jousting lesson!

 

A huge thanks to Denise for a superb birthday present – it was fantastic!!

 

But, a question – Trotting? Why create a pace that is unnatural for the horse and makes your nether regions bounce off the saddle so much? 🙂

 

Thanks to Alex and Polly of the Knights of Middle England for a superb session. And of course thanks to Springs the horse.

 

The Knights of Middle England do experience days and corporate days where you get the whole medieval experience of sword fighting and archery as well as jousting. However, as a re-enactor Denise knew that I wouldn’t be too bothered about the sword work, so it was great to have some one on one tuition in jousting.

 

 

Click on the link below to see me in training -definitely worth a look.

http://cid-3a95c2bcdeb8dfd1.skydrive.live.com/embedrowdetail.aspx/Public/joustingvideos/Jousting034.avi

 

 

Sharepoint Training on your desktop

Just found a great resource for exploring what MOSS has to offer.

 

Get SharePoint training on your desktop

 

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointserver/HA102488011033.aspx

 

 

Snowdon

We have just got back from our meander around the country. Last weekend we went down to Tintagel and today (Mon 11th) we have just got back from Bodelwyddan, North Wales. The initial plan was to stay in Tintagel until Tuesday, drive up to Snowdonia on Tuesday, do Snowdon on Wednesday, Tryfan on Thursday and then drive to Bodelwyddan on Friday morning. Unfortunately, things did not quite work out like that.

 

Tintagel was very wet and windy, with lots of rain forecast for Tuesday. So we made the decision to pack up and left on Monday.

 

Monday night we stayed near  Shrewsbury and Tuesday we drove up to Nant Peris, via Harlech Castle.

 

Wednesday morning we were greeted with heavy rain and high winds. After much deliberation we decided to have a go at Snowdon anyway.

 

We set off from Pen Y Pass car park and ascended via the Pyg Track. With almost zero vsibility and high winds we decided not to risk Crib Goch and so followed the Pyg Track all the way to the top. Havign seen photos of the Miners Track and heard the ascent derided by some I had expected an easy footpath all the way to the top. So I was pleasantly surprised to find some challenging scrambles on the way up.The summit was very surreal. Zero visibility meant that there was very little sensation of being up a mountain except for the ground literally disappearing from view a few feet away. Workmen in hi vis jackets working on the new summit centre detracted further from the mountain experience.

 

We retraced our steps for a bit from the summit and then followed the Miners Track back to the car park.

 

Lets hope that Scafell Pike and Ben Nevis are done in better weather.