Paul’s blog

Sunday was a busy day. It could of been our day of rest but the weather was lovely, especially compared to the rain soaked day of Saturday. We started our day by walking around Ellesborough and Chequers (Walk 11 in Jarrolds Short Walks - the Chilterns) this took us around 2 hours. By this time Évi and I were quite hungry, so we decided to pop down the road to ‘the Russell’ at Butlers Cross. The last time we were there must of been three years ago, it has since been refurbished. We both chose the chicken roast and we were not disappointed. It was of the best meals we have had in a long time, and comes highly recommended by this branch of the Davis family.

Fully fed, we hit the road again briefly stopping at a 12th Century Church en-route. We decided to complete another walk from the book. This time we chose walk 2 around Great Kimble, this again took us a couple of hours. To complete the day, we returned to the church at Ellesborough to climb the tower (picture taken from here), and a nice cup of tea. Which was nice.

Évi and I went to Stroud last weekend to meet up with my family and friends. It was only a flying visit, going on the Saturday and returning the next day. We stopped, as usual, at Burford en-route and had a snack at Huffkins. I planned to take a few few photos after, but the weather turned awful. I still managed to take a few but the weather spoiled an otherwise good photo opportunity. The weather also spoiled our next planned port of call, Lodge Park. This is a National Trust property just past Burford which we keep meaning to visit. Rain 1 NT 0.

Mum and Dad greeted us on our arrival, and we soon had a cup of tea in our hands. A little later we visited my sisters family, but missed Thomas and Geoff as they were watching the mighty Forest Green Rovers defeat Cambridge 1 - 0. Our next port of call was Shaun and Pamela, here we were entertained by their sons Oliver and Thomas. I was also set upon by their cat!

Sunday we travelled up to the National Trust property at Hidcote manor. The gardens were very nice, we also had a lovely Sunday roast for lunch at the restaurant. Next we travelled back down the road to Chipping Campden, and thenafter to Broadway tower (pictured), before returning back to Stroud. It wasn’t too long until Évi and I had to return home. All in all it was a nice weekend.

Last week, and out of the blue, I got a phone call from my old friend Dave Large. It was nice to hear from him again after all this time. David, I still have your Medina wine - come quick before I drink it!

Updated this blog to WP 1.5.2 last night without a hitch, just had to remember I needed to telnet my host to change some permissions. Onwards and upwards.

On Saturday Évi and I finally managed to see ‘War of the Worlds’. This time I planned ahead and booked our seats online. I managed to get a couple on the back row, towards the centre for the optimal viewing experience. However on arrival at our seats we found two teenage girls sitting there, and this at a time when on one else was on the back row at all. “Are we sitting in your seats” they asked, “err Yes you are!” I replied. They then skulked off to their allocated seats. Cheeky mares! The film itself wasn’t too bad, although I was expecting better.

Sunday is our usual walking day, and this was no exception. I found a walk which passed Boveney lock in our book ‘Walking in Buckinghamshire’. This was a must after we passed through the lock on a boat trip on my birthday and both of us remarked how we would like to walk around this area. The walk took us around 2 1/2 hours, although we took a minor detour en-route due to the vagueness of the walk description in the book. Usually I have an Ordinance survey map of the area as a counter to this problem, but we haven’t got one for this area. Still we weren’t too put out, and the walk down the old tow path on the Thames was worth it.