Kate saw the Queen on Friday. She (the Queen) was in town to officially open the new children’s hospital. I missed her, it’s a big hospital and it took me too long to get from my end to the other end (10 mins fast walk).
Next time Queen, I will see you…
I’m fascinated by pirates. I love pirate movies (yes I enjoyed all of the Pirates of the Caribbean - sad but true), I also loved the Disney ride “Pirates of the Caribbean”.
The latest news that an oil tanker holding about US$100M of oil has been captured off the coast of Somalia had me reading all about modern day pirates and their hijacking exploits.
Turns out it’s really common, there are almost 100 yachts and cargo ships, currently under pirate control in this area, undergoing ransom negotiations. The political unrest in Somalia means there is no real government to step in. These pirates are living a lavish life of wine, women and song on their profits too.
I do find it strange that the US military isn’t making a move to help out this tanker. It is a private ship, but it was headed to the US with it’s oil, you’d think they’d been keen to get hold of that eh?
The romantic idea isn’t making me want a change in career though…
When friends drop by there are two things you can do. 1) Lock the doors or 2) let them in. I might have foolishly taken the wrong action when I let them in. Before we went to France Brad and Wolf graced us with their presence. It was a short but “entertaining” visit. I rented a car for a long weekend and we went places. As you know (or can see) neither Wolf nor Brad are light weights… until it comes to a few pints! I wanted to rent the smallest car I could (something like a Ford Ka) to travel around in just to see how “comfortable” an affordable economical car can be. I didn’t succumb to temptation though, so we were travelling in relative luxury in our Vauxhaul Vectra (Holden Vectra if you are from Australia and an Opel Vectra if you are from the rest of Europe).
So taking the fellas around we found some pubs…
We also found some sheep. Wolf+Sheep = ??? photo of course!
(he’s taking a photo with his iphone…)
More photos of entertaining things like pubs and the Royal Berkshire Show can be found here
The photo on our patio is of us having the beer that made them miss their train to Amsterdam. Good times…
Bath is most commonly known as the site of the 2000 year old Roman baths. There are also shops. More than we get in Oxford. So for Kate’s 28th birthday we headed to Bath for shops, food and of course a bath! The thermal springs are tapped and fed into several baths for your pleasure. My favourite was a roof-top “bath” which had views over Bath the town and the surrounding countryside. It was a lovely place to sit back and relax in your toga. Well, I didn’t have a toga, I would have worn one if I did have one though. BTW bathing suits are mandatory, so no sitting around in your birthday suit, even if it is your birthday!
Kate also found a shop called “Long Tall Sally”. Funnily enough, many of the clothes in this shop fitted her. And so she shopped… and shopped… and shopped! That’s what your birthday is about though isn’t it? Doing what ever you feel like…
Bath is lovely. I think we’ll head back, for the baths if nothing else!
some photos here
We headed up to York for a weekend. The weather wasn’t too bad, so we went fossil hunting. We found several thanks to Roger’s knowledge of where to look for them. I’ve still not seen the inside of the Minster (supposedly England’s biggest and best church) but I like to leave something to do next time we are up there. We did head to Whitby, a classic sea-side town. We were right in time for a Goth festival! Wow, those guys and gals know how to dress…
A few photos can be found here
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