You hear that, Mr Andersen?

We're going where the sun shines brightly

Under Ellen's expert shopping tutelage, I have just purchased an excellent suitcase (a special she happened to know about), several light tee-shirts and a soap-protector. At this rate, I'll be ready to go on holiday before you know it!

(We also saw a vinyl copy of Cliff Richard doing "Summer Holiday" for £18 - unsurprisingly, we weren't tempted. :)

***

There are many things that tell you you're not in NZ any more. The first is the money and the accents, obviously; but there are several more subtle things. For example, the British call iceblocks "ice lollies", and you can't buy them at the corner shop. Lots of ice-cream based snacks - very little in the way of frozen juice goodness. You can get "Callipo" which is sort of like a Fruju in a tube; but nothing quite like a lemonade popsicle.

This can seem quite important when you're wandering around London in blazing heat, disoriented by jet-lag and general fatigue. :)

***

The walk in the Cotswolds (or what we are fairly sure was the Cotswolds) was very nice. There were four NZers in all - myself, the stalwart Paul, the mighty Max, and Elizabeth known as Bob. They told me about strange encounters with English "ramblers", who wear laminated maps around their necks and have alpine sticks for walks that are often considerably less arduous than what the typical Aro Valley flat has to go through to fetch the mail.

Walking in the English countryside is nice, but there are hidden dangers. Stinging nettles, for example - one plant I'm very glad we have managed to keep out of NZ. They look completely innocent, and then suddenly the leaves you've just brushed out of the way have raised little red welts all over the back of your hand. At least with brambles and holly, you can *see* what's going to hurt you, and avoid it - nettles are just nasty. In a way, I'm glad that I don't have shorts here - at least my legs were safe from the stinging scourge.

Pub lunches in a beer garden a very pleasant indeed - the only downside being the wasps. There seem to be an inordinate number of these black and yellow fiends about - apparently, it's been a really bad summer for them. Or rather, an exceedingly good summer for them, and an exceedingly bad summer for not having insects trying to crawl into your ale. :) But the food where we went was excellent, and the company was quite congenial - I had some very nice aged steak, and an excellent lime and lemon cheesecake. (The others were all seduced by the prospect of gooseberry fool.)

***

I now have a plan for the next week or so! I'm off to Cambridge tomorrow, where I will find a hostel, and meet up with Jack & Heather & their wee one. The next day, I'll take a bus to Birmingham, and then a train to Hereford, and then a bus to Hay-on-Wye, and seek out local lodgings there. And after that, I'm aiming to be back in London on Saturday, for Paul's going-away party. (It is my sister Ellen's birthday on Saturday, but I didn't really want to crash it, since I figured she'd want to be hanging out with her friends. I've given her the present I brought over already - it's the Te Papa book of cool stuff that I gave Mum on her birthday.)

Don't know what I'll be doing Sunday or beyond - I should find out when Morgue and Cal are back from Paris, so I know when to trek up to Scotland. Oh, and I've still get in contact with Helen & relatives, if I'm going to get out to Denmark... and I haven't heard from my ex-Wetan colleages at all.

I'm a little bit more organised, anyway.

***

Plenty more to talk about qua Oxford - but we're off to dinner, so it will have to wait. :) Hopefully, I'll be able to put up a picture or two in the near future.

Posted by svend at August 11, 2004 8:28 AM