W/E 23rd March
Hello everyone. I am writing this from our home in the Cotswolds, well our home for the next 6 months. It’s Good Friday and we’ve been in England since Wednesday.
Going back a bit, our flight to the UK was pretty much uneventful. Travelling business class was well worth while as was a one night stopover in Tokyo, or rather in the airport city of Narita.
We enjoyed Japanese meals served by the oh so polite Japanese airline staff.
The only notable points to mention were as follows. The toilet in our hotel room was unbelievable. To sit on one was a treat in itself. The seat was electronically warmed and hydraulically adjustable to your weight. On the side of the bowl there was a set of buttons to control the temperature of the bidet which was incorporated in the set up, as well as the water strength. You got a choice of a spray or a straight jet of water up the fundament. I chose the latter. Very satisfying! Let’s just leave it at that.
The other memorable moment was on our departure on the second leg from Narita to Heathrow. As our 777 jetliner taxied up to the start line, the two ground staff guiding the pilot stepped back a few metres, then as one, they bowed deeply in formal Japanese style as we got under way.
We had seats that reclined as beds so we were able to relax en route, arriving in London 12 hrs later, having never seen nightfall all the way. They just shut all the blinds and we pretended it was dark outside. The plane had a camera mounted in the nose and we could monitor the scene outside. We flew across the top of Russia over Murmansk and Archangel and watched an endless landscape of ice and snow sliding away below us.
It was around 3.15 pm we touched down at Heathrow, went through the usual customs and immigration procedures and got on the train to Paddington, there to be met by Fritha. Even though she lives about ten minutes walk away, we took a cab to her place rather than lug seven pieces of luggage up a cobbled canal side walkway.
Fritha was ecstatic to see us and cooked us up a lovely meal of chicked and olives and tomato, while Anthony forced us to drink several large cans of local ale.
I realised later that when we finally got to bed, it was 4.30am Tokyo time, which we were still on.
Needless to say we slept in the next morning. After breakfast, (including toast and vegemite) Barbara and I took the tube into Regent street to collect our bank cards and do a bit of shopping. Although it’s early spring here, the weather is still bitterly cold and a bit rainy.
We took a train to Kilburn High Street to pick up an inflatable bed which Fritha had ordered from a store called Argos. It’s a massive warehouse and everything is ordered on line. You just give them the order number and collect the goods. It’s also very cheap.
After that we went back to Fritha’s, then across the road for a couple of pints, or a couple of chardies in Barbara’s case, while we waited for Fritha and Anthony to come home.
We went around the corner to another very cosy little pub called the Warwick Arms for a dinner of steak and kidney pie and mashed potatoes. Yummy!
Today we slept late again,before walking for an hour along the canal. Another bitterly cold windy day, despite signs of spring all around. Daffodils are bursting into bloom, and all the trees are in bud. By the time we got back it was time to pack everything into F and A’s car and head for our dream cottage in the Cotswolds. The drive, once we were out of London was breathtaking. The countryside is so green and so full of the promise of spring. We passed miles of rolling patchworked fields with sheep and newborn lambs. There were even pheasants feeding at the side of the motorway. In fact we saw one which had grazed too close to the traffic and ended up on the radiator of a four wheel drive.
The roads began to narrow and we were in sunken lanes hedged in by rows of hawthorn and practically no visibility on either side.
We drove through tiny villages of ancient and mossy stone cottages and equally ancient and mossy names, until we saw the signpost pointing to Ascott-under-Wychwood and there we were.
This place is everything we had hoped it would be. The cottage, or rather the converted stable in which we now reside, is lichen covered and rustic. It’s around five hundred years old and the rooms have exposed beams. It stands on one side of a courtyard with the main farmhouse at righ angles to us and a barn opposite. The kitchen window looks straight down the street with stone cottages on either side. Through the laundry window a few metres across the lane are tumbled tombstones in the graveyard of the sixteenth century church. Beyond that is the Swan pub which also looks very old and very English. We have yet to see the interior.
March 22nd
Last night we had a lovely dinner in a sixteenth century pub where Fritha and Anthony are staying. It’s called the Old Mill and one section is even older. The stone floor of the original mill dates back to the tenth century.
Went to bed on our inflatable mattress at around ten and slept wonderfully well. Our cottage is fairly sparsely furnished at present but we are settling in. It’s well heated thank God, because it was very cold outside. After breakfast this morning Fritha and Anthony picked us up and we went in search of a car. After a number of unsuccessful visits to car yards around Oxford, we found a 12 year old VW Golf station wagon which fitted our needs. It’s diesel powered which will give us about fifty miles to the gallon. Anthony
checked it out for us and we decided to buy it after a good test drive.
We drove many miles around the countryside, enjoying the scenery of little villages and rolling green fields, forests and farms. The weather was cold and a bitterly sharp wind made it even colder. And then it snowed, at first just in flurries swirling across the road, and then in quite a steady fall. The snow didn’t stay on the ground however, although the forecast is for more tonight so we may wake up tomorrow to a white landscape.
We found a secondhand furniture place outside Oxford and bought a sofa, a chest of drawers and a couple of bedside tables. We’re getting there.
In the meantime tonight we dine at the Swan.
March 23rd
The Swan proved to be a delightful pl.JPG)
ace and we enjoyed a good dinner and a glass or two of wine.
An early night and awoke in the morning to a landscape of white. The yard outside, the rooftops and the grounds around the next door church were covered with snow. Given that there had been no snow here throughout winter, we felt that the overnight fall had been put on purely for our benefit. It was a beautiful sight.
Fritha and Anthony joined us at around nine thirty and we went looking for open shops in the neighbouring towns of Chipping Norton and Banbury. Being Easter Sunday, nothing was open but we did get to see the famous Banbury Cross and some beautiful snowy landscapes.
We took Fritha and Anthony to lunch at the Swan. Traditional roast beef and Yorkshire .pudding followed by a delicious dessert.
We also met our landlords, Janet and Chris Badger who proved to be very nice. They have a friend who wanted to dispose of some furniture, so we gained a recliner chair, an arm chair and a sofa bed, all for fifty quid. Once we’ve taken delivery of the bed we have ordered, we’ll be completely set up. We also met a New Zealand girl who waits table at the Swan who may be prepared to take over our lease and the furniture when we leave in October, which would save us the business of selling or giving away our stuff.
Things are working out so well it’s getting scary.
After lunch we wandered across to the graveyard of the Holy Trinity church over the road, to marvel at tombstones dated as far back as the sixteen hundreds.
Fritha and Anthony then headed back to London, while Barbara and I took a stroll through some of the lanes and paths around the village, walking off the roast beef and trimmings.
Hello everyone. I am writing this from our home in the Cotswolds, well our home for the next 6 months. It’s Good Friday and we’ve been in England since Wednesday.
Going back a bit, our flight to the UK was pretty much uneventful. Travelling business class was well worth while as was a one night stopover in Tokyo, or rather in the airport city of Narita.
We enjoyed Japanese meals served by the oh so polite Japanese airline staff.
The only notable points to mention were as follows. The toilet in our hotel room was unbelievable. To sit on one was a treat in itself. The seat was electronically warmed and hydraulically adjustable to your weight. On the side of the bowl there was a set of buttons to control the temperature of the bidet which was incorporated in the set up, as well as the water strength. You got a choice of a spray or a straight jet of water up the fundament. I chose the latter. Very satisfying! Let’s just leave it at that.
The other memorable moment was on our departure on the second leg from Narita to Heathrow. As our 777 jetliner taxied up to the start line, the two ground staff guiding the pilot stepped back a few metres, then as one, they bowed deeply in formal Japanese style as we got under way.
We had seats that reclined as beds so we were able to relax en route, arriving in London 12 hrs later, having never seen nightfall all the way. They just shut all the blinds and we pretended it was dark outside. The plane had a camera mounted in the nose and we could monitor the scene outside. We flew across the top of Russia over Murmansk and Archangel and watched an endless landscape of ice and snow sliding away below us.
It was around 3.15 pm we touched down at Heathrow, went through the usual customs and immigration procedures and got on the train to Paddington, there to be met by Fritha. Even though she lives about ten minutes walk away, we took a cab to her place rather than lug seven pieces of luggage up a cobbled canal side walkway.
Fritha was ecstatic to see us and cooked us up a lovely meal of chicked and olives and tomato, while Anthony forced us to drink several large cans of local ale.
I realised later that when we finally got to bed, it was 4.30am Tokyo time, which we were still on.
Needless to say we slept in the next morning. After breakfast, (including toast and vegemite) Barbara and I took the tube into Regent street to collect our bank cards and do a bit of shopping. Although it’s early spring here, the weather is still bitterly cold and a bit rainy.
We took a train to Kilburn High Street to pick up an inflatable bed which Fritha had ordered from a store called Argos. It’s a massive warehouse and everything is ordered on line. You just give them the order number and collect the goods. It’s also very cheap.
After that we went back to Fritha’s, then across the road for a couple of pints, or a couple of chardies in Barbara’s case, while we waited for Fritha and Anthony to come home.
We went around the corner to another very cosy little pub called the Warwick Arms for a dinner of steak and kidney pie and mashed potatoes. Yummy!
Today we slept late again,before walking for an hour along the canal. Another bitterly cold windy day, despite signs of spring all around. Daffodils are bursting into bloom, and all the trees are in bud. By the time we got back it was time to pack everything into F and A’s car and head for our dream cottage in the Cotswolds. The drive, once we were out of London was breathtaking. The countryside is so green and so full of the promise of spring. We passed miles of rolling patchworked fields with sheep and newborn lambs. There were even pheasants feeding at the side of the motorway. In fact we saw one which had grazed too close to the traffic and ended up on the radiator of a four wheel drive.
The roads began to narrow and we were in sunken lanes hedged in by rows of hawthorn and practically no visibility on either side.
We drove through tiny villages of ancient and mossy stone cottages and equally ancient and mossy names, until we saw the signpost pointing to Ascott-under-Wychwood and there we were.
This place is everything we had hoped it would be. The cottage, or rather the converted stable in which we now reside, is lichen covered and rustic. It’s around five hundred years old and the rooms have exposed beams. It stands on one side of a courtyard with the main farmhouse at righ angles to us and a barn opposite. The kitchen window looks straight down the street with stone cottages on either side. Through the laundry window a few metres across the lane are tumbled tombstones in the graveyard of the sixteenth century church. Beyond that is the Swan pub which also looks very old and very English. We have yet to see the interior.
March 22nd
Last night we had a lovely dinner in a sixteenth century pub where Fritha and Anthony are staying. It’s called the Old Mill and one section is even older. The stone floor of the original mill dates back to the tenth century.
Went to bed on our inflatable mattress at around ten and slept wonderfully well. Our cottage is fairly sparsely furnished at present but we are settling in. It’s well heated thank God, because it was very cold outside. After breakfast this morning Fritha and Anthony picked us up and we went in search of a car. After a number of unsuccessful visits to car yards around Oxford, we found a 12 year old VW Golf station wagon which fitted our needs. It’s diesel powered which will give us about fifty miles to the gallon. Anthony
checked it out for us and we decided to buy it after a good test drive.We drove many miles around the countryside, enjoying the scenery of little villages and rolling green fields, forests and farms. The weather was cold and a bitterly sharp wind made it even colder. And then it snowed, at first just in flurries swirling across the road, and then in quite a steady fall. The snow didn’t stay on the ground however, although the forecast is for more tonight so we may wake up tomorrow to a white landscape.
We found a secondhand furniture place outside Oxford and bought a sofa, a chest of drawers and a couple of bedside tables. We’re getting there.
In the meantime tonight we dine at the Swan.
March 23rd
The Swan proved to be a delightful pl
.JPG)
ace and we enjoyed a good dinner and a glass or two of wine.An early night and awoke in the morning to a landscape of white. The yard outside, the rooftops and the grounds around the next door church were covered with snow. Given that there had been no snow here throughout winter, we felt that the overnight fall had been put on purely for our benefit. It was a beautiful sight.
Fritha and Anthony joined us at around nine thirty and we went looking for open shops in the neighbouring towns of Chipping Norton and Banbury. Being Easter Sunday, nothing was open but we did get to see the famous Banbury Cross and some beautiful snowy landscapes.
We took Fritha and Anthony to lunch at the Swan. Traditional roast beef and Yorkshire .pudding followed by a delicious dessert.
We also met our landlords, Janet and Chris Badger who proved to be very nice. They have a friend who wanted to dispose of some furniture, so we gained a recliner chair, an arm chair and a sofa bed, all for fifty quid. Once we’ve taken delivery of the bed we have ordered, we’ll be completely set up. We also met a New Zealand girl who waits table at the Swan who may be prepared to take over our lease and the furniture when we leave in October, which would save us the business of selling or giving away our stuff.
Things are working out so well it’s getting scary.After lunch we wandered across to the graveyard of the Holy Trinity church over the road, to marvel at tombstones dated as far back as the sixteen hundreds.
Fritha and Anthony then headed back to London, while Barbara and I took a stroll through some of the lanes and paths around the village, walking off the roast beef and trimmings.
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