Friday December 30, 2005

Day three at the Howards Arms

Our last day in the Cotswolds we decided to do a walk before returning home. In the morning my wife decided to have a lie in so I had breakfast on my own. The Howard Arms has great idea for breakfast, you preorder it and the time you want to have it and leave your pre-order outside your room before retiring. You then come downstairs in the morning and your breakfast soon arrives. As I had got up bit early I did a little more exploration of the village. I found its second pub - where all the smokers go now I suppose and a small pretty Catholic church with a very sad lament to someone who died at the age of forty:

My candle burns at both ends
But It will not last the night
But you would agree my friends
It burns very bright.

We set off to Upper and Lower Brailes a centre years ago for the wool trade and it was at one time the third largest town in Warwickshire after Warwick and Coventry It has a large imposing church tower (120ft/37m)and an equally imposing long nave. The tower is 15th century.

We left the village and entered a series of fields all of which had strange undulations on them. Again we saw deer prints but no deer. We followed the route of Sutton brook and entered a golf course. We left this, continued along more fields and entered the pretty village of Sutton-under-Brailes. This had a pretty church with a fortess like appearance.

With no pub in sight we then continued up onto the shoulder of Brailes Hill. Behind us the peace of the village was interupted first by a donkey making its usual painful braying noise then a farmhouse dog barking having detected our presence. We followed the shoulder of the hill around and then on a tree lined path which then descended. Soon the imposing tower could be seen. The picture below gives some idea of the strange undulations that we then came across on our return path.

We entered Upper Brailes and a horse passed us with a rider with a Father Xmas hat on her head, the horse was wearing the reindeer antlers you buy children that fit on their heads. We walked through fields to our starting point and took the 99 steps recently restored which link the Lower and Upper Brailes villages. At this point it had started to rain but we were soon back in the pub taking our boots off and having a well deserved drink before driving home. One thing we spotted before leaving the village the tower now had its familier George cross flag flying from it as a lot of churches do at this time of year. I will be back on this weblog after the new year break on Tuesday 3rd January 2006. Happy new year all!

Thursday December 29, 2005

Day two at the Howards Arms

After a nice meal and an excellent breakfast at the Howard Arms we were to drive to nearby Bidford-on-Avon for our next walk. The Howard Arms has many nice qualities which have caused us to revisit over the years but a recent decision to make the pub no smoking throughout makes a stay even more enjoyable. The room is superb, really nice old furniture and another nice touch is you get a thermos flask of real milk to use when you make yourself tea or coffee. Back to the walk.

We left Bidford-on-Avon by crossing its narrow bridge over the river and heading through its playing field. After a few fields we entered the first of three villages on the outward journey. Behind us was this view of Bidford-on-Avon.

Marlcliff was the first of the three villages we were to pass through; quite a pretty little village. We then took a steep climb up a hill and headed across a series of fields. Where sheep had gathered or walked in numbers the grass was compacted into bare mud with their hoofprints peppering the surface like stilleto heels do on wooden floors. We could soon see our next destination Cleeve Prior and its attractive church. This village had a lot more of the traditional stone houses you get in this area.The church of Cleeve Prior is of 13-14th century origin.

With no pub evident we carried on to the next village. In fact the next village is two and are two known as Middle and North Littleton. Again the sight of the church confirmed our path to the village. This church has a large Tithe Barn right next door to it used by the monks of Evesham abbey. It is 136 feet long. We entered the village and found its pub. Called the Ivy but of no relation to the fashionable restaurant in London. Here a cheese sandwich would only set you back two pounds! Suitably refreshed we then retraced our steps and headed uphill to a ridge that would follow the river Avon back to Bidford. Before we reached the top a walk through a field revealed the herb thyme was being grown and Rhubarb. We then followed the ridge for almost three miles and were gaps in the trees allowed we could see the Vale of Evesham and the river. There were lots of wildlife to be seen, squirels, pheasants, pigeons. We did see prints in the ground that meant deer had passed here but no visual evidence of them was seen. We reentered the village of Marlcliff after the ridge gently reduced in height and then followed a nice winding path over meadows back to our starting point. On the other bank were boats - the ones hired out in summer months.

Wednesday December 28, 2005

Day one at the Howard's Arms

For many years now we have toyed with the idea of staying in a nice pub or hotel over the xmas break. However few are open on xmas day and the costs are high. So this year we did a compromise and took two days off just before the big day. We stayed at the excellent Howard Arms in the pretty Cotswold village of Ilmington. We drove straight to the pub on our first day and checked in. We had decided to do a walk from the village to the nearby village of Ebrington a walk of seven miles. The walk started at the other end of Ilmington from the pub and for the first time ever we walked through the village. Previous visits (two) it has always been wet and not allowed us to explore the village. The path we took to the starting point of the walk passed pretty houses all well away from any roads and adjacent to a stream. A steep walk up a grassy hill then followed, the top of which would have given us lovely views had it not been so overcast. The path then levelled out and we soon passed Foxcote house a early 18th century building.

Just after the house was a flat field with an air sock. A car track could be seen going to the centre of this field. The Sherlock Holmes inside me decided this was the owners usual way of arriving - by helicopter. We carried on and soon entered the village of Ebrington. There is always the danger when doing these walks when you only pass through one village isthat the source of refreshement you are relying on may be closed and we knew from the size of the village there was only one pub. It was open but in the process of changing hands so there was no food of coffee. After this stop we then left the village and started a long climb up through several fields. Again a view of nearby Chipping Campden church eluded us because of the weather. We were heading onto Ilmingston down and our path was now of tarmac towards a radio mast which marks the highest point in the county of Warwickshire at 856ft/261m. We the followed this track for 1.25 miles now downwards. After this we turned right and here the age of our walking book had us lost but a bit of calculated guesswork had us back into the village of Ilmington where we passed its pretty church.

The church had a pretty Xmas tree on the top of its tower now lit as it was getting dark. We followed our original path back to the pub.

Tuesday December 27, 2005

A diesel to win Le Mans ?

The mega successful R8 sportscar that has been so successful at the Le Mans 24 hours race now has a brother powered by diesel. The R10 is a serious effort to win the race using a V12 engine developing over 650bhp. It has a 5.5 litre engine, the largest allowed in the LMP1 prototype rules. When the R8 first raced at Le Mans the three R8 cars finished P1/P2 and P3. It notched up five wins the last was this year. The car will be seen first at the Sebring 12 hours race the ALMS series opener in March. In the following year (2007) Peugeot will return to the race also with a Diesel powered car...

Friday December 23, 2005

Unsung heros

I think it is too easy to get carried away with how impressed you are with sports folks who break records, win medals, people who invent clever stuff and so on. For me the folks who just do their job and get on with it are heroes for many reasons. This is not an exhaustive list I am sure I will have missed out some folks who also deserve a mention..

Emergency services folks. All of them (including lifeboatmen) are called to get us out of trouble wether of our own making or not. I think they don't get paid a lot, work long and awkward hours and each of them must over their career be exposed to some pretty horrible experiences car crashes and so on. These folks really deserve our praise.

Utility workers, folks like dustmen, folks who sweep the roads, the people who put up the hated traffic cones and roadworks signs on busy roads. These jobs are dirty and dangerous.

Hospital workers including nurses, doctors and folks who clean the hospitals up cook the food etc. Again not well paid, long hours and the environment is not the nicest with sick people etc. I include here folks who work in nursing home for old folks etc

Air stewards. A glamorous job? I don't think so. If you speak to them even international flights they dont' get to stay long at the destination nowadays and wheeling trolleys back and forth between seats is not my idea of fun. I bet you get all sorts of pain in the neck customers and there you are stuck with them for anything up to eighteen hours..

Finally the folks who work in war ravaged areas and relief efforts after natural disasters/famine. These guys are putting their lives at risk to offer help to those suffering in these areas of the world

Of course in this festive season a lot of these folks will be working keeping these essential services running. They of course deserve our thanks for doing so.

Meanwhile I am now off for Xmas and will be back on Wednesday 28th December the first day back at work in the UK after the Xmas break. Happy Xmas all !

Thursday December 22, 2005

A dedicated man The second story in the omnibus I wrote about before is now read. This one is called A Dedicated Man. It is nowhere as good as its companion story Gallows View it is a bit slow and pedestrian for me. The story has Banks trying to find the murderer of a well liked man who is found dead partly buried in a dry stone wall in Yorkshire. As usual Bank finds himself fancying one of the main people in the book, this time a suspect. Only two murders and two many suspects. But despite this I am still looking forward to the other two omnibus books of Peter Robinson in the pile of unread books in the house.

Crime and consequences

Recent events in our village has led me to reconsider the threat of crime to ourselves and property. I think until you become a victim of crime you don't really think about it in the way you should - a bit like smoke alarms. We live in a quiet village, of course crime is there and our neighbourhood watch sends us a newsletter where crime events are listed in the area. I have made an effort to make our house less of a target the side gate triple locked, burglar alarm, replacement windows with locks etc. However an escalation of criminal acts has made us both reconsider how we protect ourselves.

Basically someone down our road was sitting in their house. The front door was unlocked. A burglar came in went to the kitched grabbed the purse of the owner and was out of their in seconds. An opportune event but clearly well planned. I then looked at how we leave things unlocked and open. Very often I used to get the car out and leave it unlocked ( not with the key in the car!) I no longer do this. Although the back door is behind the locked gate someone could with the help of a mate get a lift over the gate and they would be in the house as we used to leave the back door unlocked until we went to bed. We no longer do. We used to leave car keys, wallets and purses downstairs when we went to bed, no we take them upstairs. The local police have furnished us with UV pens and offered a house visit to advise on security matters..

So is this right to do this? Should we not be able to live our lives and leave doors unlocked as we did twenty, thirty years ago? Some of our friends would say we are wrong and acting like this means we are letting the criminals change our lives for the worst. But I disaagree. I never stopped going to the pub on Sundays even if it meant I was walking home in the dark and I could be mugged. I think however for a little careful behaviour you can avoid having your house robbed even though you never want someone else to be burgled instead of you...

Wednesday December 21, 2005

Last of the shopping

Well last night we went shopping for the last time before Xmas. We will not like many of the UK population go during Xmas eve and join the crowds. Supermarkets are the worst. People seem to buy tons of food fearing a famine in the UK or the fact that no shop will ever open again. I expect loads of food is wasted. We have bought sensible amounts of food that will keep us going over the Xmas break. We have bought things that will keep fresh and will be able to avoid a last minute shop to get items that only keep fresh for a day or two. It is easier for us as there are no kids or family visiting. Just two of us. One year when shopping on Xmas eve in Oxford the jostling crowd of trollies by the tills got too much for my wife and she walked out - suggesting as she left that I follow her. I nearly did. It was like a herd of wilderbeast. Xmas is meant to be enjoyable I am told. Keeping away from stores until after Xmas will ensure it is for us.

Bleak House

Over the last few weeks we have been glued to the TV on Thursday and Friday nights. Charles Dickens story Bleak house. On those evenings a thirty minute 'soap' style episode was shown then repeated on the Sunday. This followed the way most Dickens novels were published. Bleak House was published in ninteen monthly installments, each containing thirty pages of text and two illustrations by Phiz . Each cost one shilling, except for the last, which was a double issue and cost two. Central to the story is an ongoing court case of where a pot of money should go when the will governing it was unclear. The book is very typical of a Dickens story set in the cruel times of Victorian England. Back to the TV series the cast list was magnificant and the best player must be Charles Dance who played the evil Mr Tulkinghorn a lawyer. Sadly he got bumped off near the end.

Other actors which I must mention: (not the full list of actors) Denis Lawson as John Jarndyce, he looked after Richard and Ada (who might get their inheritance from the court case sometime..) and their friend/companion Esther. They all live in bleak house.

Esther Summerson (Anna Maxwell Martin) companion of Richard and Ada. Her mothers identity is revealed in the story. The funny thing about the casting is that everyone says "oh how you look like xyz" where in fact she bears no resemblance to the person who ends up being revealed as her mother !

Richard Carstone (Patrick Kennedy), a flighty chap who tries his hand at many different jobs before sticking in the army for a little longer than his other careers.

Ada Clare (Carey Mulligan) Richard's bride to be.

Harold Skimpole (Nathaniel Parker) a nasty chap who says the most unfortunate things you could think of. He lives as a guest in Bleak house but I would have thrown him out. But he played the part very well.

Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson) , the mother of Esther; Gillian was excellent at this part.

Sir Leicester (Timothy West) Stuffy pompous chap who havs no idea of his wife's dark secret.. Bucket (Alun Armstrong) snuff sniffing, wine slurping policeman who investigates among other things Tulkinghorn's murder

Rosa (Emma Williams) maid of lady deadlock who is 'let go' much to Tulkinghorn's annoyance.

Clamb (Tom Georgeson) clerk for Tulkinghorn. Guppy (Burn Gorman), a clerk who tries to make a bit on the side by finding information for Lady Deadlock but ends up being thwarted by Smallweed and Tulkinghorn.

Smallweed (Phil Davis), a cripple who is nearly as evil as Tulkinghorn, after he is set down in his portable chair the first thing he says is "shake me up xyx!"

As usual in dicken's stories their is plenty of tragedy and nasty things going on but the there is a nice ending to it that I won't reveal. Loads of other folks played smaller parts like Warren Clarke, Pauline Collins etc. If you want to see it all again or missed any or all of it a DVD set is available and on Thursday 29th December 2005 on BBC Four the whole series is to be shown again.

Tuesday December 20, 2005

At last a seond pint is donated

After a false start when the mobile lorry came to our campus and I could not donate having recently had an infection I finally got to donate my second pint of blood. I had to go to the local village hall which was full of people beds and staff extracting the red stuff by the bucketfull. It was as painless as last time and also as Chris told me the first time you give blood you can be wobbly afterwards but the second and subsequent times as long as you are careful there are no aftershocks. The staff were brilliant the lady who popped the needle in called me a bonny lad which was very nice. The National Blood service try and build stocks up over this time of year so if you can, do give them a ring and donate over the holiday period. The number to call is 0845 7 711 711.Do something wonderful and give an extra Xmas present this year. It will not cost you a penny.

Drinking and not driving

A couple of things happened to remind me of an event many many years ago. I have always held the opinion that drinking any amount of alcohol and driving are mutally exclusive. But many years ago I was a hypocrite. Although I would not drive after drinking I would allow myself to be driven by someone who had and was most likely over the limit....

So in a company many many years ago where the tradition was to go out drinking at lunchtimes and then drive something happened one afternoon that is still a sobering thought many years later. I am not proud of any of this and only tell it in the hope it might change the behaviour of one person. We had been out drinking, having had a least as much as four pints per person. We were then in a transport cafe having tea and something to eat. I never found out why but the police came into the cafe. Asked who was driving the two brightly coloured vans in the car park. The two drivers of our foursome were breathalysed and failed the test. We were all bundled into a police van and taken to the nearby station. Things are a bit unclear now but we were locked in cells in pairs. I had an idea that running on the spot would burn off the alcohol. We tried to speak to our friends through the walls. I had to go to the toilet, I was taken to the gents and remember to this day standing in a inch deep puddle of urine relieving myself. Eventually we were all to be retested. Two of us ( including me) passed. We all had to make statements. We were advised what to say. The two people that passed the test had decided they were going to drive as the other two were over the limit etc etc.

In reflection the police knew that in our company there was this issue with drink driving. They did not want to go through the bother of arresting us. I think they thought a bigger impact would be the word going around about our internment etc etc that afternoon. It certainly changed the habits four of us.

So what reminded me of this?

While driving through a village a few weekends ago I was stopped by a policewoman. She caught me doing 33 MPH in a 30MPH area. I wound down my window and she said she was not interested in me breaking the limit by three MPH. It was a tool to allow her to check my alcohol level. She tested me and I came out fine ( as I expected)

The second thing that reminded me of this event is that fact that a survey showed the despite the usual campaigns people are still happy to drink and drive despite the consequences to others. Things are better than years ago attitudes have changed. I don't have the answers but believe me that afternoon in a cell hardened my already firm belief in the fact drinking and driving do not mix. Also consider how you could face the rest living the rest of your life having killed or maimed somebody...

Monday December 19, 2005

Alonso to make shock switch

Just read that Alonso will join Mclaren in 2007. I think its a smart move by the Ronster. He is now covered if the monster fails to deliver as he did in 2005. He is also covered if Kimi jumps ship to Ferrari for lots more wonga. At Renault they will be saddened but they have a rising star ready to join them in 2007. Heikki Kovalainen joins them to test in 2006 and had all but been guarenteed a race seat in 2007 before todays announcement.

Two walks by a modern day battlefield

Make no mistake this battle was hard fought. The modern day battle was to prevent large amounts of woodland and farmland being swallowed up by the Newbury A34 bypass. The town has always needed a route to take the busy A34 away from it and when the decision came to build it, the protesters did a good job of delaying things. But the road is now built and the area peaceful again. A saturday night party at the Dundas Arms in nearby Kintbury had us do two walks in the Newbury area. Both had us cross the busy A34 road but on both occasions we were soon away from the busy road and its traffic noise. The first walk had us start in East Isley. The name comes from the Saxon Hilde-laeq - meaning battlefield. The village was once known as Market Isley in the days when it was an important centre for sheep sales. The fairs here received a charter from James 1st in the 17th century and discounting London's Smithfield became the biggest sheep market in England. We had lunch at the Swan pub, on its wall it had a decorative plaque where more East Isley history was revealed. The village claims to be the site of the Battle of Ashdown in 871 where Alfred defeated the danes. The plaque says that on market days twenty four taverns were open, many would have been houses converted for that purpose over the fair time. The walk took us out of the village and under the busy A34 road. The first half of the walk was over large fields thankfully of grass but with a bitter wind in our faces. Half way round we turned around and enjoyed the walk as it went into woods, under tunnels of trees and beside hedges. All these offered much needed shelter from the cold wind. In the hedges was lots of Old man's beard with its seeds producing a lovely display of silver. We then followed the path back to the village and then drove the Kintbury and checked into our room. Here is a picture of the pub.

The Dundas Arms did an excellent meal we had a starter of dressed dorset crab, followed by fillet of beef 'en croute' with much liquid refreshment. In the morning a strong frost left the air temperature still below freezing as we drove to Wash Common just outside Newbury for our second walk of the weekend. The first battle of Newbury was held here in 1643. The two sides were Charles 1st with his royalist army against the army of parliament led by the Earl of Essex. 6,000 men died during the battle. We followed the road out into the countryside from the pub, and soon passed over a footbridge over the busy A34 again. This time the views were better, more trees, smaller fields and slightly hillier. There was plenty of frost on the ground and the ground itself was frozen solid after the harsh overnight frost. We followed the path as it went further away from the A34 and then turned around to go back to the footbridge. A quick pub lunch in the Gun pub and we headed home.

Friday December 16, 2005

Nuts

Nuts in moderation are very good for you. It is one of the Xmas/winter foods I have always enjoyed. Brazil nuts are my favourite, it is great when you shell one and it comes out whole. Hazel nuts ( or cob) nuts are my second favourite - these seem more likely to be bad than other nuts and harder to spot bad ones. Next must be the walnuts, a weird shape nut once you shell them but very tasty. Last on my nut list is almonds. Usually the devil to shell. I suspect the nuts are treated to make shelling them easier. Of course all these can be bought shelled but this is bad as shelling them slows down the rate of consumption!

Peter Robinson Gallows view

I bought three omnibus editions of Peter Robinson books and this story is the first I have read from those books. It features Banks his policeman who has recently moved from the wicked South to Yorkshire. The story is set much earlier than the introductory story I read here he is still married and his children are young. As with the other book several crimes are being investigated, a peeping Tom, a murder and a series of breakins. During the story Banks ends up working alongside a analyst to help them profile the criminals. After a late drinking session with her Bank's is nearly tempted, a great comment on having affairs is quoted from Paul Newman:

Excellent quote from Paul Newman "why go out for a hamburger if you can get steak at home?" to which some wit replied "what if you want pizza?"

Anyway the case is solved and it was a good read. The second story in the book now awaits..