Short version: Heat. Books. Pool. Wine. Food.
Due to the vagaries of getting a cheap flight, I had to get up on Saturday morning at about the hour I would normally be heading to bed on a Friday night, but that's a small price to pay. After a couple of minor panics as to where my wallet was (right under my nose) and whether the bus into Oxford would arrive in time (it did), the rest of the trip was rather uneventful. Dad picked me up from the airport and we got to the house just in time for me to drop off my bags before it was off to market to buy food and (more importantly) for Mum to look at the annual sale of English-language books.
This is the first time I've visited the house when the swimming pool has been open for business, so I took full advantage of it. Saturday was best for this as my sister was still there - we got to regress to childhood by battling for control of the inflatable dinghy and lilo. Much of the rest of the week I spent in a chair or lounger, armed with my iPod and a considerable number of books. The weather was variable - mostly hot (we're talking over 35°C in the shade - almost 100°F), with the occasional thunderstorm. The other important ingredients of a French holiday are the food and the wine. These I had in abundance - the local wines are quite good and very reasonably priced, and there's always plenty of good food to eat, both in and out.
It wasn't all lounging around though - apparently it was decided that I needed to take at least some exercise. On the Thursday we took a walk to a restaurant for lunch - this bit was fine, we made good time from where we parked the car and in fact reached our destination ahead of schedule. 5 courses and a carafe of wine later (€12 per head - simple, but good) we headed back. Alas, Dad lead us astray somewhere along the line and we ended up Lost In Mirkwood, complete with giant-spider webs. Eventually we found the Elf-King's Party Palace - a small clearing on the side of the hill with a semi-circle of stones and logs around a fireplace, a dome-shaped wicker structure and a spring feeding into a pool with steps down into it. The path up from there lead us out of the forest and past the frame of a large wigwam. Most peculiar, but from there we were able to find our way back to the car.
After that, it was mostly back to the lounging, bar the occasional battle of wits with Mum (2-Nil to the Telegaph general knowledge crossword, I scored 382-379 point victory in Scrabble, Mum won the Cluedo and we won a game apiece at Trivial Pursuits) and a bit of star-gazing (very little light pollution makes of an excellent view of the night sky). Alas, all to soon it was time to head for home, despite the best efforts of the Evil Robot Petrol Station of Doom (which refused to dispense any diesel). Arrival into Gatwick was a bit odd though - we came in on a normal approach pattern then did a steep climb just above the airport before coming round for the actual landing. Strange.
This week I've been back to the grindstone before flying off to Chicago on Friday.
August 11 2004, 20:10:39 UTC 16 years ago
Nice short version. It's like the three second
"we got to regress to childhood" It's not like you had far to go :P
And if I were a movie producer I would so commission "Lost In Mirkwood" as a film.
Yay for winning scrabble - is that the one which doesn't make a good pillow, or was that Trivial Pursuits? (I suspect the second, because I seem to remember using the 'AM LEARNING ANSWERS BY OSMOSIS' argument being employed - which, incidentally, is what I actually sank to during ICT revision -.- Am not going to check. That would be lame. Am not, am not, am not.)
Have fun in Chicago - see you when you get back, and give my loff to Morri :) <333
August 11 2004, 20:28:53 UTC 16 years ago
-.-