Summer of 2009

With no trip to China this year due to the worldwide recession we have spent the last few months catching up with friends and relatives.

These events began in June when we attended the wedding of our long standing friends' daughter, Rachel, to Ben. They had chosen 'The Old Gate House' as theira venue located in Old Malton, a small town in the vale of York. This building was once the entrance to Malton Castle which has long since disappeared and is now a small hotel. It has kept its character and the ceremony took place in a small room with a Minstrel Gallery where their friends had an excellent view whilst family were seated downstairs. After the formalities we all ventured out into the brilliant sunshine to enjoy a glass or two of bucks fizz and sample some delicious canapés. Then it was time for photos, the professional photographer being a forensics photographer and most of us thought would he be better taking pictures with the subjects laid on the ground and a white

line drawn around the shape?!

His female assistant came up with some good ideas such as getting all the ladies to form a horsehoe shape line and pretend to do the 'conga' on the front lawn. High heels proved a problem as some of the ladies began to sink into the grass so trying to co-ordinate us took a lot of patience as we all helped each other deal with the sinking feeling!

Mid afternoon it was time to head back inside to listen to the speeches, which were hillarious, before tucking into a three course meal. With the weather continuing to be hot and sunny we were all once again outside to be joined by other guests who had been invited to the evening's party. One of Ben's colleagues plays in a band and they had agreed to perform at their wedding. With excellent music and a really happy relaxed atmosphere everyone danced the night away. The older generation retired around mid-night whilst the bride and groom remained in the bar with their contemporaries singing along to the music, which the barman kept turning down so as not to annoy the guests. As soon as he turned his back needless to say the sound was turned up again!

Breakfast next morning and everyone was still on form and the weather was still superb. We had time to wander around the outer gardens before leaving at lunchtime. Ben and Rachel decided to hold a barbeque at their home in the afternoon for those that wanted to attend as they were not going on honeymoon until later in the week. This lovely hot weather held out for many days and for once it really was a blazing June.

We rejoined the bowling club and I became involved in competitive bowling which seemed to take over my life in the forthcoming weeks. I was asked to play for the East Coast Ladies Team taking part in a large competition in the Leeds area. Again the weather was kind to us on the longest day of the year and our sweatshirts and waterproofs were not needed. Despite good bowling by the team we didn't progress beyond the first round. On reflection this wasn't a bad thing as the rounds were played at different locations, and as we didn't finish our round until 4pm, it would have been a very long day if we had been fortunate to progress to the final. Throughout our summer bowling season I can recall only three occasions when the weather has been wet, but again I was lucky not to be playing on two of those and on the last occasion I was on and off the green as the heavy rain began to fall. It was then time for me to head into the club house and help serve the refreshments to the rest of the players.

Beginning of August Keith's Mum celebrated her 90th birthday. Members of her family gathered at our house, including a niece from France and her two brothers and their wives from the Norfolk area. Again it was a lovely day so we could get out into the garden. It had been a great surprise to her as we had said we would collect her and perhaps have a cup of tea and a slice of cake. Some of the family were concerned that she would suffer a heart attack at seeing so many people waiting to greet her as she entered the front door to our somewhat out of tune rendition of 'Happy Birthday'!

The next day Keith and I headed to a short break in the Oxfordshire area. We have discovered a small Inn close to the River Thames just outside the village of Eynsham some 5 miles north of Oxford. 'The Talbot', named after a spotted dog similar to a Dalmation, is a very old long building with a bar and a small restaurant. The recently built high standard accommodation has views over a small stream, a field of cows and finally Eynsham locks on the Thames. Therefore it is a very popular place not only with the locals, due to the hospitality of landlord Trevor, but boaters and across the toll bridge visitors to a small caravan and camping site. (We discovered this place on a visit last year to our friends in Surrey.)

It was late afternoon when we checked in having made a stop at 'The Battlefield Railway Line' in Leicestershire. This is a private line running for approximately 5 miles alongside a canal. Entering the Victorian station entrance to obtain platform tickets as we had just missed a trip on a steam train I was somewhat surprised to see a large ancient advert for a day trip to Bridlington of all places! Looking round a small museum brought back many memories of the times I visited signal cabins with my father, who worked for British Rail until his death in 1981. After our picnic stop we continued our journey to visit hillside gardens near Banbury. Having negotiated our way down a long winding narrow road we found these private gardens were closed and with no where to turn around Keith had to reverse until he found a suitable turning place. If only I had read the literature earlier I would have discovered these gardens are closed on a Saturday! Some other time perhaps.

Sunday we had arranged to meet up with the 'Kettering Wrinklies'. These are our aged Aunt and Uncle who discovered the joys of computing in their early eighties. Now we keep in regular touch and try to see them as often as possible on our travels. We went out for a light lunch to what was once the village post office in Weekley. Since the post office closed the owners have turned the thatched building into a lovely tea room with colourful gardens and only 5 minutes drive from the 'Wrinklies' home. Tea time we returned to Eynsham passing lots of vintage cars en route. We wondered where they had all been and what had we missed.

Monday we caught an early bus, well early for us, into Oxford. With a bus stop outside the pub we saw no reason to take the park and ride. The bus terminated in the centre of the city almost opposite the Tourist Information Centre where we could obtain a map of the city and begin our exploration. As the day progressed the weather deteriorated somewhat and I wished I had taken a sweater with me. The cool weather didn't deter us as we had lots of wonderful architecture of the numerous Universities and buildings to look at, plus time for the Botanical Gardens by the river

where people were enjoying the boating on the backwaters of Oxford. We had been told by one of the 'Talbot' pub regulars to take to the back streets as well as the main thoroughfare and on doing this found a very old pub for lunch. We were surprised at the number of tourists who came in just to take a photo and then disappear back into the streets! For once I kept my camera out of sight.

We found ourselves looking at the shops in the Victorian indoor market along with lots of foreign visitors. The cake decorating establishment with large windows, and the modellers sitting at the bench behind, gave a good view of their work. Today they were making models of students in cap and gown presumably to sit on top of their graduation cake. Behind the modellers one member of the staff was cutting different sized circles from an enormous rectangle of chocolate sponge cake. I could have stayed longer but Keith was getting bored of this particular shop.

Late afternoon we returned to the Inn and after our meal we spent the evening in the company of the locals and a couple from Ripon who were down on business. Such a great evening resulted in much discussion with Trevor about staging a weekend of golf plus shopping for the women. Despite the fact we told him we only played it on the Wii he said we would enjoy playing it for real - we don't think so! It was a late night.