Friday 12.04.2013

Stuff, or as someone famous may once have ,said, "Events, dear boy,events." *

So we could start with the weather - bitterly cold, constant snow showers, frozen water, icy roads: even the dogs preferred to see it out in front of the fire with the occasional foray out when the sun did make a brief, deceptively warm appearance.

And then there`s stuff, like work, lots of work, continuing preparation for the Big Trip (ETA a fortnight today)and events, resulting in a trip down south.

City walking: in the last two days while pounding the streets of the town of my birth I have seen:
- two dogs standing stoically in a small wooden bike trailer as their owner weaved in and out of the city traffic
- a quiet residential street glorying in the name Crotch Crescent, just down from Jack Straw`s Lane, the former, just to clear up any misunderstandings, named after William Crotch,a Professor of Music at Oxford from 1797, and the latter nothing to do with the erstwhile cabinet minister:
"Jack Straw is traditionally supposed to have been a farmer who lived on Headington Hill. Although many highwaymen were active in this area, no leader was ever found. However, when Jack Straw died, the cellar underneath his farm kitchen contained expensive goods stolen from merchants and travellers."

- and, wonderfully, this morning, a two-legged zebra with pink ears

Add to this the buildings: churches;




mosques; the impressive Centre for Islamic Studies;

fine old schools and colleges; wonky cottages tucked away down lanes that don`t look as if they`ve changed much since the middle ages......

and as usual I managed to sniff out a delightful deli and coffee shop, not in some trendy spot in town either but on a busy road two miles or so out, opposite a petrol station with an offo and a bookies for neighbours. Another of the advantages of walking: would have driven straight past it.

So despite the fact that this trip has had a serious purpose, and even knowing that the dogs were taken up Bennachie yesterday without me, there`s always time for good coffee and a walk, wherever you are.

Oh and if you want a book for the next train trip try Plugged by Eoin Colfer - he of Artemis Fowl fame. Fast-paced, wry thriller set in America but with an Irish hero. Great fun and a good quick read that doesn`t take itself too seriously.

* Might have been Harold Macmillan, if he actually said it.