Blogs from Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 9

Just when I was getting comfortable, I set off again for Europe, basically taking the same exact route as last time. Flight to Heathrow, train to London Paddington, train to Reading, train to Oxford. Landed at like 8:30 in the morning, and was in Oxford by noonish. Almost too easy, and really didn't have to think about much - moving around like a local almost. But, that horrible exhaustion set in with force in Oxford, where it really was the middle of the night to me, coming from the States. But I slogged through the day, setting up at Balliol College, in basically a giant room overlooking soccer, or football, fields. Nice place and comfortable. Today I gave my 20 minute or so talk to a group of like 20 people. Honestly, I'm very unsatisfied by ... read more

It's a small world, after all .... It's a small world, after all..... It's a small, small world! Well, if you believe the disney song .... but, it's all a matter of perspective. Sometimes it's too big and other times tiny and insignifcant, and then there are times that you cross time zones in a couple of weeks and feels like something in between. The reverse culture shock, after arriving in London made me laugh. All of a sudden seeing all of these "foreigners" in one space in all their different shapes and sizes. But, within an hour of arriving, familarity kicked in, and after an evening of spritzers with sally jones, by the time I arrived in Oxford, I was struggling to remember that I actually live in Malaysia. It took me an evening, and ... read more

18th JuneHi guysWe had the best time before we left London. We went to the Queens horse guard show at which ........wait for it.........the Queen was at. Chris and liz managed to secure the best seats so we were quite close to her. I am sure she gave us a thumbs up sign coz she was so glad we were there. Bath was so amazing, so historic and so interesting. After travelling through the beautiful countryside from historic Bath we arrived at Bristol. When we got there we literally bumped into two friends from Australia associated with our church whilst in the Broadmead shopping centre toilet in the middle of Bristol. We had popped in just for a look and there they were.......really freaky, then on arrival at our hotel we discovered that we had another ... read more

4 locks, 113 in total. A cold dull morning until the sun broke through about lunchtime, by which time we were moored on the outskirts of Banbury, a couple of hundred yards from Morrison's and about ¼ mile from the laundrette. We had motored to the background drone of the M40 and went under it twice. We stopped at Haddon's Farm shop – real diversification here with the shop, free-range pigs, camping facilities and also a set of moorings with water and electric hookups. We also made two children and their parents very happy by inviting them on board as we motored into a lock and then they were raised up. It was a win/win situation – they were really happy to be part of it all and we didn't have to close the lock gate ... read more

4 locks, total 102. A very different day's cruising in that many of the little mishaps that could happen actually did. Single-handed on the boat when I realised I had put the kettle on – the whistling grew in intensity and all I could do was go past all the moored boats to the lift bridge mooring when.... Fouled propeller number 1 – piece of an industrial quality fertiliser bag. Loss of steerage and power slowed me down considerably. A little later - fouled prop number 2 – fishing line. Jammed lock gate – couldn't completely open it and as these are narrow locks there just isn't room to manoeuvre round it. Had to call for help after we'd failed to whoosh through the obstruction. The Waterways chap came with 20 minutes of my phone call, ... read more