No Bourbon, 12 Pubs, 12 Beers

Hello again friends and relatives. I hope you are all fit and well. 2nd week at work was quite enjoyable again. Starting to feel part of the group now. I'm off to Edinburgh next week for 5 days so that should be good.

Saturday was the rescheduled sponsored walk day which was quite a laugh. 12 pubs and you're supposed to have a pint in each. I walked with Steve, the Griffin's landlord as he wanted to get a wriggle on and get back for the halloween night planned for Saturday evening in his pub. Plus neither of was sure of the route so we didn't fancy trying to find our way in the dark.

We all met up at 10am athe the Rose and Crown in Chipping Warden and set off around 11am. Next stop Griffin which was all of 3 minutes walk - feeling good already - made it this far. Then about a 2.5 mile jaunt through the countryside to the next one in Wardington. Hooky beer here. I'll cut a long story short but we only stayed as long as it took to have a beer given that it gets dark early here now but we made an exception at the next pub in Chacombe as they had Fuller's ESB here. Couldn't resist a brace. A short jaunt away we found ourselves in the next stop - a golf club - no real ale here - so Guinness was the order. Then on to Middleton Cheney about 3 miles away where there were 4 pubs in quick succession. I think we had London Pride in one, Eagle Ale in another and Spitfire in the last. Then the bit I was dreading - a 5 mile (8km) uphill slog back to Wardington. I just put my head down and marched as fast as I could as it (and I probably) was getting a bit murky. They'd set up a pitstop on this road where soup and sandwiches were on offer - a great idea. Was very relieved to get to Wardington and enjoy an Abbot Ale. Then back across country another 2.5 miles to arrive at around 7pm at The Rose in Chipping Warden for the final Hook Norton of the day. All up I believe 2000GBP was raised by about 25 of us. We only had 2 people ahead of us all day and we only saw the main group once or twice as we were leaving pubs 2 and 3 I think. Some of them have done this 12 times before so they had several beers and a long break in each pub. I found out on Sunday that some didn't make it back til after midnight. I may have left out some other pub details here as I'm sure there was a couple more but I should have made notes - weather was quite overcast but remained dry and fairly comfortable - even worked up a bit of a sweat on the trip uphill back to WardingtonThen on to Saturday evening - fancy dress halloween party in The Griff - quite a good night. Needless to say I slept through til 1pm on Sunday but pulled up feeling pretty good - just a few minor aches. Well, on into week 3 at work. Looking forward now to Bonfire Night on Nov 5th.

Will update you all again soon. Mum's doing quite well by the way.

Love to you all P

Week One

Well I got through the first week quite successfully. Travel to and from the office was quite painless and the M40 behaved itself. The journey took around 70 mins each way but is reasonably effortless. Spent most of the week just settling in and getting all the admin stuff done. Great bunch of people with a lot of time to help me. I've been familiarising myself with stuff I haven't seen for quite a while and learning new stuff every day.

The weekend was quite busy - Friday there was a birthday party for the pubs land lady and thankfully, the 12 mile/12 pub trek scheduled for Saturday was postponed til next week because of it.

Weather is definitely autumnesque now - winter in Oz really. The trees are all brown and the temp is round about 15C during the day - the weather guys here keep saying that the 'unusually mild' temps will hang around for a while. Apparently its warm for this time of year - my memory of winter here has faded because it feels cold to me already. One early morning journey this week was through torrential rain. But people still dong 90 mph+ on the freeway - scary.

Pleased to see that Australia duffed up England in the cricket although there was hardly a mention of it on the TV here.

That's it for now - not much news. Will update this next week.

Cheers

P

No Sleep til Uxbridge

Want to know how to take 3 hours to get 66 miles? Easy - come here and do what I did this morning starting at 0545hrs. My body clock has been in another timezone for the past several weeks as I've not had to wake up til it says so. Needless to say, after not being able to sleep til 2am, my 5am alarm call was a heart stopper. Anyway it restarted somehow and after performing morning ablutions, the epic journey began with my ride to Banbury station arriving on time. Thanks Ange. Cup of tea at Banbury station and after being relieved of 30 odd pounds (sterling) for a one way ticket, I began my railway experience. The journey from Banbury to London was a cinch - Virgin Rail train speeding along at 125 mph with no stop til Marylebone in London - about 75 mins I recall - the train was full of commuting zombies like me. I was thinking about all these people doing this every day - they must have a second mortgage to pay the fare. After arrival it was a tube train to Baker St, then another to Uxbridge station - this took around an hour - then 15 mins wait for a 25 minute bus ride to Stockley Park - my destination. Got there 15 mins early and the rest of the day was plain sailing.

As a new boy, I was expecting to be nailed to the wall (Ripping Yarns Style) or at least being baited in some English private school way for being "Aussie" but it was all very civilized. Spent most of the day filling out HR admin forms, getting myself sorted and meeting everyone - they seem a good bunch. Only one bloke asked me about who I'll be supporting in the Ashes - he was Aussie and it peeved him when I said that "I can't lose mate". Actually did some work in the afternoon which seemed to to please the new boss - a South Ifrican. Justified my first day.

Had a great drive home in the Audi they gave me, went to the pub for 2 pints, got the piss taken out of me cos I was wearing a suit and am now ready to flake. Got to get back in the local time zone so early night for me.

Up at sparrows fart in the morning and off to put some patches on a system for my first English customer.

Goodnight (yawn)

P

Last Day of Freedom

Sunday - my last day of freedom before embarking on my new job. I had a good few beers in the pub last night to celebrate. Good crowd in there. Landlord loves his music and has a really good music setup in there now. The only downside is that he loves Pink Floyd and Marillion (I'd forgotten that the latter even existed and certainly wish the former never did) . He plays them all too often - customers are often overheard asking for a knife to end it all. He keeps wanting me to go to an impending concert with him but I always think of an excuse. He's a great bloke who's hero is Basil Fawlty. He often has genuine Fawlty moments with customers which is hilarious.

Anyway, ever optimistic, I have ironed 5 shirts. However I'm dreading the journey to Uxbridge on Day 1. I left it too late to hire a car - none available anywhere so I have to use public transport. This involves getting a lift to Banbury at 0545hrs, getting a train to Marylebone, then 2 tube trains to Uxbridge followed by a bus to the office at Stockley Park - all up around 3 hrs to travel about 60 miles. They've assured me that I can take the car home Monday evening so it should be just the once. I'm hoping its not a Smart car or something.....

Well friends, not much else to report at the moment. The big charity walk is this Saturday, followed by an after party. Halloween, bonfire night and several birthday bashes are being planned so there will be some events coming up during the impending dreary late autumn. Weather, I must say has been surprisingly mild - 18 to 20 C most days - just one big storm came through this past week - almost tropical rainfall with heaps of thunder and lightning.

More soon

cheers

P

The Shed and Ed

Hello again loved ones and friends

After shed destruction and finding at least a ton of bricks, concrete posts and asbestos underneath it I manhandled the whole lot and made it disappear in a skip. Arms pumped up now - better than a gym workout....Brother Chris thinks that a loss of family heirloom, icon, "asset" and therefore inheritance has occurred. It was stuffed mate. Full of borers and spiders. Problem for you all now is that, due to my asbestos exposure today it may take longer to cremate me than you all expected. Enjoy a longer wake I say.

Eds back in the UK (again) for a family funeral and I hope to catch up with him this weekend.

Thrilled to hear from Mick in LA who has been listening to some live bands that we would have shared together if I'd been there. I urge you to check out his stories on his link below. I have my laptop with tons of music on it but I have to rely on the Sennheisers - miss my hifi...... It's a paradox that he is in that den of eniquity experiencing all bright lights, noise and all that goes with life in LA and I'm here in a (more than) 1000 yr old village where the only racket you hear is birds tweeting and church bell practice on Thursday evenings. Say G'Day from me Mick if you bump into Hank.

I'm increasingly anxious about living here again in England. (No surprise to some of you I'm sure) The job prospect and making some money is great now but it's not that important to what I really want - the onset of winter is bugging me. It (Winter) hasn't happened yet but it will soon. Its surprisingly mild but getting claustrophobicly dark very early. The grey clouds are just about missing the top of my head. Clocks change soon too which will make days feel shorter. I'm having flashbacks now to daylight ending just a few hours after it began and that always depressed me - one of my reasons for shifting in the first place. Might not be happy - will give it a shot though. Need to feel the sun on my face.

I am really happy though that Mum is doing well, I've seen it for myself and that the things she wanted doing round the place are pretty much done - she won't move from here and I see no reason for her to yet.

Met some great new friends here but I miss you all. I really have itchy feet to go somewhere but will stick it out.

Wish I could beam you all over for Christmas

love to you all

P

If You're Not going to San Francisco

Hello again devoted readers.

Still here in Blighty - no travel plans now. There were hurdles stacking up at every turn - It was very difficult to line up public transport that would get me to any airport at a reasonable time - even worse coming back on Sunday. I also didn't hear from Mick (not his fault - he's enjoying his own trip of a lifetime so was out of contact) til Saturday whether I had the green light at that end so by the time I would have got there on Monday or Tuesday I would need to leave on the Friday to get back here on time for my work start date - That, combined with 13 or so hours travel stacked up - So I canned that idea. Those who know Mick may want to catch up with his tales here - much more interesting and entertaining than mine I might add. http://thedobricstory.blogspot.com/

Instead? More work related forms arrived for me to complete - this time a heap of security questions. And Mum has found more jobs to do so that's good. Spent today demolishing an old garden shed. Looks like a San Francisco building doesn't it.... Next job - load it and its contents into a skip tommorrow. Then set up a compost area where the shed was. All very dull news but she is happy with all the jobs she's got done since I've been here.

Spoke to Pete - it was his 16th birthday on the 7th. Making enquiries for him to visit over the Christmas holidays sometime so that'll be good.

I may hire a car later in the week and travel off somewhere for a few days. Thinking of North Wales. Will keep you posted


Cheers

P

PS - winning conker of the 2004 conker championship in which Pete and I competed is still hanging in the Rose and Crown, Chipping Warden.

If You're Going to San Francisco

Hello all again. I've been wondering what to do with myself for the next 10 or so days given that I'll probably get no time off for a significant period of time after the 16th. A good friend of mine from Oz, Michael has been on vacation touring California so I'm pondering catching up with him there for a week. Could see my brother Chris as well as he lives in that neck of the woods.

I have made myself available to do a sponsored walk to raise funds for a Cancer charity here in a couple of weeks time. Its a 12 mile (20km) cross country loop which should be a great day out - there are one or two hurdles though - 12 pubs on the walk and they all have to be visited. Apparently it can take 14 hours to complete the walk - so I'm now training for this double challenge by walking to the local pub every night. I'm waiting for a link to be sent to me on this and I'll include that here later for your interest

No other news at the moment except there is a distinct feeling of winter coming on here now. There are heaps of conkers on the trees and there is a lot of talk about the impending festivities on Guy Fawkes night (Nov 5). Weather is absolutely foul. Rain wind and getting cold.

More news if/when it happens

P

Paul Gets a Start Work Date

Recieved a phone call today from Aspect and they've asked me to start on Oct 16. This would ordinarily be very good news but it's been so long since I worked, I'm slightly concerned that I may have forgotten how the heck I do the job! Someone said not to worry about it, it'll be like riding a bike - so I'm off to the shops to get some Lycra gear....

Might go and visit someone for a while now that I have a target date and some time up my sleeve. Anyone want a visitor?

More soon.

Cheers, P

Aspect come to the party

Well, Eddie arrived again on Friday from the Isle of Man so I drove through wind, hail, lightning and at times zero visibility on the M1 freeway to collect him from Luton Airport. Idea was to travel to Brands Hatch, Kent to watch the British Superbikes. Unfortunately though, Ed's brother in law died during the week so we travelled, with our respective hangovers down to Welling (our old home town where she still lives) on Saturday afternoon after a Friday evening of sophistication and intellect at the Griffin Inn, Chipping Warden.

Had a nice Saturday lunch with Mum and Ed at The Castle Inn, Edghill. See Pictures.

Driving through London Saturday evening was a nightmare - took us nearly 4 hours to travel 90 miles - we eventually got to Welling close to 10pm - we got a home delivery curry (staple diet here) drank a couple of Fullers and that was that. Went past our old house and school in Wickham St for a spot of nostalgia.

Sunday morning - race day - bright sunshine and pouring rain at the same time. Weather forecast looked bleak, so rather than repeat the drenching experiences of 1984 and 1985 (I think) GP's, we decided to go back to CW and watch it on the TV instead. After another 3 hour journey, tucked into a Sunday roast at the pub and watched the race. Good move as the weather was foul.

On the job offer front, an envelope was delivered on Saturday containing a written offer of employment (subject to references) so that was good news. Spent today (Monday) snivelling to my referees. No start date yet though. Also took Ed back to Luton for his flight back to the Isle of Man.

Incidentally, anyone reading this who is thinking about going to next years TT should get a wriggle on as the ferry is booking up fast.