A little jaunt to Oxford

After a subdued sleep stop over in the small Lancashire town of Preston (which is pretty much just famous for birthing Andrew Flintoff), we made our way south along the M6 towards Oxford to meet up with my brother Brad and sister in law, Lynn to spend a couple of days before we embark on our 9 country tour.

Our little Preston hotel (the Holiday Inn) fortunately came complete with a gym. Still nursing my badly sprained ankle, I was restricted to weights and Jamie decided he would join me so he could keep an eye on me to make sure I didn't do anything stupid. I spent most of the time educating Jamie on good dumbbell technique as apparently the only thing that accountants lift are their brains. That was bloody evident.

After we finished our workout and gorged ourselves on free buffet breakfast, we jumped on the motorway to make our way south. How do I even make a post about driving exciting? We listened to some sweet sweet Ace of Base (all that she wants IS another baby), completed all the stuff quizzes with a highest mark 14/15 - woooooo, Jamie read me random facts about Finland, missed a turn off which added another 30 minutes to an already long and tedious journey and caused me to lose my shit and nearly got pinned by a truck. Also it has been discovered that the Brits seem to have a strong dislike of indicators, speed limits and just good driving practice in general.

Anywho, we finally made it to Oxford and went straight over to check out the family crib. We quickly discovered that their flat was bigger than ours in London which made us super jealous. Brad and Lynn stay in a place called Summertown which has the biggest M&S food I've ever seen (which again invoked more jealously) and is 14 minute bike ride to town. After a quick catch up, we went out to a small Nepalese restaurant near the centre of town. Parking was absolutely atrocious, and, after a long day of driving - navigating narrow residential roads in the pouring rain where lines in the road could not be seen and only had parking for local residents, turned me into a monster. After driving around and around for what seemed like hours, A park was finally right outside the restaurant. Fortunately, after the parking debacle, the food was delicious and the restaurant continually brought us food we didn't order. Brad, who has a reputation for being a "little bit" stingy was in freebie heaven, telling Jamie not to argue with the waiter if he insisted on giving us free food.

The night ended by dropping Brad and Lynn off to their awesome little flat and us making our way to the other side of Oxford to stay in our little AirB&B for the night to get a good sleep before heading to the Cotswolds the next day.

Cankle update: swelling has gone down but more brusing - see photo below
Phone update: phone has still not arrived in UK, doubt it ever will 😢
Mojito update: no mojitos have yet been consumed on this tripRead more