Titles Are Over-rated.

One thing that I really really don't like is being sworn at. I am okay with swearing in general conversation and whatever, but it's not okay with me to be sworn at. I really don't appreciate it and can rarely find an acceptable excuse for it. It's really not necessary and should be discouraged.

In other news I am in the old university city of Oxford at the moment and can relate to you that circumstances of the Musgrave Tour of the Old Country are starting to degenerate a little bit. Whilst it is still all very interesting and whatever, I, and the other members of the crew, am starting to get a bit over looking at lots of old shit. It's all new, but it's starting to lose a bit of its exciting-ness if that's a word. If that's not a word I just made it up and it's now in use so deal with it. I think that everyone is starting to get a little tired, a little sick of our own company and a little bit bored with what's going on. In the last couple of days a routine has started to emerge, and it's one that isn't really going down to well.

An average day starts with us waking up after not getting enough sleep because of people snoring and not being in our own beds. From there we go down stairs and eat too much for breakfast. Every breakfast so far has involved bacon, eggs, toast, tomato, sausage, tea and sometimes baked beans. This is not good for long trips in the car. It hasn't been sitting too well in any of our bellies. We get in the car, drive for about an hour or so, often backtracking down a couple of roads (this isn't getting lost, it's just seeing a bit more scenery. After the hour we get out, have a bite to eat even though we aren't hungry and then get back into the car. We get somewhere old around lunch time and head out into the old cities and proceed to look at some old shit. Sometimes Stuart and I lose Dad, but mainly we stick together. We then have some sandwiches for lunch and get back into the car. Once in the car we head for a village or somewhere to pull up stumps. Sometimes we have a look at some other old stuff. Then begins the adventure of finding a place to stay for the night.

The criteria for an inn is that the room must sleep three and be reasonably priced. This normally takes about an hour. Once we find a place we head in, Dad whinges about there being too many stairs in England and we have a bit of a break for an hour or too. We generally have some cheese and biscuits or something and Dad looks for some coke to have some scotch with. Generally we don't find any.

Once we've become a bit more civilised we venture out again and find a pub for dinner and a couple of pints. After this we retire to the room and sleep. Then we wake up and do it all over again.

Now, I am probably whinging a bit here myself, but it's wearing thin. Now that that's out I can tell you a bit of detail about what's been going down.

After the last post we found a pub in Bath and had a reasonable enough meal. This pub was called The Saracen's Head and was actually a watering hole of Charles Dickens' when he was around. Apparently we are only 200 hundreds years off having a beer with him. In this pub we were talking to one interesting fellow who, after befriending us decided that we were actually good enough mates to show us a movie on his phone. This clip was of a pig having it's head cut off and spasming for a minute or so. It really helped the digestion. Great quality picture though.

We then headed up to another pub near our place and had a couple more beers. It was a very smoky pub which wasn't very cool and Dad got talking to some freak. He was a freak. When told that Dad was graduating from Cambridge he asked what college as apparently he was also an alumni. It had to happen.

The next day we went somewhere and looked at some old shit. I can't even remember where it was at the moment, I'm sure when I see the photos of Stuart and I standing in front of yet another cathedral it will come back to me. We finished up at Tintern Abbey which was actually quite lovely. This place was actually a ruin and pretty neat. It was on the banks of the river Wye and we stayed in some lovely accomodation there. It was probably the pick of them so far. Even had yoghurt for breakfast which was terrific. And I just remembered where we went that day too, Cardiff, so we were in Wales. They love their rugby down there. Wales really is some lovely countryside, rugged sort of stuff. I also forgot that we went to Cheddar Gorge which was quite impressive, we bought some cheddar from Cheddar too which was neat.

Today we went to Stratford Upon Avon which is the birthplace of Shakespeare. Is there an e on the end? I don't know. Unfortunately there was a bit of miscommunication here and Stuart and I lost Dad. It was a nice place I guess, lovely weather and lots of people making the most of the school holidays. After this we went to Warwick and looked at the castle there which is apparently the best example of a Medieval castle. This was pretty cool, lots of kids on holidays though. Stuart and I climbed the ramparts, Dad decided there were too many stairs. I guess 530 is quite a few. Now I am in Oxford and have gone on a bit of a walk to get some fresh air and solitude. I've had a bit of trouble navigating around as there are lots of bends and hidden streets and things like that. Someone is smoking reefer in the doorway to the cafe.

Just so you know Tim, I'll try my hardest.

Tomorrow we go to Cambridge and have a bit of time there for Dad's graduation ceremony so it will be nice to break the monotony. Get some rest or something. I'm sure there'll be too many bloody steps though.