Oddford

It's so easy to go pretty much anywhere from England, that sometimes it takes quite a conscious effort to go and see the amazing things which are just around the corner. I've also lived here for a while, so that natural proclivity to not go and see what's in the back yard may be starting to apply to me here just as it had in Australia.

This led to New Year's Resolution #187 - I've decided to pull my finger out and take a few weekenders around the place.

1st stop on Mission: Be a Better Tourist was Oxford. I had visited before, but only spent half a day. That's exactly what I did this time, but having already seen the major sites, I had more time to poke around and explore the place. It led me to finding such Oxford-esque quirks as the pub where our very own Bob Hawke set the Guinness world record for downing a yard-glass of beer, and spending an hour and a half watching the over-60s Oxford Real Tennis Doubles Championships. Don't knock it till you've tried it - and watching a game of Real Tennis (the precursor to the better-known Turf Tennis) is worth trying, simply because it is the most convoluted and idiosyncratic game I've come accross. I guess you'd expect that from something which was played by Henry VIII.

Taughtellini

Here's Laura rolling home-made tortellini. We had a great time turning the dining room into a pasta factory. Making the dough itself was great, messy fun, and once I eventually got the hang of Laura's secret italian techniques for rolling the stuff out, we were churning out little parcels in no time.

We hadn't been planning to make tortellini from the pasta, but a last minute filling cobbled together from a few things in the fridge (tortellini al frigo?) ended up coming out great - and there's nothing quite like tucking into a meal after it's taken you a couple of hours to make!

Falling behind

Here's a few colours from Hyde park this Autumn - proof positive of how behind I am in posting photos. On the plus side, it does mean I won't run out of them for a while - and it gives me time to think about where I'll get my next ones from... Stay tuned!

Once upon a time, there was a Danish Princess...

Estonia is a place full of surprises. As Tallinn, the capital, is well known in the UK as a good spot for a stag do, but not much more, finding out that it is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe was quite a welcome one. It does an incredible job of mixing this with a fantastic bar scene and some brilliant restaurants, many of which are housed in the old medieval buildings. It was incidentally under one of these that nestles one of the most fantastic, rambling cafés I've been in.

A short ferry ride from Finland, Estonia seems to have plenty of the quirkiness for which that country is well known - starting with the legend of how the city was founded. Displayed proudly on the first page of an official guide to the city, it is retold in quite a frank manner:-

"It is said that Talinn was founded when an inappropriate love formed between a Prince and Princess of Denmark. Their father, the King, resolved this by placing the Princess on a boat without a rudder. After days of travel, she landed on the coast of Estonia, where she established the city."

!!!

Silver lining

Every cloud has one - even when it's something which is causing the collective gnashing of millions of impatient sets of teeth - such as when the London tube goes on strike. It did mean I discovered the joys of walking to work across the Thames and through Covent Garden. After two days of perfect weather, I caved in and took my camera. The above is a forlorn riverside carousel and below the cables of one of the Golden Juilee footbridges.

Festivities

Festival time in London - above, Notting Hill Carnival aftermath and below, making... something... at Zimfest, the official party for Zimbabweans in London.

One of the few qualms I have with London, particularly in the summer when everyone is out making damned sure they use every second of sunshine they can, is that sometimes it simply feels like there's too much going on. No matter how full your weeknights, weekends and holidays are, there's always something you'll miss - I guess the key is just to accept the fact, and enjoy what you can, when you can.