Witney Four Pillars Hotel Oxford

With time rapidly dwindling I went down to Banbury way this afternoon to visit my brother et famille before I leave, taking the opportunity to say goobye to two young nephews - one of whom was able to appreciate some of the implications of what I am doing, "But what if you get sick?" he asked. :-)

Back up to Stoke in the late evening. Last day of preparations tomorrow.

We arrived home from Scotland on the Saturday evening, about 11p.m. We sorted out the heating etc and went to bed. Kath and Ruan were coming for a visit on the Sunday. They arrived about mid day. Willie was away playing golf with friends. Willie arrived about 7p.m. on the Monday night with Sid. We all had dinner and a chat. I was working all the week except the Monday and ...

Made it back to Oxford at about 9pm yesterday and goodness it was cold waiting at Thornhill! Shock to the system after all the sunshine. I think we were better prepared though than the short and flip flop wearing Aussies on our plane... not sure what they were thinking with the choice of attire. Slept till 6am and now fighting the need to sleep again. As this is the last entry we have one last thing to say: NEW ZEALAND IS AWESOME!! The End

... live and work. It overlooks the plains where the Civil War was fought and was built after the war in 1750. It had a lovely lounge in which we had a drink and then drove back and did our packing.







We walked around to the local for a drink by the fire and then ordered Thai food.

... rolls from a French patisserie for lunch. We got back to Stratford about 3 pm and read a book for a few hours. We went to the "Dirty Duck", a Black Swan pub for dinner. Had a great day – love walking the public footpaths and plan to do lots more in the future.

Brad called & woke me up at 6.30 am... looked outside and there was snow on the cars and rooves.... so pretty. Today was 3 degrees but minus 3 with the wind chill. Stephen and Michele had things to do today so we were entertaining ourselves. We had a lazy start and Nathan did some homework. It was freezing out today and so cold that Nathan just wanted ...

Woke up early again and it started to snow & was 0 degrees! Had a lazy start to the day. Nathan had a huge breakfast – 3 pain au chocolat, 1 apple, 1 mandarin, 1 piece of toast with an egg!








Today was our hiking day and we drove 1 hour to the village of Bibury ...

... was used to create electricity. We then walked down to the boathouse on the River Avon. We had a great time and really enjoyed it all.













Afterwards we wandered around the town and found a tearoom because Nathan was dying of cold and needed a hot chocolate. It's a pretty town – some ...

... and ducks and beautiful big old trees and willows, past the Shakespeare Theatre up to the locks and then into town past lovely stores, pubs, Shakespeare's birthplace and lovely Tudor buildings .










We stopped at the Crabtree & Evelyn Tearoom for a hot drink. Tried a warm apple juice with cinnamon – bit ...

So, we have been offered placements with the Cambodian Dept. of Environment and will be staying in Kompong Thom in Cambodia for 2 years though VSO. This means leaving everything (apart from dried chillies) and starting from scratch... Well the planning had to start sooner or later. Ever the consultants we have opted to become total project managers and have, I am afraid to admit ...