Our beautiful Old English Sheepdog, Oscar, went to the beauty parlor today.  He is all fluffy and white again.  He so loves being bathed and comes away in the happiest of moods and jumps around like a puppy, when he's actually a retiree (10 years is old for such a big dog). 

While I was waiting I went to a coffee shop and ordered a coffee and a toasted sandwich.  After half an hour I was starting to get scratchy, but had nothing better to do so didn't create a fuss.  Eventually the coffee came, but no sandwich - it would just be a few minutes I was assured.  When it did come it was white, but a bit crusty on top.  What part of toasted didn't she understand.  Politely asked for it to be toasted some more, which she did (seemed to take forever) only to find when I bit into it that it was not the filling I ordered.  That's when I lost it.  Gave them the coffee (which tasted odd, I think the jug had soy milk in it before mine) and the sandwich and a piece of my mind.  Got my revenge, put it on facebook.  The coffee chain is Gloria Jeans - give them a wide berth.

Autumn notes

Its has been ages since I've blogged.  Maybe I don't realise that the things I do might be interesting to others.

A couple of great things have happened via Facebook this year.  A friend of my husband, who went to school with him and returned to the UK with his family when they were still young, found him on Facebook.  Intermittently over the years we have caught up, once on a trip he and his wife made to Australia and another time when we were in the UK for just a couple of days.  Bill and Stewart share a passion for cars, racing in particular (classic racing that is) and our visit coincided with the Goodwood Revival Meeting of that year (1999 I think).  If you have a petrol head hubby I suggest you google this meeting, it is held each year in September.  Because it is all about classic racing the people turn up in costume of the 30's - 50's and all the stalls etc in the race track are themed as well.  It is a fantastic experience.

I also reconnected with a school friend this year and now because of Facebook we are able to continue our friendship.  She has been having a particularly difficult time recently, health wise, and I so admire her determination and willingness to share her experiences in the hope of helping others to cope.

We have a resident koala in our yard.  He comes and goes throughout the year, but every now and then he appears in a tree near us.  Here he is asleep high up in the tree.

Sightseeing Day

I've just walked for hours and hours.  My hotel is near Hyde Park and the V and A and I walked all the way down to the Thames and Big Ben.  Saw lots of interesting stuff on the way including a local farmers market in Chelsea (don't know where the farmers come from around there, but what the heck, it said buy local on the sign)  Here are some of the lovely streets I walked down and some things I saw.  Including this Old English Sheepdog outside the Saachi Gallery, just quietly waiting for his owners who were inside.

London

Yesterday was a day in Paris, over on Eurostar at 6am, back by 9pm.  Amazing how much you can see in a day, even the Mona Lisa.   So here are some of the pictures I took in Paris.

 

 

All the buildings in the city have these lovely wrought iron balconies, so many designs and all so pretty.  Have lots of photos.

 

 

 

Venus di Milo at the Louvre and the wide tree lined boulevards.

 

 

 

 

Patisserie, mmmmmmm!!!!!

 





Silsley

The little church in Silsley reminded me of the church in the Vicar of Dibley, half expected Dawn French to walk in the door.  All its stained glass had been done by Morris and Co.  Full of the rich colours common to all we've seen of their work so far, especially the deep reds.  I didn't photograph them as I felt I wouldn't be able to do them justice, so bought a booklet about them.  Here are some other photos from the church and churchyard.

Bibury and Tetbury

Today was very relaxed with a couple of visits, the villages of Bibury and Tetbury.  Very picturesqe towns.  Here in the Cotwolds even new homes have to be built from the local limestone and be in the correct style.  So often the only way to tell how old a building is is to check out how clean or dirty the stone work is.

 

 

These are some of the lovely cottages in Bibury and the river through the trout farm.

 

 

 

 

The village of Tetbury, a lovely market town where we had lunch

 

 



TWO TRIPS TO LONDON

Over the past few days we've gone to London twice, once to see Kelmscott House, and the V and A.  Then yesterday to Red House and Oxford on the way back.  Here are some of the pictures