Max and Paul's Excellent Adventure

The city of Oxford is about a 45-minute bus ride from where we are staying. The university is at the heart of the city with some amazing buildings. Here is a pic of the river Thames at the entrance to Oxford. These are pics from the Oxford University grounds The museum at the Uni was worth the visit.   Below is a meteorite that originated from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.  How they work these things out has me beat. Going by size, colour and shape, I concluded it's a fossilised organic substance originating from a 'black hole' in the constellation of Taurus. There's a dad joke in there somewhere... One of the Tudor-style buildings in the shopping centre. Max bought me the world's best licorice! It was yummy! The seats in the buses are very close together so a conversation with Max was not exactly exclusive to her ears. I was speaking about the bus ID code being 'X2' sounding more like a spaceship in Starwars than a local bus. We kept the Starw...

Both Max and I have now mastered public transport around the UK with a LOT of help from Daniel, of course! He suggested the right app and also saved us a fortune on fares as his suggestion of booking return trips on trains was very helpful and we ended up spending only 10% more than a single fare. Trains outside the London CBD can get expensive so any saving is a God send. Thank you, Daniel! We travelled to Drayton, a little village about a 45-minute bus ride from Oxford. It's a small 2-pub town and pleasant enough as there is plenty of farmland surrounding the village and we had the convenience of a bus stop right outside the front door of the house.  The two dogs on this sit were Bernedoodles. A cross between a poodle and a Bernese mountain dog. I thought anything ending in an 'oodle' meant it was small... The owner looked a bit confused when I asked where he kept the saddles. These girls are big.  After a detailed briefing, the owner left to catch a plane to Mexico and w...

 After a few days of Daniel and Ellen generously putting us up (or putting up with us), we made our way to our first house/pet sit. The day came soon enough and off to Greenford we went. Situated in West London, the town centre was not a patch on Clapham Common (where Daniel and Ellen reside). Hence the lack of photos of the surroundings. It's a weird feeling rocking up to someone's place whom you have never met before, spending a few minutes meeting the pet, getting to know the workings and idiosyncracies of the dwelling and presto! We were on our own. 😬 The owner was on her way to Sweden for a week and we had the honour of looking after Bailey whom we christened 'Lord Bailey' soon after realising HE actually ran the house... and we were influenced by the characters of 'Downton Abbey' which we had started watching after we realised the owner had a Netflix account. Bailey is a 12-year-old black labrador who has a wonderfully calm and placid nature. He also made...

Our last day in St Ives... It has been one of our favourite places to stay. The natural beauty, the people, the village atmosphere and the laid-back lifestyle appealed to us both.  The bakeries created some masterpieces. Walking along the beach we found many a boat waiting for the 6.2-metre tide to come in.  And... more dog patting. I nearly bought this hat as I was told it really suited me!  I must admit, it made me feel a little sheepish... Here was the view from our room showing the differences in tide height. Just click on the slider and move from side to side. Off to London now to see our Daniel and Ellen for a few days.  We have signed up for a website seeking house sitters who look after pets while their owners are away. We have our first gig in West London starting on the 9th through to the 14th of April and a second one in Folkstone which is on the eastern coast of England from the 30th of April until the 10th of May. If all goes well we will be travelling...

A day trip to Penzance and Mousehole (pronounced Mou- Zil) was in order as the weather was fine once again. I was expecting, arriving in Penzance, a giant pirate (Like Australia's giant pineapple in Queensland)  at the entry to the town or a pirate ship but alas t'was not to be. In fact, there were no references to pirates at all. Traces of the 'Pirates of Penzance' musical were not seen anywhere. The walk down the main street was enough to take in what was here. A couple of quirky shops and more dogs to pat.  This shop had an eclectic mixture of stuff for sale. It apparently has a resident ghost as many a day the staff come in and find items on the floor. The shop owner told us about 'Frank' and if we had room in our luggage, we would have bought a few to send back for the Aussie winter. The wool was also English wool. Bargain!!! Mousehole had some cute little buildings... Some of the doorways are so tiny! And of course, more dog patting... These phone booths a...