Max and Paul's Excellent Adventure

The city of Oxford is a 45-minute bus ride from where we are staying. The university is at the heart of the city with some amazing buildings. The River Thames at the entrance to Oxford. These are 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 Star Wars than a local bus. We kept the Star Wars theme going for a while and in...

Both Max and I have now mastered public transport around the UK with a LOT of help from Daniel, of course! He suggested the best app and also saved us a fortune on fares. His suggestion of booking return trips reduced our return fares by 90%.  Trains outside the London CBD can get expensive so any saving is a God send. Thanks, dude! We travelled to Drayton, a little village a 45-minute bus ride from Oxford. It's a small 2-pub spot and pleasant enough, as there is plenty of farmland surrounding the village and we had the convenience of a bus stop close by. 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 we were left with these very large pooches. One took to us straight away and the other took a couple o...

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 we went to Greenford. Situated in West London, the town centre was not a patch on Clapham Common Daniel and Ellen's), hence the lack of photos.  It's a weird feeling rocking up to a stranger's home, spending a few minutes meeting the pet, getting to know the workings and idiosyncrasies of the dwelling.  Then suddenly 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' having realised HE actually ran the house, and  influenced by the characters of 'Downton Abbey' we'd started watching on her Netflix account. Lord Bailey is a 12-year-old black labrador who has a wonderfully calm and placid nature. He also made sure he let us know that any soft surfaces, i.e. couches or beds, were his domain. On one occa...

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. Beautiful sourdough.  Walking along the beach we found many a boat waiting for the 6.2 metre tide to come in.  And more dog patting... There are LOTS of dogs in Cornwall.  I nearly bought this hat as I was told it really suited me!  I must admit, it made me feel a little sheepish. Badum tssss! 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 th...

A day trip to Penzance and Mousehole (pronounced mow-zul, like how zul) was in order as the weather was fine once again. Arriving in Penzance I was expecting to see 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 there was. A couple of quirky shops and more dogs to pat.  This shop had an eclectic mix of stuff for sale. It has a resident ghost apparently. The staff often arrive to find items on the floor. The shop owner told us about 'Frank' the aging knitter, and if we'd had room in our luggage, we would have bought a few woolly jumpers to send back for the Aussie winter. The wool was also English wool. Bargain! And beautifully done. Mousehole had some cute little buildings. Some of the doorways a...