The Grapes....

Since our early days in Oxford we have been planning to visit this quaint little pub called The Grapes. It is conveniently located in central Oxford just opposite to the theatre and Debenhams. In one year we never made it, finally during one of our recent trips to the town we went there. I loved the place.

Grape's history written in a blackboard....

The ceiling decorated with old theatre posters...wonder who gets up there to paste these posters....

Indranil's order...he was not too impressed with it. My sneaky feeling is because of the huge portion of peas which he hates and did not touch. I found the food good.

My order-- chicken and bacon sandwich in wholegrain bread...one of the best sandwiches I have had in the UK. I loved them  the chips were also good. The price is lower than the rest of high street pubs. I am definitely going back there again next time I am in Oxford.

St Giles Fair, Oxford

Today was the second day of the St Giles Fair in Oxford. While going to work in the morning I passed the monstrous trucks and silent rides. I decided that I will have to come in the evening when the lights are on and the rides are active.  St Giles is a wide street leading north from the centre of Oxford. It was kind of a  déjà vu moment, reminding me of roads being closed for fairs back home in Kolkata during my childhood. St Giles is actually a private road owned by the St John's Church and by closing the road once a year, the church maintains its ownership of the road.
The fair has a long history. Here is what I found on the Wikipedia. If you see the original post, click  here please.
"The origins of the fair related to St Giles' Church at the north end of St Giles'. This was originally completed in 1120, but the church was not actually consecrated until 1200, by St Hugh of Lincoln, a Carthusian monk and bishop. As part of the commemoration of the consecration, St Giles' Fair was established. The fair continues to this day, nowadays as a funfair, held on the Monday and Tuesday after the Sunday following 1 September, which is St Giles' Day.

The medieval fair was held in Walton Manor, where it took place in the St Giles' churchyard on St Giles Day and during the following week. Queen Elizabeth I stayed in Oxford between 3–10 September 1567 and watched the fair from the windows of St John's College on the east side of St Giles'.

Traditionally, anyone with a beershop was allowed to bring barrels of beer to St Giles' Fair for sale. Another custom was that any householder in St Giles itself could sell beer and spirits during the fair by hanging the bough of a tree over their front door.

The fair evolved from the St Giles' parish wake, first recorded in 1624, and which became known as St Giles' Feast.  In the 1780s, it was a toy fair, with cheap items for sale. By 1800, it had become a more general fair with stalls and rides. From the 1830s, the fair included adult amusements and it became more rowdy, so much so that there were calls for it to be closed. By the Victorian era, with train travel excursions becoming available, the fair was attracting people from places as far away as Birmingham and Cardiff."

Some photographs I took of the fair.

They were playing some loud music inside. I just liked the lights. It was bright and fair-ish!

You could get up on this tower to get an elevated view of the fair.

Children's rides. I loved this fire engine.

Little girl being helped down from the bus. Reminds me of my childhood. I was a ride addict and I loved going to fairs with my father who used to indulge me a lot. :)

Little boy in a double decker bus.

Now for adult rides. All of them looked scary. Once upon a time I used to enjoy these rides. Now when I look at them, I cannot imagine for the life of me why.

Closer look. You can see some people clutching their heads, eyes shut.

Another one of those.

This looks more like a wind mill than a ride!

Young girl posing with a soft toy. She must have won this in one of the throwing stalls.

The teddy looks kind of sad being clutched so tightly!

Little girl with a balloon. This reminds me of a story we read in Radiant Reader way back in school. So there was this young girl called Molly who got a yellow balloon which she loved but which escaped from her hand and flew away. So she was very sad, but in the evening when a full moon was up, her brother Timothy pointed out the moon to Molly and said that was her balloon. Funny how stories from childhood suddenly comes to mind.

Last but not the least food. How can a fair be complete without the food? Apart from sausages, there were burgers, quintessential English chips, candied apples, donuts, candy floss and so much more.

This fair looked like any modern day fair. I cannot help wonder how it used to be in medieval days. I wish they had retained some customs from those days.

Blenheim Palace

Last month we went on a day trip to Blenheim Palace which is situated in the historic town of Woodstock, 8 miles from Oxford. If you want to know more about the palace click here

Set in 2100 acres of beautiful parkland landscaped by ‘Capability’ Brown, the magnificent Palace is surrounded by sweeping lawns, formal gardens and a lake. They do not allow photography inside the palace. Some photographs from the trip.

Blenheim Palace  was created to celebrate victory over the French during the Wars of the Spanish Succession. In particular it was a gift to the First Duke of Marlborough. He was the military commander who skilfully led the Allied forces into battle on 13th August 1704 at Blindheim (Blenheim). After the Battle Marlborough personally received the surrender of Marshall Talland, leader of the French forces.

The Duke also ensured that the Palace became a monument to Queen Anne. It was the Queen and a grateful nation who granted to the Marlboroughs, the Manor of Woodstock and the promise of the funds needed to build such a house.

The gardens

The cascade....

The Grand Bridge

The Column of Victory far away

Miniature Winston Churchill locomotive train which takes visitors from the Palace to the Pleasure Gardens 

Check out the name of the engine

I loved these toy houses...

Marlborough  Maze which is said to be the world's second largest hedge maze

Now for some food, we ate in the cafe. 

And a slice of walnut cake

It was a lovely visit and we enjoyed the day throughly. The best thing is if you buy the ticket, they convert your day ticket to an annual one.  I am definitely planning to revisit soon.

Lavender....

Ever since we moved to the UK, I have been eying the lavender bunches in flower shops wanting to buy them. But I did not know how to preserve them hence was hesitating.

I told this to my manager J, who it turned out has more lavender in her garden that she knows what to do with. So she promised to get me some. She told me to shake the lavenders from the stems and to put them in small bags which then can be kept with clothes. So this is what I did with the lavender bunch. After stuffing four bags, I still had some lavender left, so made two small pot pourris for our two rooms. The one in the sitting room does not smell much, but the one in the bed room smells heavenly and yesterday during my bed time read I could smell the lavender. It felt really nice.

Punting in Oxford....Three Men in a Boat style....:)

Yesterday we went punting in River Cherwell in true Oxford style. If you want to know more about punting check here.
We have been planning to do this for a long time, but somehow plans kept getting cancelled. So finally yesterday we decided before course ended and everyone dispersed, it was time to go punting. Our friend C booked a slot in his college. We walked to Merton College sports ground in St Cross Road and there were 5/6 punts floating lazily in the water. First we had a tough time trying to unlock our punt. Some idiot had changed the locks. Finally punt unlocked and time to float.
So what happens when three people with no experience of sailing whatsoever and one person with partial experience try to punt? Well the result is hilarious at the best and scary at the worst. It quickly became a gendered activity with the men taking charge, while we women S and me clung on for dear life and screamed our heads off. The first fifteen minutes C and ID mastered the punt, doing crazy 360 degree rounds, hitting the banks and going off into the shrubs and similar such activity. Thank God Merton College had the foresight to park their punts in a deserted stretch of Cherwell, far away from the madding crowds and leering tourists. So we i.e. these two men lumbered on in relative privacy, encouraged on by us women in none so polite manner.

Tip of the punts floating lazily in the water. The idea is that you are supposed to drink cider while punting and many a cheap drink which the students can lay their hands on....after getting drunk a lot of accidents happen. One of the most common one is to keep clinging to the pole while the punt floats away. C and ID were looking for cider but thankfully found none Merton Bar being closed. So we went punting stone sober.

The initial learning and experiments!

Into the shrubs we go....merry ho!

C, the man with the partial experience, who saved the day, and again and yet again and some more times and every time he mentioned it!!!

ID turned out to be surprisingly steady with the pole!

Us ladies enjoying the ride! Good work men....

Slowly we went towards the University Parks....but the problem was that there were people around!

We had a rendezvous on the banks of the University Park, our friend A was supposed to join us there....C alights and acts as the traffic police no water police.....

 The world was peacefully floating by, ducks, other punters...when others punt it seems so easy and effortless....

A joins...that red bit is the tip of our punt as we moor on the banks of University Park....

A joins us in the boat....oppps that must have hurt!

Off we go again and promptly got tangled with some shrubs.....

Can a boatfull of people get scared of a swan? Yes we did cos this swan thought we had bread, which we did not and he kept coming towards us and since we knew how badly swans can bite.....we were on the verge of toppling into the water in our effort to shoo away the swan....

S takes up paddling....

While she was busy posing for picture...the punt decided to glide into yet another shrub....this one had thorns and A sailed right into them.....

Be careful of your head....

C posing before ducking to enter the bridge....

Woke A up with some cold water from the river! He was admiring two lovely girls on the bridge and dreaming away!

View on the bank....

Safely towards mooring....just one more hanging branch to dodge....and we reached safely without capsizing or falling into the river. What an achievement! 

End the evening with a nice glass of Pimms at the University Club and some coffee for S and A....

We had a great time, some tired muscles, and we sure made our audience laugh. In case you are wondering about my contribution, to be fair to self I did try paddling but either I was doing it too hard and kept moving the boat or not doing it at all. So I gave up and instead concentrated on documenting the experience for posterity's sake!