As we drove out of drizzly Oxford, we soon came across a community centre which Sarah had previously been to, and as she remembered the park out front, it seemed a fabulous opportunity for a quick play...or so we thought! As we drove up to the community centre, we were very ready to drive away quickly, as it seemed likely a man would appear and tell us to get off his land, shooting at us with a shotgun...as this did not happen, we did practice our, 'o, this isn't the right place' faces. (There was infact a park there, we were just overwhelmed by the feeling that we didn't belong there..)
As we drove through the Oxfordshire countryside, it was good to be back in the countryside, and we fast approached Horton-Cum-Studley. Now, what one expects to find in Horton-Cum-Studley, no one is quite sure, saying that, i'm pretty sure it wasn't what we expected, and it came and went, as fast as...well...Ginge. (Ah...Ginge, we should go back there soon and see if they've put a new sign up...)
And so we ventured on, reaching Boarstall...by accident really :P and came across Boarstall Tower, well atleast a sign for Boarstall Tower, not really being able to see it through the trees, but we are lead to believe it is quite a magical place! (It was like a castle but it's only open in the summer, perhaps a future roadtrip destination?)
And so on to Piddington, and as we drove down some quiet roads, we came across, what can only be described as, some lungers... fairly old lungers, wearing berets. Made us laugh. Piddington was not far behind, and it appears Piddington has a different climate to the rest of Oxfordshire, as they appeared to have snow, and if it wasn't raining, we would have made a Piddington snowman, well Ellie would have, don't know how bothered Sarah was. (I was bothered, I was definitely bothered...I was so bothered that I looked about to see if there was somewhere to park whilst we made our snowman but sadly there was not :( )
Next on our journey, was old lands once passed, Ludgershall, which hosts the annual BIKE NIGHT (BIKE NIGHT!!!!) which we once, inadvertently came across, it was quite a different place to be without 100 burly bikers (BIKE NIGHT!!!!). However, we did come across three men walking at least 15 greyhounds between them, and as a result we have determined that the people of Ludgershall are hardcore Bikers with a passion for dog racing...how we long for the day that we come across a Ludgershall local (BIKE NIGHT!!!!). On leaving Ludgershall, we went to cross a bridge, however this was closed due to being weak, and so we swiftly turned around to find an alternative route. Driving away from the bridge, we saw a huge lorry drive over the bridge...did he make it to the other side, or was he dicing with death one too many times? We'll never know! (We would have risked the weak bridge ourselves but funnily enough we quite value our lives...and I wouldn't have wanted to damage my car...)
Heading out of Ludgershall towards our old friend Brill, we had a FedEx man right up our bum! (Seriously, he needed to back off!!! Never mind that we were going 40 mph down a national speed limit section...) How rude! He followed us all the way to Brill, we suspect he also wanted to see this fabulous village and the windmill! Either that, or he was just doing his job... Brill had not changed in the 8 months or so since we were last there, and they were still looking for part-time firefighters, if anyone is interested! We just hope they haven't had any unfortunate christmas light related incidents...(if uni doesn't work out I reckon we should go live in Brill and become part-time firefighters)
And so, heading back to Oxford, but our trip was far from complete. We felt the urge for some custard, so headed to Ambrosden in search of some! Unfortunatley, they didn't have any...who'd have thought! However, they did have an RAF base, which is always very exciting for us non-military type. However, not half as exciting as what was to come - a sign telling us about Real Brill Oldies - the local radio station, and so quickly tuning in (87.9fm, for those of you in that area interested) we heard the likes of Donovan and some other music we didn't recognise, but danced along to none the less! Our final stop was Honeyburge, which consisted of exactly 4 houses, one of them being honey coloured - who'd have thought! And as we entered Oxford, we entered our meaningful conversation (about death and funerals), as we passed a crematorium (hence how we got started on our deep and meaningful talk about death and funerals), however, it took Ellie a while to realise the signs pointing to the crematorium, was not to a village called crematorium! (goodness knows why Ellie thought we were talking about death up until this point!)
And so to end our first road trip of 2011, we went to Burger King drive thru, Ellie pleased that she did not make a new years resolution to lose weight, and Sarah ignoring hers! (It's called selective fast-food memory syndrome...it causes me to forget my new year's resolution when near fast-food restaurants, it's a serious condition!)
Laterz,
Brambley-Apple and Gallienniii
xxx
