The Time Bubble

Last Saturday Claire and I went out for our monthly nosebag, heading once again into Bicester - Oxford will come later in the summer. Usually I book somewhere but what with all the focus on Cheltenham last week (which went very well, thank-you) I did not get around to trying to organise something until Saturday itself. When I rang Denis they could not fit us in until after 9pm, so we decided to chance our arm and walk into Pioneer Square and see if we could get in to one of the three new restaurants there all of which we've been to and enjoyed before. I was struck by how lively and vibrant the whole area of the square was. The new restaurants and the cinema have brought the centre of Bicester alive and it was great to soak up the atmosphere of lots of people around all enjoying themselves. I really do believe that this new development is the best thing ever to happen for Bicester and as more units fill up it will get even better. The drawback of all off this was that the rest...

This New Year's Eve was quite unusual for me, because for the first time in eight years, I was not DJ'ing for the evening. This has always been a lucrative night for me. DJ's, like taxis, charge at least double, more in many cases, but this year I decided I would take a break from it. New Year's Eve assumes a special importance in our family, because it is also my wife's birthday. We have been together since 2006 and in all of that time she's had to traipse around after me wherever I happened too be working for the evening. That's OK if we are local, but that hasn't always been the case. Anyway, I decided it was about time that I treated Claire to a birthday night out so I rejected all offers of DJ'ing and thought about what we should do. Now I thought at first maybe we should do something really special, but then I thought perhaps we will put that on hold for another year. You see Claire was 29 this year and she has the big birthday coming up at...

If I was a restaurant critic I could dine out every week for the rest of the year in Bicester, as the openings in the new shopping centre are coming thick and fast. Well I'm not a restaurant critic - well not yet anyway, however I feel duty bound to you my readers who have come to expect some food related anecdote in every entry to visit each new eaterie that opens in town. Even if it doesn't involve sausages! Today's venue does in fact offer sausages in a hot dog format, but I am all "sausaged out" after yesterday (see previous entry), so did not sample them today. I was at Deans Diner, an exciting new restaurant that opened yesterday in Bicester's new town centre development. Deans Diner is a small chain (this is only their fifth outlet) of restaurants that promise to help you "Live The American Dream!". Think of those old 50s style American diners of the style Marty McFly visited in Back To The Future and you'll get an idea of what to ex...