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...

Well here we are on Christmas Day and I thought it would be a great idea to share my Christmas log with all of you... No...don't worry, it is not that kind of log, I could never bring myself to be so unoriginal as to utter that joke that has been done to death millions of time the world over ever since William Shatner first uttered the words "Captain's Log, Stardate xxxx.x" way back in 1966. Though a former work colleague of mine if he reads this (Hello Dave!) will chuckle, as the subject of me producing a Christmas log every year seemed to put him into hysterics. So Dave, I thought I would mention it just for you. Speaking of originality, this is the first time I have ever managed to squeeze out a log (sorry!) on Christmas Day before, and the last thing I want to do is bore you with a potted account of the day's proceedings as I am sure there will be nothing in there that you haven't done yourselves on countless past Yuletide occasions. Instead what I hav...

I've been thinking about my relationship with alcohol rather a lot recently. We've been through a lot together, me and the wine, the beer and the cider. And all the rest of it. Yet it seems we have progressively fallen out of love over the past few years and may finally have reached the parting of the ways. It's several days since I last had an alcoholic drink. This is not because I'm on antibiotics, have been told not to drink, any moral, religious, or financial reason. It's quite simply that I just don't like it any more. If you are someone who witnessed the booze filled antics of the Jason of decades past, you might find this extremely hard to believe, but I am afraid it is true. I don't even set foot in pubs any more, that whole culture is something that no longer appeals to me. Perhaps I just got old, or boring, or maybe I just grew up. Who knows which, all I know is it is no longer for me. So how did I get to this point? Well the easiest way is f...

Just a short entry today as short on time, but...absolutely outraged by Tesco's blatant profiteering!!! As you know, I bake my own bread, I told you how you could make yours for 30p a loaf! Well not at the moment! The flour I buy from Tesco, own brand strong white bread flour had been 60p for years. A couple of months ago it went up to 80p. OK, fair enough, costs have risen worldwide due to shortages, seems a bit of a big hike but I'll live with it. I go in today - and they've whopped it up to £1.21! So that's over 100% increase since Christmas. Outrageous! And no point switching to the equivalent brand - Allinson - they've put that up from about £1.10 to £1.70 at the same time!! A quick sweep of the other supermarket sites reveals that their own brand flour is all around the 80p mark. And the Allinson just over a quid - what is going on??? The branded option. But there's more!! Get this!! I just went on to the Tesco website itself and checked the...

Had a little bet with Ollie. Now normally he is not exposed to any alcohol drinking - any wine that comes out in our house is normally long after the kids bedtime. It's not just that I don't approve of drinking in front of the kids - it's just that I have no desire to pour alcohol down my neck halfway through the day - acceptable back in the college days, but not now. I just never fancy a drink until well into the evening. Even on holiday - though there are plenty that do, propping up the bar all day. Even at weddings and social events that take place during the day, you'll never see me touch a drop before the evening.   Anyway, on holiday, things are slightly different. The kids don't go to bed at 7pm, we don't have our tea at 5pm, dining is later, and can involve a drink - so a meal in a restaurant at 8pm may well involve sangria or red wine. So Ollie has picked up on this and noted that I've been drinking red wine, also that he considers it nasty - e...

I and countless other people have been saying for years that Bicester needs a proper English restaurant serving good English food. Now there is nothing wrong with the proliferation of Indian, Chinese, etc takeaways and restaurants - most people enjoy those things, but variety is good, and basically there has been nowhere in this town where you can go out and enjoy a decent English meal. And don't even get me started on the Hungry Horse, you may as well, as Basil Fawlty once memorably said "Put out a huge tray of baked beans and garnish it with a few dead dogs". So Maba opens - on the corner of my street. What could be better? Impressive looking menu, nice concept. Let's give it a try. So having returned from Legoland on Wednesday, a quick shower and shave later and in we go for our meal - the four of us, that's Duncan, Claire, Lynda and myself. Nice little cocktail menu to peruse and also a wine list as we waited for our table, booked for 8pm. They were extrem...

Well here I am safely returned from across, or should I say, under "La Manche". Luckily the old gits did not succeed in their plan! http://www.casttv.com/video/hkrq7f4/harry-enfield-old-gits-channel-tunnel-video Alex picked me up at 6am and we were set fair on the drive to Folkestone. Apart from the usual slowdown around the M25 we made it in good time, in fact we were able to get a train half an hour before the scheduled one. This was my first time for me through the channel tunnel, and how easy was it? Amazingly so. When I think of the aggravation of the past, getting on and off ferries, not to mention the horror of the airport experience these days, this was a piece of the proverbial. If you haven't been, you literally drive your car straight into a train, park up, sit there and crack open the flask of coffee, sit back and relax, off goes the train and about 40 minutes later drive out the other end, hey presto! You're in France! Inside the train ...

Lynda wrote in her blog earlier this week about some of the festive goodies in stores right now, and in particular the shocking rip-offs being peddled on certain items. It is indeed true - but not a problem that can't be overcome. I think the problem for many shoppers these days is that their is such a multitude of choice, lack of time, and crowded stores, that people don't have the time or inclination to sort the wheat from the chaff. I have always maintained that it's possible to save £££'s a week on your shop if you're clued up. Now over time the retailers have developed more and more sophisticated ways of parting us from our money. But, I am on to them, all those years of working for Nielsen weren't wasted. Things are always changing and there are some new things happening I have noticed lately which you might not be aware of. I'm going to start by talking about offers, and I'm going to focus on Tesco, not because I want to pick on them par...