Weekend in Oxfordshire

Hi we are back.

Sorry for the blogging break. I have been busy with work and Sarah has been very busy looking after the children on their very long school holiday. Only two more weeks to go. I think Sarah will survive - only just. We have quite a few posts to publish with lots of photos. Just need to get the time.
The weekend after we returned from Australia we drove up to Oxfordshire for Sunday lunch with Sarah's cousin Catherine and her husband Bernard. It was too far for a day trip so we went up on Saturday and stayed the night in Milton Keynes. We left early on Saturday morning and on the way had a stop at Little Chef.

Some of our English friends back in Australia had said we should try and experience one of these fine establishments while we were in England. I think the main attraction is a large and cheap full English breakfast, which didn't really appeal to any of us. Once Sarah spotted some mould on a take away croissant it was decided the only real choice was a chocolate bar each and of course a cup of tea for Sarah. We can now tick this off from our list of things to do in England.
The plan was to head to Bletchley Park but we were making good progress so we stopped off at the factory outlet stores at Bicester. This was a fancy factory outlet centre with expensive brands so we came away empty handed. Even the boys thought £40 was a lot to spend on a pair of kids shorts.

In the afternoon, we made it to Bletchley Park. It was a fascinating place, where you stand in the rooms where history was being made that affects us all today. Once again there were audio guides. The children had no problems using them since the guides were just iPods in ruggedised cases. It was a rather warm day - probably over 25 degrees and Ben and Ella waned a bit so we went back to the hotel at about 3:30. Sarah took Simon back to the National Computer Museum, for some mother-son nerd bonding. Simon got to use Sarah's very first computers from school -- the BBC Micro.
On Sunday we had a lovely lunch with Catherine and Bernard. Their house is an old mill and has a stream running through the garden.The kids loved running around the big garden and only managed to lose one frisbee.