Travel 2006 – Oxford, UK

Saturday, 4th March 2006 – Oxford College reunions can be dangerous! Where do I start? Good question. There wasn’t anything to suggest the weekend was going to get badly derailed, at least not to begin with. I treated myself to a gym session early on Saturday, knowing we’d be eating lunch and dinner in Oxford,…

Food 2005 – The Vine House, Paulerspury, Northamptonshire

Dinner last night was very fine indeed as we finally made a trip to the Vine House.Even though we were the only people in the restaurant… it made us feel a little guilty, because without us they could have packed up early! Anyway, we started with Kir Royales, because the lovely Julie Springett, who is…

Travel 2005 – Germany

Saturday, 29th October/Sunday, 30th October 2005 – Essen, Germany Friday was the usual routine once we made it to the airport – we headed straight to the seafood place for a meal, then walked to the gate just in time for our flight to Düsseldorf. At the other end it was a quick drive to…

Theatre 2005 – Swan Lake, Milton Keynes Theatre

Friday, 28th October 2005 – Swan Lake, Milton Keynes Theatre Last night we went to Milton Keynes Theatre for the first time. The reason was Matthew Bourne‘s Swan Lake (yes, the one with the male swans). There was a massively full house, probably partly because Northampton’s two theatres are both closed for the foreseeable future…

Travel 2005 – Valencia, Spain

Friday, 21st October/Saturday, 22nd October 2005 – Valencia Friday got off to a bad start with torrential rain all over Southern England, and us needing to get to Gatwick Airport to fly out to Spain. The 2005 Girls’ Weekend Away was scheduled to start as soon as we got to the airport. Lynne, Steffy and…

Travel 2005 – Spa-Francorchamps, Jezus-Eik, Brussels, Belgium

April/May 2005 – Spa-Francorchamps, Jezus-Eik, Brussels Something of a wasted weekend, frankly. As soon as the 2005 calendar was announced, and it became obvious we’d be racing on a number of foreign tracks, I’d been asking anyone who’d listen why it was that we were going to Monza in July when the Italian summer weather…

Travel 2005 – Combloux, Megeve, Bettex, Rochebrune, France

Friday, 26th February – Sunday, 6th March 2005 – Combloux and Megeve We were catching a ridiculously early ferry from Dover – 5.00 or something ghastly – which meant we should be in Combloux by mid-afternoon all being well. It also meant we were staying in a hotel near Dover overnight on Friday, because I…

Travel 2004 – Etoges, France

Thursday, 23rd December 2004 – Etoges, France Were it not just two days before Christmas, I’d be quite happy to be snowed in here… There’s this weird sixth sense Lynne and I seem to possess when it comes to picking hotels and restaurants, and it still works, even after a couple of decades. I’ve clearly…

Travel 2004 – Macau, Day 2

Monday, 15th November 2004 – Macau, Day 2 Last night’s dinner was very good, but the restaurant staff delivered the disturbing news that they wouldn’t be doing lunch during the Grand Prix because the local government had booked the entire place from 6am to 6pm… So where were the teams, drivers, officials and press supposed…