Ye olde village of Eynsham

I started my new job last week. My new employer is based 6 miles outside Oxford, on the outskirts of a little village called Eynsham. This is Eynsham.

You'd never guess it, but Eynsham was, in centuries gone by, bigger than Oxford. Before Henry VIII built the cathedral at Christ Church, St Frideswide's church in Oxford was just a humble local parish. The bishopric resided in Eynsham, and thus, so did all the power, the trade and the big boys with money.

Today, Eynsham boasts a fine church and a paved market square, that would be just about the same floor area as my house...

Yes, that's a thatched cottage in the foreground. The pub in the background (the Swan) is where the work crew winds down after a day's work, usually in a stone walled, grassy little groto that we've dubbed 'the secret garden'.

And oh yes, this is the main street. No, two cars cannot pass one another in opposite directions without one of them pulling in to give way. Rumour has it that Stagecoach, the local bus company, would dearly love to introduce new, lower floor buses on the route through town and out to Carterton, but the new buses are 4 inches wider than the old buses.... and they wouldn't fit down the road without clipping cars or stone houses.

My office? My office is my daily irony. You see, Eynsham is surrounded by modern industrial parks. I work not in a diamond paned cottage, but a black glass megalith just outside town. But the walk from there to the bus is lovely...

Making environment part of business making decisions (Warning "Energy Nerd" alert)

It's finally happened - the major insurers of the world have started giving insurance premium discounts to people who drive low-greenhouse emitting cars.

The theory goes that insurance companies are the ones who have to pay up after hurricanes, droughts, bushfires, wild storms and flooding, all of which are set to increase as climate change takes hold. So people who do their bit reduce the risk of these problems, and get charged less accordingly. Apparently they (okay, technically 'we', until my little Pulsar gets sold) also drive less and are considered less of an accident/theft risk. Hurrah!

For the record, anyone who still thinks that 'global warming' means everything just gets warmer, and that this wouldn't be so bad (especially in England), consider this - 2 degrees "average" increase is enough to kill most of the Great Barrier reef. The last Ice Age was triggered by average temperatures just 5 degrees colder than now. And temperatures could rise by up to 7 degrees by 2100. Do you really need to drive to the shops to get milk?

Another kick in the shins for global corporate power...

I bought The Big Issue recently (yes, Melburnites, it's sold over here too, for £1.40, or about $A3.50) for its article on the new Robert Greenwald doco: "Walmart: the high cost of low prices". Apparently this bloke has caused such a stir that there's even a section of the Walmart website called "Robert Greenwald: The High cost of Low Credibility".

I have to confess though, I couldn't find it when I went looking at www.walmart.com. What I did find, though, was that when you click on the "Staff benefits" page for employees, you get a "This page may have been removed" message. Interesting, when you consider that the documentary discusses claims that full time staff are so poorly paid that they qualify for state- funded health benefits, and thousands of American women have launched the worlds largest ever sexual discrimination class action against the company (alleging they were routinely paid less than male counterparts, and expected to attend 'team meetings' at topless bars).

"I'm going to paraphrase slightly," says Greenwald, "but of the 30 largest econmies in the world, 15 of them are private corporations, and only 15 of them are nation states." If only kicks in the shins like this would trigger more of a 'kick in the goolies' reaction...

Oxford restaurants do BYO!!!

My first night in Oxford, and my housemate Gavin invited me to join his mates for a game of pool and a curry. The Indian place we went to not only does a brilliant 6-dish banquet for a tenner ($A25) but IT’S BYO. If you’re reading this and live in Melbourne, you probably think ‘so?’ And if you’re anywhere else, you’re probably thinking ‘what’s that then?’. The Melbourne tradition of Bring Your Own, which usually only applies to wine these days, but used to cover all booze, has always drawn a blank stare from restaurateurs and diners whenever I’ve asked, wherever I go. Until now. Not only did we only pay 5 quid for the wine, they don’t even charge corkage. The food rocked too! I’m going there again!

From London to Oxford - via the Tower, the Globe and Hampton Court

A sleepless night at the airport and a teary farewell saw Anthony head back to Melbourne, to start packing his bags and start planning to join me in Oxford.

Yes, I'm moving - I've taken a job providing energy efficiency/greenhouse gas reduction advice to industry. And it's based in Oxford.

I'm a little relieved to be leaving London behind. Despite all the kindnesses of Sarah, Mark, Julia and Alex, I'm not ready to live in a city of 20 million people where the water tastes like poop (with good reason!).

Moving means I had just a week to see as much as possible of the stuff I haven't yet... May I suggest that no-one should try to climb St Paul's Cathedral (500+ steps) and the Great Fire Monument (280-soemthing steps) in one day. Because then, when one tries to tour the Tower of London the next day, one's legs are stuffed.

However, the Tower of London is, in my opinion, the most spectacular of England's historic sites, and so giving up was not an option. Nothing has brought history to life quite like this. Not so much a single tower as a collection of 35 of them (I think), linked by walls and living quarters, this massive ediface had somewhat humble beginnings when William the Conqueror built a single square keep of 4 floors, entered by an earth ramp/staircase from the second floor (the ground floor having no doors). It stands still in the centre of the castle, known now as the White Tower, housing the Royal Armouries.

The walls and towers surrounding it are the stuff of legend. Here stands Traitor's Gate, where a young Elizabeth I was brought (in the Cate Blanchett movie version, at least), to answer to her sister, Queen Mary. Here the tower where Sir Walter Raleigh was imprisoned (twice), and the young princes, Edward V of England and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, aged 12 and 10, reputedly held and later buried - perhaps at the behest of their uncle Richard of Gloucester (who thereby became Richard III). There the green where Anne Boelyn was beheaded.

Perhaps most spectacular though are the Beefeaters - those guards who, despite their jolly demeanour, represent the pinnacle of British military service. I asked one what it takes to join his brethren: "a minimum of 22 years of military service with an exceptional service record, attaining at least the rank of Sergeant-Major, just to apply. Applicants are then examined for ability to entertain the public and lead tour groups, as well as secure Her Majesty's most famous royal property". Hmmm, not in my lifetime, then...

Hampton Court Palace was a whole different visual feast. This sprawling masterpiece was started by Cardinal Wolsey, chief advisor to Henry VIII, and like so much of Wolsey's work, taken over by Henry when the good cardinal fell from favour after refusing to divorce the King from his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Little remains from Big Henry's time, although his Great Hall - which even with seating for 500, was too small to feed all his staff at one sitting - and nearby reception rooms have been recently restored. The Chapel Royal is larger than many village churches and the kitchens have to be seen to be believed. Yes, I bought another recipe book.

Last but not least on my list was a tour of 'Shakespeare's Globe', a reconstruction of the original from surviving fragments and texts, located "probably not far" from where Will Shakespeare's primary playhouse once stood. The new Globe is the first building in London, since the fire of 1666, to be allowed a thatched roof. Almost totally privately funded, its forecourt is littered with the names of prominent actors who, led by Sam Wanamaker, couldn't believe that London had nothing to honour one of its most famous literary periods.

This day, our tour included a sneak peek at the cast of Titus Andronicus in rehearsal - happily, we arrived just AFTER they finished the scene where the chief nemesis is fed her children, baked in a pie (I had nightmares after seeing Anthony Hopkins in the title role). To be allowed to watch the final scenes being choreographed, changed and totally subverted with silliness on the part of actors at the end of a long day, was something special.

By the time I came to pack my bags for Oxford, I was knackered, but happy.
The purely 'holiday' part of my trip is over - but what an amazing 3 months it's been. I've seen sights and sounds, laughed and cried, learned and forgotten more history than I ever saw in school. I've met no-one new in London (it's just not that friendly a place!), but the friends I have caught up with here have made me so welcome.

My next journey is on my own and into a great unknown- but I'm no less excited about what it holds...

Dublin!

Given that we met at an Irish folk session (at the incomparable Dan O'Connell hotel in Melbourne), Ants' visit wouldn't really have been complete without a trip to the Emerald Isle.

Some finds from March had to be revisited - a session in the courtyard at the Cobblestones pub in Smithfield, ending a night at the Talbot with the national anthem, meanderings past the Post Office, the Stein and through St Pats.

But travelling with Anthony also showed me quite a different city to the place I'd visited in spring. There was the Guinness Factory, for starters, and the trip to a local Gardai (police) station to swap badges (and a hat) with Dublin's finest. Glasnevin cemetery, where patriots including Daniel O’Connell, Cathal Brugha and Maude Gonne are at rest, was an eye opener for me. And Ants acquired a curious talent for posing with statues...


Our second best new find of all was the Marion Guesthouse, just of Parnell Square, which came complete with a fully cooked breakfast, bottomless coffee and juice, and patriot songs on the radio every morning.

The best one was our wedding rings... where else were we going to buy claddaghs from?!

As happy as a boy in beer....

Those environmental vandals - the monks.

One of the most stunning detours in our travels through Yorkshire was to Rievaulx Abbey. Established in 1131 by Abbot Guillaume and 8 brother monks from Clairvaux in France, this was the first Cistercian Abbey in Northern England, and for many years one of the most powerful in all Europe. The ruins of the stone edifice that replaced their humble wooden origins are magnificent.

These monks took the principle of self sufficiency, an important part of the rule of St Benedict which they lived by ("they are truly monks when they live by the labour of their hands" he wrote), and made it an art form. "Everywhere peace, everywhere serenity" wrote Abbot Aelred of the secluded spot in the Rye Valley when he took over.

But it didn't last long - and there was nothing sustainable about their self-sufficiency.... Within a century, the monks had built dams to divert the river so that they could expand their building, built ponds for fish and to provide water for a mill and a smithy. They cut down nearby woods for timber and charcoal. Their farmlands spanned more than 6000 acres and raised sheep, cattle, bees, geese, dogs, cats, goats, cows, pigs, horses and fish (still not enough fish to cover the 1000 per day required on Fridays and other 'fast' days - they still had to buy some in each week, apparently), dairy produce and crops, and worked iron and pottery and ground flour in their own mill.

Up to 640 monks lived here in the abbey's heyday - 140 sworn brethren and 500 lay brothers, who had taken lesser vows and did most of the physical work - and their Abbot was a friend of King David of Scotland and correspondent of Henry I of England, Louis VI of France and Pope Alexander III.

Like many places, it was abandoned during Henry VIIIs reformation, and much of the buildings have fallen into decay, but many helpful signs shed light on the layout - the scriptorium, day room, sanotorium, bath-houses, Abbots quarters and, of course, the remains of a once-magnificent church. One wonders, if it weren't for Henry, how long they could have gone on before they ran out of natural resources, anyway...

Edinburgh to Yorkshire

Our 3 glorious days in Scotland culminated in a missed train to York. Some shifty ticketeering saw us catch a different train for free and despite the delays, we eventually made our way to the village of Cundall, in North Yorkshire, for Anthony's birthday.

We arrived to find the 'village' is more of a hamlet, comprising just a school, a church, a phonebox, about 20 homes, and our accommodation - the sumptuous Cundall Lodge Farm. The nearest shops and even pubs are in the next village, Brafferton-Helperby, some 3 miles away. (The tale of this town with two names -one saxon, one viking, on opposite banks of the river Swale - is best told here).


The B&B was gorgeous - large, comfy rooms, loads of tea, cake and chocolate on arrival and plenty of recommendations for good local pubs for a meal. After filling our bellies with food, wine and beer we settled down for a long natter with a couple of the locals and discovered that it's nearly 150 years since there's been a Cundall staying in Cundall... and when we wandered back into the same pub the next night, everyone knew who the tall blond bloke from New Zealand was!! We like the north - it's much friendlier than London!

Cundall Lodge also proved to be a great base from which to explore the Yorkshire Dales and Moors. So in the past 4 days then we've seen 2 castles (at Richmond and Helmsley), several battlefields, a ruined priory (Rievaulx), York Minster (from the outside,anyways) and the Jorvik Viking Centre. Life doesn't get much better than this and we can't WAIT to go back. How cool if we could move to somewhere near here....