British Bulldog 1,2,3

Hello people, Ben here,

As I have said before there are, in my opinion and from my life observations, two types of people. The first type buy things that are expensive, they have brand names, they shop at places like Harrods and love to tell you about their latest purchase because of how great it is - they never mention the price. Then there are people like me, market people. Saturday we went to the local Walthamstow markets. (those of you wishing we had gone to the Notting hill markets, dont worry that's in the plans)

The first type of people, you will not understand the bragging I am about to do but the other type of people will. I bought fruit! Lots of fruit! 12 avocadoes (how much would you expect to pay?) I got them for $2.50, not each, for the lot. (Im converting for your enjoyment) I also got a kilo of cherries ($2.50) plus other assorted things. If your not impressed then off you run to David Jones to buy your overpriced Prada. This is the first time here we have bought something cheaper than we could have in Australia (Not counting the flight to Venice of course)!

RACHAEL AT WALTHAMSTOW MARKETS


The Next day we went on a tourist bus trip. First stop - Oxford University. I have to say that if I was going to study again then I think that Oxford would be the place to do it! The library has the first edition of every book published since the 17th century (or something like that), about 7 million books. It goes seven stories underground. I expected to go to see a University but the whole city is the University. Oxford University has 39 colleges (which is the dorms that you have to live in if you attend the university) and they are spaced out around the city, with shops in between, and the lecture halls are spread around as well. The students have to wear full academic dress to lectures (we saw some going to a Sunday chapel service)and the whole place has a great feel to it.

Now for the trivia. The university police, wear suits and bowler hats, and are nicknamed "Bulldogs". They can fine students for doing the wrong thing like walking on the grass(undergraduates can't walk on the grass), littering, making too much noise etc... According to our tour guide, the slightly nutty but fun "Mad Debbie" (That's what she called herself!), the game British Bulldogs (Also known as Red rover all over) originated from Oxford. Ie: Trying to avoid getting caught by the Bulldog. All of the colleges are set up in Quads, with the grass in the centre and the living quaters around the outside, so the architecture is even like the game. If you don't know what 'British Bulldogs' is then ask a kid, or a teacher or failing that we can play when we get home, in the meantime wait back in David Jones with your designer jeans.

THE OXFORD LIBRARY READING ROOM


Some Oxford University graduates of note include: CS Lewis, Lewis Carrol, Bill Clinton, Dudley Moore and JRR Tolkein. The latter was a lecturer attached to Exeter college (did you know he spoke 14 languages).

THE BAY WINDOW ROOM IN THE PICTURE WAS ONCE JRR TOLKEIN'S.(I know some of you are fans so I included this for your enjoyment!)


I'll pass over to Rachael for this next installment, part two of her book tour.

Visitng Stratford-upon-Avon is a must for bookworms travelling England. For those of you travelling with me, via this correspondence, I shall try to do S-upon-A justice.

We arrived in Stratford-upon-Avon at lunchtime and first stop was the birthplace of William Shakespeare. We visited the very house, nay the very room where WS was(said to be) born. William Shakespeare was the third child in the family and the little house was full of bits that were certainly (probably...possibly) belonging to the Shakespeare family.

We also visted the church where William Shakespeare was buried. He is buried in the crypt (rather than the graveyard) NOT because of his success as a playwright, but rather because he was a lay preacher. There you go - I didn't know that.

Stratford-upon-Avon is a lovely town with the river meandering through it and crooked streets with very old houses. We saw the houses belonging to everyone William Shakespeare was connected to - Anne Hathaway (his wife), his daughters, son-in-laws and his mother's homes. All lovely examples of old tudor style architecture.
The only house we didn't see was the one he owned. It was knocked down a hundred years ago when the then owner got cranky with the council (he knocked it down to avoid paying land taxes and to spite them!), but you can see the lovely block of land that it used to be on!

Now, if you were the type to shop and like brand names and Harrods, you would be tempted to buy up big in Stratford-upon-Avon. William Shakespeare's teapots, thimbles, hankies, cards, pencils, books, plates, doilies....it's all there. Of course, Ben nor I are the type to be sucked in by those things so I was only allowed a postcard. Sigh....I have saved many pounds though!

BIRTHPLACE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE


Back to Ben now.

The final installment for our weekend was the very cool Warwick castle. There is heaps that I could write but there is just too much to tell you. Here is my list of blokey reasons why I think castles are great, gory and fascinating.

1. Murder holes - They are these holes where you could drop big rocks or boiling oil etc...on your enemies. Gory.

2. Arrow holes - Similar to above but arrows are great and the holes come in all sorts of shapes. Fascinating.

3. Kings live in Castles - so when your there you feel like a king.

4. Knights and armour are just cool all the time.

5. Going to the toilet straight into the river (see upcoming picture)

6. If castles are real and knights are real then maybe Dragons are real. (Very cool)

7. Drawbridge - the best way to avoid people you dont want to see.

8. Towers - You can see over all of your neighbours fences.

Castles are just great in general. The oldest walls in this castle were on the south side and dated from 1068 and were ordered to be made by William the Conqueror. Maybe I should have a name like that. Ben the destroyer. It has a real ring to it. Kind of like WWF real. You should try it with your name. Insist today thaty everyone you see calls you ____________ the brave. See how you feel at the end of the day!

WARWICK CASTLE


BEN ON THE WALLS OF THE CASTLE


RACHAEL WITH WAX PERSON DOING MEDIEVIL STUFF


BEN DOING MEDIEVIL STUFF

I know that this is the second toilet picture but the view through the hole that i am sitting on was quite interesting. It went straight down to the river. (about 20 metres) Difficult to miss really. Its just one toilet technology extreme to the other on this trip.

That's about it. Check out the Blog next Tuesday, the new installment should be up by then. We love you and miss you all. Have a great Australia Day. Watch some cricket and have a beer for us.

Love Ben and Rach

PS - Dont forget that if you leave a comment we cant respond as we dont have everyones email address. If you want us to respond then send us an email.
b.newton@pnc.com.au

PPS - ONe for the teachers. I had some trouble in my third period class in North London today. The kids were distracted all of a sudden because it started to snow although it only lasted for 20 minutes it was lovely! That's one distraction I haven't had to deal with until now!