Cars 2, Frankie & Benny's and Art in Action

Holiday Inn, Cars 2 and Frankie & Benny's
Saturday saw Lauren and myself embark on our now annual trip to Oxford, for a Saturday night out and then to visit Uncle Paul at "Art in Action" at Waterperry. He works for the Boat Building Academy in Lyme Regis and they exhibit there. It's a four day event but we only manage the Sunday.
We booked a room at the Holiday Inn, PearTree, Oxford and were really pleased when we saw it, really nice, they always have lovely comfy beds and a choice of pillows, soft or firm. Much better than the Hilton Bristol that we stayed at a few weeks ago. We settled in to the hotel and then set off for the Ozone - an out of town entertainment hub next to the Kassam football stadium with bowling, restaurants, cinema, childrens play.
Our first stop was the Vue cinema to see Cars 2 in 3D, with a Ben and Jerry's Phish Food (chocolate with little chocolate fish in) for Lauren and a Baked Alaska (vanilla with white chocolate polar bears) for me. The film itself, well I didn't like it as much as Cars, but maybe it needs time to grow. I was preoccupied by the fact that the voices weren't right but I've googled it since and they are all the same (except for the late George Carlin). Once the story proper started and the emphasis was more on Maters spy adventures with Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) and Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) then the film became much more enjoyable and Lauren was belly laughing her way through scenes which inlcuded Mater, Finn and Holley being captured in London and tied up inside "Big Bentley"!

Last year - Lauren and squid
 in Frankie & Benny's

It was definitely tea time when we came out, the only non-spicy choice was Frankie and Benny's. We usually have an OK meal in there but this time not so. They were quite busy, we had to wait to be paged for our table to be ready, but I don't think that was the problem. Our waiter was very disturbing, he was not dressed in uniform and looked slovenly and lingered too long at the table after each visit making us feel uncomfortable. We decided to share a starter of squid and then Lauren chose Chicken Strips with mash potato and beans and I asked for a medium rare steak and chips. The squid came very quickly and I had to secure my portion quickly before Lauren scoffed the lot! Then dinner arrived, my steak had barely seen the grill and was almost cold inside but I was in no hurry to spend more time with the creepy waiter so I had it rare. Lauren's ate her chicken (and my steak) but the beans which turned out to be baked and not green came poured over the mash and the mash was wrong, I think it was made with margarine or butter substitute but it was grey and lumpy and had a chemically taste. All in all not a good meal.. We headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep and a really good buffet breakfast the next morning.

Art in Action

Flamenco 2010 

The hotel turned out to be only 15 minutes away from Waterperry so we were very early, but we weren't the first there and we were let straight in. We went straight to the Boat Building stand, but there was no sign of Uncle Paul and a lot of the stands weren't open. We did finally catch up with him and saw him a few times during the day before we headed off home at about half past four. During our day we saw a beer tankard and a wine glass being blown and a decorative glass piece, some pottery being thrown, some ironmongery, artists painting and drawing, printing, sculpting, illustrators at work. We heard music being played. We ate paella for lunch and chocolate and butter toffee ice cream for pudding. We picnicked in the orchard, we saw bees making honey. We didn't get to buy any artisan bread this year as it sold out quickly though we took some chocolate brownie home. We didn't see the international artists tent, or the dancers (last year we saw amazing flamenco dancing), we didn't go inside Waterperry House or go into the gardens or walk along the river, we didn't drink Pimms or eat felafal or sample Waterperry's home made apple juice or walk along the river walk. We didn't get time for the storytelling this year or the textiles tent, but we did have a wonderful day and we are already looking into going back next year and having 2 days this time. Lauren's favourites were a drawing artist called Nicola Fielding who was drawing a very stylised Honey Buzzard, we were there when a very excited young man thrust money into her hand in his eagerness to buy the finished article and she also loved the blacksmith, she asked so many questions that the lady gave her a little iron pendant. My favourite this year was the glass blowing, really skilled and amazing to watch. Hope you enjoy the photos below and join me for my next blog which will be Pizza Hut and Harry Pottter and then hopefully we'll get back to some more cooking!

John Stroomer all the way from Australia
(he hasn't got a mohhican tho!)

Blacksmith at work

The beginnings of a beer mug

A wine glass - work in progress

Uncle Paul at work

The Boat Buliding Academy stand

Lauren and Nicola Fielding having a chat

Lauren and Uncle Paul catch up