Glasses; skeleton cows; toasted sandwiches

After a certain amount of (but not an excessive amount of) revision for my Java programming module, finally took the exam on the afternoon of 11th October. All went essentially smoothly, the main hitch being that finding the venue (the DoubleTree by Hilton at Stadium MK) proved more difficult than I’d thought, as the stadium site appears to be still essentially a building site. After asking directions from at least three workmen, managed to arrive at the hotel and spent a reasonably pleasant three hours more or less answering all the questions, before heading into CMK to meet Ruth at Chiquito’s for a pre-arranged post-exam dinner. It’s some years since I’d been to a branch of Chiquito’s and although I had remembered them reasonably favourably, what I ordered was nicely presented but distinctly uninteresting, so may give them a miss in future. Additionally, we were more or less the only diners, so got the full brunt of some overly energetic service from a young waiter, whose routine appeared to involve running up to our table and skidding to a halt with a few dance moves, before launching into some enthusiastic patter. Plus, am probably being a grumpy old woman but object to being addressed as ‘guys’ by a 20-something.

Early the following day we made the circa 3-hour drive from Milton Keynes via the M40, M42, M5 and M50 to my parents’ house, where we enjoyed a relaxing couple of days. Went out on the Saturday for what was intended to be a walk from Ewyas Harold, a large village a few miles from my parents’ house, across Ewyas Harold Common to Abbey Dore with the intention of looking around the craft fair being held in Dore Abbey. In the event the common was extremely muddy and somewhat difficult to navigate, so that even my hardened father suggested giving up and just walking to Abbey Dore along the road. We had a quick breeze around the craft fair which was rather more upper crust than Mum had anticipated, made use of the portaloos before setting off back to Ewyas Harold where we had lunch in The Dog, a locals’ pub that, despite advertising itself as serving food, appeared surprised at us actually ordering some. Quite a few of the menus offerings appeared to be off so I think most of us ended up with ham sandwiches.

A high point of the weekend was Hannah producing the ancient pack of snap cards that we used to play with as children, which I had assumed were long lost. We had a few games of Snap, before being reminded that for adults the game has its limitations.

Drove back to Reading on the Sunday and collected the rabbits from Reading Rabbit Rescue, where the lovely Sandra told us that she thinks Lola’s a wee bit underweight. Hope our affectionate nickname for her of “Mrs Chunkybun” hasn’t set her on the path to anorexia.

A matter for rejoicing, killing of fatted calves, sacrificing of firstborn child etc is the fact that bedroom 3 has finally been ‘made good’ by Paul the Handyman, who has installed roof insulation and replaced the ceiling, filled in the holes in the floor where the two chimneys were so that the open shaft is now sealed off from curious rabbity view and generally made good the holes, empty bits with breezeblocks. Mark the plasterer has subsequently been to look at it, but we gather that plastering it could be an expensive job as really the old plaster should apparently come off, plus there’s a damp patch under the window that needs investigating first, plus Paul’s going to have to come back in and even off one of the walls (we did suspect that he’d skimped on this). Plastering is evidently an élite occupation which doesn’t include evening out the surface to be plastered. Sigh. I await the quote with some trepidation.

Perversely, since the room has been sealed, Harley has shown very little inclination to go into it. Evidently if there’s no danger of death, things hold little appeal.

Ruth and I made a planned visit to Kew Gardens on the 20th, though set out later than we intended and then realised too late that we’d chosen the most awkward day imaginable to go to Kew, as relevant portions of the Circle and District lines were both closed. I think the journey time in total, from home, took about 3 hours. The most direct way from Reading is to take the Waterloo line to Richmond and then walk to the gardens, but Ruth’s season ticket isn’t valid on the Waterloo route and, perhaps understandably, she’s keen to get the most out of the thousands of pounds of outlay. Saw a number of the charred wood sculptures that are part of the David Nash exhibition that runs until next April. Apparently Nash's main tools are fire and a chainsaw. Must have been a nightmare of a teenager if that was what he used for his A-level Art.

Also went for a second time up the Treetop Walkway, which I hadn’t planned on doing but Ruth was keen to go up. Really don’t see why it’s necessary for these things to wobble.

Had dinner at Bella Italia on our return to Reading, where we were served by the lovely Maria.

Amusing saga in the last few issues of the Milton Keynes Citizen following the replica concrete cows at Bancroft being re-surfaced with a skeleton paint job. The guy who did it, the son of the chap who made the replicas in the first place (though he has asked to be known only as ‘piewaste’) claims he did it in honour of his father and to save public art in MK. The MK Parks Trust initially condemned the new paint job as vandalism, before changing their tune when Liz Leyh, the artist responsible for the originals, piped up to say she quite likes the new look. It now looks as though they might stay as they are for a while. Another cute strand in the story is a miniature ‘skeleton cow’ that has been made as part of Mark Cain’s range of miniature concrete cows at www.mkcows.com.

Have finally joined the ranks of glasses-wearers, at least for reading. Have been in denial over the last year or so at increasingly having to hold small print away from me in order to read it, but have finally succumbed and collected my two pairs of specs from Boots Opticians yesterday. My brother and sister have both worn glasses from childhood so I suppose I should consider myself lucky to have escaped thus far. I struggled to find two of the Boots own range that I particularly liked, but that may just have been the unfamiliarity of seeing myself in glasses. My main pair are a dark-rimmed pair a bit a la Nana Mouskouri, though I’m not sure my image in the mirror quite resembles the “thinking (wo)man’s crumpet” look I was aiming for.

After doing a few bits in town on Saturday morning Ruth and I had an urge for a plain and simple toasted sandwich-style lunch and ended up in Platters on Cross Street, one of the few old-fashioned caffs left in Reading town centre. Not that either Ruth or I go to much effort to seek such places out, but we were in the mood for processed ham and cheese on white sliced, and in the modern world of mozzarella, sun-dried tomato bread etc such things can be hard to come by. To give Platters its due it was doing a roaring trade, but the three or four young staff weren’t coping well and the girl who took Ruth’s order evidently had a poor grasp of English, as she took the order for English Breakfast tea to mean an actual English Breakfast, with the result that on finishing our ham and cheese toasties we were presented with a full fry-up. I managed to explain and we got some money off what had previously seemed quite a steep £12 bill. They also committed the cardinal sin of serving people out of order, with the result that loud huffing noises and eventually a “There’s People Starving Here” emanated from the two elderly ladies behind us, who looked like traditional Platters customers. As we left, waiting staff were wandering up and down with unclaimed sandwiches, looking confused. We may give it a miss in future, but it evidently still draws in a faithful clientele – the kitchen just needs a Mutha Bacon-style overseer. Above is a picture of Platters from 192.com - I'm sure they won't mind.

Following our Platters experience, we were seized with a desire for traditional toasties made from a toasted sandwich maker and decided to impulse-buy our own. I've never owned one though Mum and Dad did have one at their house at one point, though it might have belonged to my sister. Although I enjoy the product I've always resisted buying one of my own, partly because they're hard to clean and partly because I tend to think I should restrict my intake of gooey melted cheese and plastic white bread. However, in spite of that, we've bought one. From Argos, so we didn't expend a lot of money. And I'm sure we won't use it that often.