Walks etc

Presumably coached by Willow, since he’s never done it before, Harley appears to have got the hang of jumping up onto furniture. Here he is on my bed in bedroom 3. My efforts to argue that this isn’t to be encouraged are being stymied by Ruth’s arguments that it’s incredibly cute.

Rosehill House

Walking with MapMyWalk is going well, with some morning walks into the OU from central MK. Beautiful frosty morning in Campbell Park yesterday (left). Also went for a nice c. five mile walk around Caversham on Sunday, solo as Ruth was working on a bid. Walked up Peppard Road as far as Rosehill Park, a housing estate built in the grounds of Rosehill House, according to Wikipedia one of five mansions originally present in what is now Emmer Green. Of the houses mentioned, Caversham Place is no longer standing but the other four are.  Also stopped to take this picture of Emmer Green pond. This quite interesting piece about Emmer Green suggests that the pond was once a lake.

Digressing, Get Reading's regular 'Pick of the Past' slot had an interesting feature last year on the late Caversham Place. It was demolished in the 1970s to make way for more housing on the Caversham Park Village estate.

Received this communication the other day on LinkedIn. However competitive the salary, there’d be no salary high enough to induce me to take a job in, or indeed set foot in, Saudi Arabia. I remember my former colleague Tony at CfBT, who had evidently lived for a while in Saudi with his wife, expressing regret that she hadn't enjoyed living there. Funny that. I remember him telling me that she used to insist on turfing Tony out of the driving seat of the car the second they had driven past the border post out of Saudi, and getting into it in full view of the Saudi border control.

Day in London today for the annual HESA post-collection seminar for the Student return. Well run and informative day as ever led by the excellent Dan Kidd. Took a blisteringly early train into Euston and breakfasted at the branch of Carluccio’s in the Brunswick Centre, before walking down to the venue near St James’ Park. The walk didn’t take me as long as I expected so to kill time and increase the distance, did a quick figure of eight around the lake, on the way reading the interesting story of the Chinese pagoda that briefly adorned the bridge in the early nineteenth century before catching fire and falling into the lake, and a bit about Duck Island Cottage, apparently now used as offices.

Noticed this message in the week on the side of my office box of tea. How lovely that there's a tea information service.