Going Places: England

When we first moved back to England, someone who booked the accommodation for us didn't do his/her job properly. Long story short, we ended up staying with parents-in-law (PIL) near Bicester. It's a typical small town with some lovely little rambling arcades housing individual/local shops that are getting rarer in England, as more and more high streets are looking "similar" as local businesses are being taken over by big name stores. It's amazing to see how many pharmacies have been taken over by Boots.... I digress...

So. The bakeries at Bicester had some good business from us as hubby fed his daily Belgian Buns addiction and I filled my tummy with traditional macaroons (the ones that have edible rice paper stuck at the bottom, shaped like a horse-shoe or round with a red cherry on top). Nearby there is Bicester Village, which houses many designer outlets, where (almost) last season designer clothes/shoes/toiletries are available for a fraction of the original price. No wonder the people dressed up posher than places we've been to. If we weren't still living on our suitcases I would have bought things from Molton Brown, L'Occitane, etc. as they are seriously super cheap there. In the end I only made a necessary purchase (a black t-shirt, a cardigan, and a mini-jumpersuit from French Connection). I've told hubby that once we're settled somewhere here we have to visit the Village again, which is also conveniently situated on the way to PIL's place. :)

PIL's house is situated outside Bicester, at a scenic countryside opposite marshes, with beautiful back garden that has many kind of birds visiting the bird feeders and bird bath at different times of the day. There aren't many things around there. There's a garage nearby, a hotel-pub, and a farm where they get their fresh free-range eggs. Nothing suburban about it. It's a perfect retirement place, though not so much a place for "youngster" like us, as in a way it's quite secluded, mobile phone and broadband receptions are very patchy.

I have to mention that I didn't really like the people in Bicester. Having lived in Auckland and Perth, where people are generally more health concious, I find that there are too many smokers there, my nose didn't like it. Hubby said that it's understandable, as there's an army base around there. What I find mind-boggling was the fact that people with babies/children were smoking next to their children! I also didn't like the way the older smokers "waved" their smoke in front of me. How inconsiderate and unhealthy... Little incidents with car insurance people and letting agent there made me resent being there. But that's two whole loads of different stories for maybe next time...

After 2 weeks there we moved on to High Wycombe, where we used to live. The town looked much better and cleaner than before. On the first day we checked out the new shopping centre to get some food. Lo and behold, we bumped into familiar faces: our old neighbours, the couple who lived on the other side of our old semi-detached house! Strange, that. We chatted a bit and exchanged some news. They said they got along really well with the couple who bought our house. They also said that our old street is much quieter now that the noisy teenagers have gone away. Part of me wish we had kept the house before we moved to NZ, though logically it was the right decision. Otherwise we could have been in negative equity now, as house prices here have gone down as much as 30% - a good time to buy...

Anyway. We made a surprise visit to a church we used to go to. Boy, how things have changed! Apart from seeing some new faces, the most noticeable thing was the presence of MORE children. And the children we knew have all grown much taller. I suppose 3 years is quite a long time. It felt like it was only yesterday we said goodbye to them... how time flies... It was strange to see how things and people were "the same, but different", if you get what I mean...

After High Wycombe, we moved on to Gloucester last week, and I'm writing this in Bristol now. More about them later.