Rabbit exchange; further Travelodgery; retreat

Change of rabbits. Ruth and I made the sad decision that Lexie was a bit too much of a handful for us, given that we have limited time to spend in an intensive pet training regime and were unsure whether she would benefit anyway, so returned her to Reading Rabbit Rescue on the Saturday of the Easter weekend. Sandra was nice enough to make sympathetic noises and to assure us that pets are meant to enhance your life and Ruth had to be happy with her choice. Here’s a parting shot of Lexie with my Ugg boots – she expressed a violent dislike of all my shoes during the time she was with us.

Some discussion ensued about a possible alternative choice to try with Harley, and Sandra’s front runner was either Willow, a dwarf lop close to Harley’s age or Cherry, the long-term resident whom we viewed before at the time Ruth chose Lexie. Partly influenced by a desire to give Cherry a home, we decided to give her a go – however, Sandra later emailed us to say, somewhat cryptically, that they’d quickly realized Cherry wasn’t the right companion for Harley. It later turned out that the allegedly timid Cherry’s favoured technique during bonding attempts is to ignore the male for the first 15 minutes while pretending to eat hay, then viciously attack him. We inferred that she has done the same thing on a number of previous occasions, though Sandra wasn’t too explicit about that. Ruth and I theorized that she may be quite happy at RRR and it could be a deliberate strategy she’s developed in order to ensure that no one adopts her.

After Harley’s swift removal from Cherry’s proximity, S&S tried him with Willow. The first update noted that he was quite wary of her and there’d been quite a bit of chasing – indeed, we were sent this photo of Harley taking refuge under a box. However, we gathered that things had gone acceptably well, and we collected both Willow and Harley on the following Saturday, after Ruth had spent a day converting our cupboard under the stairs into a new bunny residence. Mightily pleased to have a dining room free of the unattractive cage and litter tray. Ruth is not enjoying cleaning out the cupboard with its awkwardly sloping ceiling, but no doubt she’ll adjust to the stooping involved. Willow appears a friendly bunny and we are quite taken with her so far, though not sure of Harley's opinion. She is very fond of the outdoors, probably because her previous owner apparently kept her loose in the garden.

Tried out a new Travelodge the week before last, this time the Old Stratford branch on a junction with the A5 north-west of Milton Keynes. Back there this week. Small place but like the Central has undergone a recent refurb to Travelodge’s ‘new look’, so pleasantly new-smelling with a great bed. Old Stratford seems to be a long line of houses either side of Towcester Road, with a couple of pubs and a convenience store. The long straight walk from Old Stratford into the more attractive Stony Stratford forms part of the Roman road Watling Street.

Although the page on Travelodge's website shows a Little Chef next door to the Travelodge, it's now next door to a ‘Buddies USA Diner’, according to Judith a local Northamptonshire mini-chain of restaurants. Mildly annoyed by it as although it boasts a breakfast menu, it advertises its opening time as 10am, which to my mind isn’t much use to anyone for breakfast. As is the way of the modern world I took to Twitter to query this:

and received the following response:

Well, yes, I suppose you could open at 4pm and serve bacon and eggs, but I personally wouldn’t count that as opening for breakfast.

It wasn't a major issue as I am set up to prepare coffee and muesli in my room, providing there's somewhere nearby to buy a pint of milk, but it's just the principle of flaunting a breakfast menu in people's faces.

While I've had a Twitter account for a while, I've only made sporadic active use of it, partly because I haven't yet decided quite how I want to use it, and haven't expended the necessary energy to find out How It All Really Works. On a related note, I also have a LinkedIn profile which I more or less keep up to date, although I’m not a particularly active user of it. I enjoy the mild amusement value of occasionally receiving endorsements for various skills from people who hardly know me - this week, an endorsement for ‘Management’ and ‘Program Management’ (neither of which I consider myself to have any particular experience in) from a chap who used to work in the IT Unit at the OU, with whom I exchanged the occasional email although we never actually met. Quite bizarre. He’s good-looking, though, so I may stay connected for that reason alone.

On a cultural note: killed some time a few weeks ago by visting Old Thornborough Bridge, just off the A421 between Buckingham and Milton Keynes. The bridge dates from 1400 AD and is (according to the information board in the car park) the sole surviving medieval bridge in Bucks. The old bridge, a scheduled monument, no longer carries traffic; the current bridge carrying the A421 was built in 1974.

Day in Hungerford a couple of Sundays ago to meet Ruth's aunt for lunch. I roped Ruth into a pre-lunch walk across the Common and a little way along the back road to Kintbury, past the gates of the former Hungerford Park. I had had a vague idea that years ago we used to walk up the driveway between these gates, but on this occasion I couldn’t see any indication that it was a public footpath, so we walked a bit further on and took the footpath leading south through Foxley Covert, coming out on the little road that used to pass Inglewood Health Hydro, though I don’t think that exists any more. There are some pictures here of the former house at Hungerford Park. We met Ruth's aunt for lunch at The Bear, our second visit since the takeover by Old English Inns; although the snacky soup-type lunch we had on Ruth's birthday had been fine, the roasts we ordered on this occasion were distinctly disappointing, and certainly bore a very poor comparison to the divine roast beef lunch I had there a few years ago. I did email them afterwards finding fault with various specifics, and may leave a review in due course on TripAdvisor. However, Mrs Spence seemed to enjoy her lunch, and the glass of Chardonnay I had with it was very palatable.

Attended a one-day retreat last Saturday at the Global Retreat Centre at Nuneham Park. Have been on their mailing list for a while but not until now got around to attending any events. The Global Retreat Centre is run by the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University, a seemingly international organisation with centres in a number of countries. My reasons for going were a) I fancied a day of a bit of uplifting tranquillity with a bit of meditation thrown in; b) it was free; c) I was curious for a bit of a poke around the house and grounds. The house was built in the mid-eighteenth century as the home of the Harcourt family, who sold it to Oxford University in the 1950s. I gathered that the Global Retreat Centre was set up in about 1993.

The day was attended by around 60 of us and consisted of a morning session entitled ‘Knowing the Self’, led by a sixty-something chap called Matthew who apparently used to be a run-of-the-mill working man with wife, etc, before throwing it all in 20-odd years ago to become a volunteer at the Global Retreat Centre. Good in places, though too much talk and flipcharts for my taste and not enough meditation practice, even though the session was subtitled ‘Exploring and Developing the Art of Meditation’. Additionally, while there were some helpful ideas, there was a lot of stuff about the soul towards the end of the session, including some rather wacky stuff seeming to imply that your soul can potentially remember things from before you were born. Hmm. The afternoon session was titled ‘Spirituality in Daily Life’, but substantially consisted of getting the audience to recap the main points from the morning session. It was free, I suppose. Plus points: it was a lovely setting and a relaxing atmosphere; we got a free hour-long tour of the house after lunch and a chance to walk about the grounds. One woman I spoke to had apparently been for a residential retreat there, which I may consider at some point. I also met a Milton Keynes-based Mindfulness Teacher, who gave me her card.

Mildly curious as to how the Global Retreat Centre apparently manages to charge no fees for any of its courses. I’m not one to ponder such things at length, but Ruth did query how an organisation promoting a spiritual, unmaterialistic approach to life can afford the rent on an Oxfordshire country estate and an Oxford city centre shop unit. Something to do with karma perhaps. In fairness, although there was a box marked ‘Contributions’ in the reception area, with envelopes and gift aid forms, this was not referred to by any of the staff or speakers during the day, nor were we put under any pressure to contribute. I must confess I didn’t, though I did spend about £20 in the shop on a DVD and some incense.

A couple of notes on the route:

• The first section of the A4074 north of Caversham towards Oxford is a notorious accident blackspot, cheerily referred to in the local press as the ’13 Bends of Death’. Having said that I only saw a couple of people indulging in idiotic overtaking.  
• The village of Nuneham Courtenay presents a odd aspect, with rows of almost identical cottages ranked each side of the A4074. The explanation, apparently, is that in the 18th century the first Earl Harcourt had the village moved in its entirety from its original position closer to Nuneham House, and arranged either side of the main road to Oxford, apparently so that he could convert the site of the village to ornamental parkland. Seems a bit high-handed.

In an concerted attempt to take more exercise and get endorphins flowing, etc, I have been swimming at Bletchley Leisure Centre once a week for the last month, and for the last couple of weeks have been propelling myself out on the bike at weekends. Have done the same route each time so far, along the Henley Road to Playhatch, up (painfully up) to Dunsden, then wending back past All Saints Church to join Kiln Road back into Caversham. Have to say I do feel good afterwards, albeit slightly achey.

Sadly, the lovely Tash and her piano-playing partner have moved out of number 47, apparently to a smaller place on a quieter street. Very civilised to have the sound of a piano emanating from next door, even if it was the sound of someone having a lesson and struggling with a two-octave scale. They’re (I think) the third lot of tenants since Nicky returned to South Africa., I guess more will be moving in soon. Obviously we hope they’re quiet, childfree, fond of classical music and/or jazz, don’t have a car and are fond of looking after people’s pet rabbits. I live in hope.

Rabbit angst; washing house; countryside

Lexie has proved a boisterous and destructive lass during her first month’s residence with us, starting off by biting through not only the phone cable but also the cable protector. She appears particularly annoyed by shoes, especially my shoes, regularly picking them up and throwing them about the hallway. Most seriously, certainly in Ruth’s eyes, she has bitten a chunk out of one of the seat cushions of the smart and expensive (though not, in my opinion, especially comfortable) leather sofa in the living room. A three-figure quote for repairing the damage has been obtained, and the living room door is now kept firmly shut during the day. Slightly less seriously, but still mildly annoyingly, she shredded the bejeezus out of this relatively new IKEA catalogue.

When we collected her and Harley from RRR last Sunday after spending the weekend at my parents’, we regaled Sandra in a light-hearted yet mildly barbed fashion with Lexie’s faults, at which she tittered sympathetically before adding chirpily “Sold as seen!”. As we arrived, Sandra's opening sally had been to claim that Harley and Lexie seemed to get on together better than he had with Lola, at which point Lexie aggressively mounted Harley, staying on board as he raced around the enclosure trying to shake her off, and thrusting in a less than ladylike fashion. When Sandra eventually managed to coax/prise her off, poor little Harley had a large sucked patch of wet fur on the back of his neck. As we were leaving, Sandra somewhat shamefacedly thanked us for adopting her.

We attempted to subdue the rabbits one weekend in October by finding a recipe for the rabbit Ruth bought a while ago at Reading Farmers’ Market and shoved in the freezer. Admirably, she did a good job of jointing it after consulting a YouTube video on How To Joint a Rabbit.

Another perturbing snippet (right) recently from the ‘Most Popular’ section of the BBC News homepage. Currently considering my best course of action in light of the impending wine shortage. Secondly, I do own a Dell laptop, but had never noticed that it smells of cat urine. Perhaps it’s a new sales pitch.

Spent a weekend in Milton Keynes towards the end of October to catch up on maths, clean bathroom etc and, somewhat ludicrously, clean the front door, as the report from the latest inspection by the letting agents noted that although the flat/houselet was largely in excellent condition, the front door was grubby. Indeed it was. Here’s a picture of it looking sparkling clean after the brisk scouring and sloshing with water I gave it. On the Sunday I decided to explore some more of the local area and took a bus ride to Stony Stratford, a suburb on the northwestern edge of the town and presumably once a little town in its own right. Took a walk along the high street in increasingly windy weather (it being the day prior to the recent strong – by UK standards – winds) and then turned into Bridge Meadow, where I briefly admired the bridge over the Great Ouse before walking south along the river for a bit and then back to the high street.

Stony Stratford’s website describes it as ‘The Jewel of Milton Keynes’. Indeed it seemed quite nice, though it had a bit of a desolate feel on a Sunday as not much was open though the branch of Costa on the high street was doing a roaring trade. Here’s a time lapse sequence of an afternoon in Bridge Meadow, posted on YouTube. The crazy things some folk do.

As per usual, constructed a modest Halloween display of this candle and munchkin. Ray didn’t make it up this year, unlike the previous two, but we did manage a long telephone conversation, though this didn’t involve too much of a spiritual bent but did include our shared loathing of antique shops, though I can't quite remember how that came up.

Ruth and I had a healthy country walk on 3 November through Caversham Heights, across Caversham Heath golf course and down through Park Wood to Mapledurham, where we poked briefly around the village and the churchyard that adjoins Mapledurham House, before walking back to Caversham along the footpath that eventually emerges onto the end of The Warren. We had, unusually, booked for Sunday lunch at the Griffin, which was very pleasant – I rarely order roasts when eating out but occasionally they have their place. Beef was overcooked, as it more often than not is, but it wasn’t bad.

Came across a weird monument while walking through Park Wood, which must originally have commanded views down to the house but is now pretty overgrown. Haven't been able to find out much about it but this blog entry mentions it.

Day in London last Thursday to attend Ipsos MORI's annual NSS conference, held at the Church House Conference Centre in Westminster. A moderately useful day though some of it is less than relevant to the OU as a distance learning institution. Did derive some amusement from observing that the somewhat irritating speaker from Oxford had misspelled 'Bodleian' on one of his slides.

Progressing reasonably well with Discovering Mathematics, though I believe I am about to encounter surds, and really don’t have a clue what those are.

Bunny bonding; job search tedium; maths

Walked up to St Peter’s Avenue on the afternoon of Sunday 22nd to meet the lovely Sandra to view potential new companions for Harley. We were shown three female rabbits who were currently without companions – two, Patches and Lexie, whom Sandra had identified in advance as potentially suitable, and a third, Cherry, whom she included mainly because she’s been at the rescue centre for over two years. Ruth settled on Lexie, a largish and seemingly quite boisterous bunny, as her potential mate of preference, deciding (unfairly, I thought) that Cherry was too timid. Patches dented her chances by biting Ruth during the inspection.

I was personally rather charmed by another lone female Flopsy, a pug-faced dwarf lop with, evidently, personality issues – Sandra did try and find a few nice words to sell her to us with, but kept falling back on ‘She’s a dwarf lop’. Flopsy did indeed appear to be wearing a somewhat grumpy expression, but it could just have been the set of her face. By the time we emerged from viewing Cherry, Flopsy had turned her back on us. Poor thing. I do hope she finds an understanding mate.

Ray came round for dinner that evening, for the first time in a while, and we spent a pleasant evening in conversation, though as often happens, mainly him and Ruth in increasingly animated conversation while I chipped in occasionally. I broke up the party at around 11pm in deference to my 5.30am start, and bundled him into a taxi still clutching a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape we had been keeping as a reward for extended bunny-sitting, but which had somehow got broken into during the course of the evening.

Spent most of the following weekend preparing a presentation and other bits and pieces for another job interview, this time at the School of Oriental and African Studies as was, though it now seems to refer to itself just as SOAS, University of London. The actual interview itself was a mixed bag – presentation and first tranche of questioning went well; after that things went a bit downhill. Shoe crisis led to my wearing a none-too-comfortable pair of shoes I hadn’t worn for a while, so my feet were raw by the end of the day. Ended the day by realising I’d lost my debit card in a self-checkout machine at Euston, which said it all really.

Drove down to Abergavenny last Friday afternoon for my first viewing of Mum and Dad’s new house. There seems little way of ever making it a less than 3 hour journey from Milton Keynes, but my chosen route via back roads down to the A40, and thence on the A40 via Gloucester and Ross-on-Wye, proved particularly long-winded, not helped by snagged up Friday traffic at the A417 Air Balloon roundabout at Birdlip and around Monmouth. The journey was quite pretty though. Returning on the Sunday I chose the dull but quicker M5-M42-M40 route.

Much of Saturday and Sunday morning was spent looking after Nia while Dave and Hazel went to a wedding reception. I say “looking after” – Mum did the brunt of it, though I did contrive to push pushchairs and put DVDs in the DVD player. Was quite intrigued to see the revamped version of Postman Pat, in which Pat is no longer a mere postman but has been promoted to Head of the Special Delivery Service, and has a satnav and a mobile. Hannah and Henry called in for an hour or so in the afternoon, and we had cupcakes to celebrate Nia’s 18-month ‘birthday’ the day before.

As I write, Harley is now back home from his week away being ‘bonded’ with Lexie, together with his new ‘companion’. We had received a ‘heads up’ from Sandra during his time away to the effect that the bonding appeared to be going well, and indeed they posted this photo on Reading Rabbit Rescue’s Facebook page, together with slightly over-cutesy caption.

At the moment I have my reservations – a few days in to the new couple’s bonding, Steve and Sandra discovered that she had given Harley a bite for which he has had to go on a course of antibiotics. When I spoke to Ruth on the phone at the weekend, the two of them were apparently about as far away from each other as they could get. Time will tell if things improve.

Have recently signed up for another OU module, this time ‘Discovering Mathematics’. While not especially interested in maths for maths’ sake, I am quite interested in a couple of the statistics modules the OU offers, but as they both advise students to have a certain level of mathematics proficiency, and as I haven’t formally studied maths since taking my O-level in 1985, I thought perhaps a refresher might be the thing. Going OK so far, though I'm only a short way in to Unit 1. I have worked out how to switch on my newly-purchased scientific calculator though.

On the topic of exciting training opportunities: received a recent email from one of the several JISCMail lists I am subscribed to at work, advertising an Autumn 2013 programme of workshops, one of which was titled ‘Hands-on Augmented Reality’. ‘Augmented Reality’ probably has some technical meaning of which I am unaware, but on the surface it sounds as though it might involve magic mushrooms or similar.