An Oxford Long Weekend i)
Well there are still tales to be told re the return to Canberra in July, and in theory, those would be up by now. But as this weekend past is still fresh in my mind - and since I just scared someone who was coming around the corner to collect her washing (I was thinnking about one of the tales below, laughed heartily and shouted out KRUM! and she jumped at the Conan reference, thinking the building had been invaded by warrior renegades.)
Caroline stayed here in Oxford town en route to Geneva. She had good times up Scotland way, and although no single malt bottles were purchased, she did find me a guide to the hidden inns and outs (that's going in the book) of places to stay in (Old) Caledonia.
Day 1, or rather, Evening 1, consisted of a pint at the King's Arms of some standard English beer - warm and flat. The accompaniment was a most venerable packet of pork scratchings - delightful rinds of pork injected and infused (Gillete shaving cream ad style) with extra salt and fat: for the good times. The Quiz Machine was hit up: somehow we got into the WARZONE in Battleships, which involved a lot of quizzical (HA!) looks and pushing random buttons, to win £4.50. Then came the habitual dogging of me, by the machine:
Who was the first wicket-keeper to score centuries in both innings of a test match?
A) Rod Marsh
B) Andy Flowers
C) Alec Stewart
I didn't know, but we had a try again, so a guess was on the cards. I looked at B - Andy Flowers? Florae? Plural? Surely not - the Flower Brothers, although there were two of them, were each singular men - and a double plural would just defy any sensible scoring sheet. So, after realising that B) was in fact a fictitious cricketer, I selected A, for the simple reason that Rod Marsh was not English and therefore could bat. WRONG. OK, says I, proud of my deductive reasoning - we shall pick C the only sane answer left in the shed. Oh no - wrong again and the £2 we were charging towards ran off into the sunset with the barman. I stood there for a while, stunned, taking swigs of my thick syrupy Cornish ale, wondering Why, Why would the game do that to an innocent player? From now on... it is personal.
Caroline stayed here in Oxford town en route to Geneva. She had good times up Scotland way, and although no single malt bottles were purchased, she did find me a guide to the hidden inns and outs (that's going in the book) of places to stay in (Old) Caledonia.
Day 1, or rather, Evening 1, consisted of a pint at the King's Arms of some standard English beer - warm and flat. The accompaniment was a most venerable packet of pork scratchings - delightful rinds of pork injected and infused (Gillete shaving cream ad style) with extra salt and fat: for the good times. The Quiz Machine was hit up: somehow we got into the WARZONE in Battleships, which involved a lot of quizzical (HA!) looks and pushing random buttons, to win £4.50. Then came the habitual dogging of me, by the machine:
Who was the first wicket-keeper to score centuries in both innings of a test match?
A) Rod Marsh
B) Andy Flowers
C) Alec Stewart
I didn't know, but we had a try again, so a guess was on the cards. I looked at B - Andy Flowers? Florae? Plural? Surely not - the Flower Brothers, although there were two of them, were each singular men - and a double plural would just defy any sensible scoring sheet. So, after realising that B) was in fact a fictitious cricketer, I selected A, for the simple reason that Rod Marsh was not English and therefore could bat. WRONG. OK, says I, proud of my deductive reasoning - we shall pick C the only sane answer left in the shed. Oh no - wrong again and the £2 we were charging towards ran off into the sunset with the barman. I stood there for a while, stunned, taking swigs of my thick syrupy Cornish ale, wondering Why, Why would the game do that to an innocent player? From now on... it is personal.
posted by Tim Trudgian | 8:59 pm
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