the corner office

I never noticed it last year, but geez, everyone went holiday-nuts for this long weekend. I think half the office has gone away this weekend or taken the coming week off for a final summer holiday. I read somewhere that this bank holiday traditionally marks the end of summer, and people are out there making damned sure they catch them last few rays of sun.

Anyhoo, we weren't any different. We made our way along the M25, clogged with campers and caravans and all manner of holiday-bound transportation all making an exodus to who knows where.

It's always great going back to Oxfordshire... day to day you don't notice it, and least of all because we live in a really sleepy suburb, but as you head into the countryside, you feel the oppressiveness and bustle of the city disappear. There's nothing like zipping through the hills towards Henley, and then working through small hamlets towards Wallingford, finally crossing the bridge and into the old town with the old buildings arching over the road. Awesome.

We had a lazy Saturday with Leo stomping around his aunt and uncle's back garden. Sunday we went for lunch at The Reformation in Gallowstree Common, just outside Reading. Brilliant food. And Brakspears mmmmm. My sister and brother in law discovered the pub and now go regularly because they know the proprietors, and no complaints from us. Well worth visiting if you're ever in the area.

We ended off yesterday with a long walk around Wallingford, and a stroll up the Thames. I love the idea of walking alongside the river, idyllic and lazy with people fishing and boats dawdling back and forth, and knowing that at some point all that water comes flowing past where I work in Hammersmith, and under the bridge my train crosses in the morning. I romanticise the Thames, I know, probably because coming from Joburg, we had no rivers, just a few hardly-noticed spruits, and that was it. Rivers rock.

All in all, a very good-for-the-soul weekend.