Nicola and I visited Woburn, Loughborough, Towcester and Wrest Park this long Bank Holiday weekend. Coincidentally, Nicola comes from the other Woburn in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. I don't want to start a war of comparisons... but this Woburn has its own deer park, wildlife safari, oyster festival (despite being miles from the sea), and resident duke (the Duke of Bedford). The pubs weren't too bad either.
Next day it was good to catch up with the old man in Loughborough. As you can see my Dad doesn't get a lot of visitors these days. The Loughborough region is scattered with fascinating relics of the industrial revolution. The landscape can be quite striking too, as you can see from the heather laden, volcanic crags of Warren Hill.
Surely Towcester should be pronouced "Towster", as Leicester is pronounced "Lester". Instead it's pronounced "Tossiter". After a night in the Saracen's Head, Towcester, we rounded off the weekend at an arts and crafts fair in the lovely grounds of Wrest Park. Pork pies, lemonade and lashings of ginger beer for lunch. Bank holidays are great. Hopefully this nonsense won't catch on.
Holidays
Banks open on Bank Holidays?!?! What is the world coming to? This weekend in NZ we have Labour Day, celebrating the 40 hour week. I'm afraid the new flexibility in working hours often turns into just more hours worked. Apparently in both UK and NZ we are working longer than ever - time to see what the French can teach us I think!
The "heather laden, volcanic crags of Warren Hill" are lovely - but what a turn of phrase! For some reason I can hear it coming from the late great Ronnie Barker, delivered deadpan, but trying not to laugh!
By the way, how on earth would you pronounce Loughborough? Or how about Slough -the home of "The Office"? In theory, we speak English in NZ, but so many place names in the UK are a total enigma.