T.Y in the U.K

We were recently graced with a visit from our good friend Chris (T.Y) from Wellington. The N.Z. Government, in it's infinite wisdom, decided to fly him to the far side of the earth (business class of course) so he could spend a few days at a conference that wouldn't finish until he was back in Welly at his wedding. We're not complaining though, at last we're seeing our taxes spent in a way that benefits us.
Despite warnings that there was some heavy drinking to be done T.Y failed to live up to his once fearsome reputation, settling for traditional continental breakfasts whilst staying with us, as opposed to the liquid ones he had traditionally enjoyed at our house. On the Saturday of the weekend he was staying we drove up to Oxford (only 50 minutes away) so that he could have a look around where he used to live. We started with a nice wander up the river to a pub where we had a few pints and some lunch. After we miraculously found our way back into town (nice navigating Von) we checked out some of the standard Oxford sights and then the two Chris' headed off to visit a museum.



The Pitt-Rivers museum was excellent with lots of interesting stuff collected from the colonies over the last century and a half including some dope, plenty of things to smoke it with, and lots of shrunken heads and skulls taken as trophies by head hunters. It's all pretty disorganised and it was great just to wander and browse in a darkened dusty room. It made such a nice change from every other museum which tries to be educational and keeps most of it's stock in storage so as not to appear cluttered. After TY had mortally offended someone by unwittingly stepping over an instrument in a Gamelan orchestra (all in a days work) we went and had another beer and met up with Vonny. Of course the real reason Chris wanted to visit Oxford was because it's full of gorgeous women, and as you can see from his smile he considered the trip an unbridled success.



The next day the Chris' went for a little ride on the bikes around Pednor and then came back for a fried breakfast (He's still so thin!). Here's the three of us in our back yard.



It was great to have Chris here, especially because he did the dishes. We look forward to seeing him and his lovely wife Clare in September when they are travelling in Europe. Congratulations guys.

Corrigendum

It is with regret that I must inform readers of some inaccuracies in the 'Tour de Chesham' post below. The first is that Derek tells me the land he had to tend whilst at school during the war was in fact on Pednor Mead (other side of Church Street) not the allotments on the corner. Of slightly more interest the origins of the name Chesham are not a clear as I had been informed. It would appear that the river Chess actually took it's name from the town rather than vice-versa and Chesham was originally known as Caesteleshamm, or the water meadow by the stone heap. The stone heap in question was a Pagan stone circle on the site that is now occupied by St Mary's Church (c.1120-1140 but since restored) which is situated on Church St. A number of the original stones were used in the foundations of the church and are still visible today including the large pudding or agglomerate stone shown in the picture below. These stones are not particularly common and are made up of small rounded flints set in a hard grey stone, with an appearance not dissimilar to some types of concrete. By the time it was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086 Chesham had become Cestreham, which eventually became Chesham.