Day out in Oxford

Here I am outside an amazing cake shop at the indoor  market in Oxford (wearing the lovely scarf that Jose gave me).  The cakes pictured are in one of the windows on display and in the next window you can watch the girls at work making and decorating the cakes. It looked like a great job with all the best equipment on hand.


Here are two examples of what they get up to, a Birthday Cake and a Wedding Cake.

Not far from there in the same market was a very famous Butcher's. They go to a lot of trouble to make the meat look amazing on display (unlike the semi defrosted, torn packaging look that most of the meat at Cocos IslandCo-op has!).

Wouldn't it be great to have access to food like this on a daily basis?

Finally, a walk by the River Thames (or Isis) in the lovely afternoon sunshine.  We  had delicious food  at "The Head of the River " pub, washed down with a pint of yummy English beer.  Lots of blooming daffodils, young students out in punts and ducks and geese enjoying the warmth.

And now I'm in England...

After a long and tedious journey, I finally made it to England and here I am with my mother and brother checking out the food and coffee in Witney.

The weather has been fantastic. Not at all cold or windy. Sunny days!

I have taken advantage of the beautiful weather and been out bird watching.  Pictured here is a Blue Tit in a Willow Tree and a couple of Mallard Ducks in a stream near my Mothers house.

Fantastic Team looking after Dory's Cafe while Pam absconds

I (Pam)  flew off to Perth on 17th March leaving the Cafe in the capable hands of Brenda, Di and Chrissie.  Christine has come in for some extra days too, so that the cafe can happily remain open while I'm away. Geof is in charge of pie making and as he knows his way around the stock both at home and the cafe, will keep things ticking along in that department.

A huge thank you to all concerned for keeping this essential Island service going while I am away! Two days after I left they had the busiest day ever and I felt really guilty about leaving.  Since then things appear to have returned to normal.





Here is a picture of the freshly painted unit I went to Perth to sort out for sale.I scraped all the paint off the tiles in the kitchen and also scraped off a covering that had been sprayed on the bench tops by someone many moons ago.  It all came up quite well as the paint had been protecting the surfaces underneath all this time. Neutral coloured paint in dining room and lounge, IKEA pictures on the wall, carpet cleaned and hey presto, inside done.

Next stop, the garden. Jan (my best friend in Perth) came over and helped me and we worked well into the evening; sweeping, clearing out the dead stuff and repotting the brave plants that had managed to survive months of neglect. Lots of watering, and finally the duck that a previous tennent had left behind was placed in a strategic position to complete the picture. One unit, ready for sale!

I stayed with Chris and Mel (my son and his girlfriend) when I got to Perth and then moved into the unit while I was doing it up. Chris has now got his drivers licence and is the proud owner of a tray back ute. Mel was busy studying for nursing exams.

Chris and Mel joined me for an entertaining dinner at Jack and Lyns. They were in the process of packing for Cocos and will be up there by now. They are hoping that fish wraps will be on the menu at the cafe.

I had a lovely evening with Jeff and Jill who are in the process of moving up to Cocos.  Jill cooked a delicious dinner and Jes (windsurfer) and Amanda went along too.  Jeff and Jill were also kind enough to take me to the airport the next day as I was flying off to England to see my family.Jill will help us out at the cafe when she finally gets there.