{"id":7073,"date":"2014-10-12T07:05:28","date_gmt":"2014-10-12T06:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/?p=7073"},"modified":"2014-10-10T18:11:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T17:11:50","slug":"12-october-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/2014\/10\/12\/12-october-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"12 October 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

In spite of the dire forecasts for this week\u2019s weather, I have to concede that it wasn\u2019t as bad as all that. The first part of the week was assuredly wet and windy (floods and storm damage in various other parts of the country), but the tail end of the week has been tolerably pleasant. Fresh, to be sure, and definitely continuing the autumnal theme we\u2019ve been working on. But after the showers raced through on Wednesday and Thursday it\u2019s been bright and sunny and dry. Can\u2019t complain.<\/p>\n

Wednesday we braved the showers and had a pleasant day pottering around the Cotswolds. We had a late morning coffee at a lovely new coffee shop in Witney \u2013 I wish I could remember its name; I would give it a positive review on TripAdvisor.<\/p>\n

Whilst Pen was at the counter ordering our drinks and an apple bun (very tasty), I struck up a conversation with an older woman sitting at the next table. She was waiting for her husband who was just behind Penny in the queue. She had been trying to attract his attention calling him by name, \u201cSteve. Steve. Steve!!\u201d As she hadn\u2019t established contact, I decided to help out.<\/p>\n

\u201cSTEVE!!\u201d I bellowed and he finally turned around (along with all the other patrons). This led to a discussion concerning getting older and the gradual loss of hearing which occurs in some (although she felt her husband exhibited mainly selective hearing loss.) I related the saga\u00a0of Pen\u2019s father’s experiences with his hearing aid.<\/p>\n

Oz is, to put it mildly, very hard of hearing and he has a hearing aid provided to him by the NHS. However, he never wears it and suggests, instead, that the reason he doesn\u2019t hear what people say is that everyone else is mumbling. Sometimes when you have to bellow to make him hear you get the reply, \u201cThere\u2019s no need to take that tone with me!\u201d You can\u2019t win.<\/p>\n

\"Mrs<\/a>After Witney we drove through Stow to Moreton-in-Marsh where we moseyed around the galleries for a spell and then began to look for somewhere to have a bite to eat. We resisted the obvious charms of Mrs T Potts Tea Room<\/a> and settled instead on the Victoria Coffee House<\/a> for a couple of paninis and a portion of chips before a leisurely drive across the countryside home. A splendid day out.<\/p>\n

The lunch in Moreton was in marked contrast to the snack we forced down at a new \u201cMexican\u201d burrito bar on Banbury High Street, much to our mutual disappointment. Pen had been into town earlier in the morning and had spotted this new establishment, opened only last Monday. After we stretched and twisted our way through our yoga session, she surprised me by offering to buy me lunch.<\/p>\n

Never one to refuse such an offer, especially with such delightful company, she led me to Lucca Burrito, a \u201cMexican\u201d take on the sandwich bars which adorn most UK high streets. We both opted for the pulled pork burrito and, as you might imagine, I was salivating at the prospect.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the resulting burrito was a considerable disappointment. It had refried beans, OK. The pulled pork again was OK. But the whole thing was bland and tasteless. No doubt the use of chili and hot spice had been toned down for the British palate, but please! It needed some spices to give it a bit of taste and flavour. To make matters worse, it was filled with rice which, as well as being tasteless, was lukewarm at best. Oh well, at least the corn chips were OK.<\/p>\n

While browsing the Guardian the other day, I spotted another property on the market which is clearly tempting those who might be contemplating putting in an offer for ours.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s got a cinema, a marble disco, an infinity pool with waterslide, a bedroom the size of two tennis courts \u2013 and tables upholstered in stingray skin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s the penthouse suite in Monaco\u2019s new Odeon Tower<\/a> and could be yours for a mere \u00a3260 million.<\/p>\n

And, if that\u2019s too rich for you, how about this wine auctioned in Hong Kong recently<\/a>? 114 bottles of Burgundy for $1.6 million or, a mere $14,000 each.<\/p>\n

\"Wine\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve asked this question before \u2013 is this wine really that much better than the stuff I drink? Probably so.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re off to the States for the next couple of weeks \u2013 we hope to catch some of the autumn foliage in New England and then some sunshine and warm weather in Southern California. So, it\u2019s a case of good news, bad news. The good news is that there may well not be any editions of the Befouled News during our journey; the bad news is that there will probably be lots to share when we get back! Enjoy your break!<\/p>\n

Love to you all,<\/p>\n

Greg<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In spite of the dire forecasts for this week\u2019s weather, I have to concede that it wasn\u2019t as bad as all that. The first part of the week was assuredly wet and windy (floods and storm damage in various other parts of the country), but the tail end of the week has been tolerably pleasant. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “12 October 2014”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w76b-1Q5","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7073"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7084,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7073\/revisions\/7084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stragnell.com\/befoulednews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}