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We’re at Butlins holiday camp and It’s worse than expected.  It’s like stepping back in time. The complex was built in 1962 and it looks like it hasn’t been updated since. Our room is like a really bad hostel.

We took the room and food option which means we get breakfast and dinner. It’s all you can eat stodge in a buffet style. Stuff like lasagna, floppy pasta, curry and chips. It didn’t taste as bad as it looked.

The beer bellied men I mentioned in my last post are all here with their beer bellied wives and beer bellied children. A lot of these people also have brightly coloured hair (reds,greens,yellows etc).

Funny looking people

Tomorrow we are going to Butlins. This is an English holiday camp like on the TV sitcom Hi-de-Hi. I’m not sure whether to be excited or apprehensive.

I have visions of fat middle aged ladies in bikinis, lounging around the pool, while their kids run and scream unattended all over the place. Then the awful visions of smelly middle aged men sporting giant beer bellies while sitting at the bar drinking pints of Stella.

Guess we will out what it is all about tomorrow, we’ll keep you posted.

We decided to head up the London for the afternoon as it is only an hour on the train from Banbury to Marylebone Station. We wandered up Baker Street, then down Oxford Street and this turned out to be a rather expensive route (or a cheap route depending which way you look at it).

We stopped at a Sunglass hut and both bought a new pair of Maui Jim’s each. I’d researched the prices in NZ and we actually ended up getting 2 pairs of sunnies for $200 less than what I would have paid in NZ for 1 pair. So in that way it was a bargain. Mike can replace his superglued pair, and I can replace my pair as the lenses are corroding.

We also found a bike shop and I finally got myself a new cycle jacket. On my past cycle rides my jackets have always leaked, so I spent a bit extra on this jacket as it is GUARANTEED to be waterproof, and highly breathable so you don’t sweat inside the jacket. We’ll see. I also bought a new pair of cycle shorts as mine are starting to disintegrate.

We met Ang, Kirsty and Alison at the Waterloo bar and grill for drinkees, then went into Soho to my favourite Korean barbeque restaurant. The tables have a small barbecue grill in them and we had a selection of marinated seafood, followed by a selection of marinated meats. These are eaten wrapped up in lettuce leaves and rice. Absolutely yummy!

We then raced to the station to catch the train back to Banbury, but arrived late.Thankfully the train was delayed so we ran and jumped on it. Turned out all the trains had been delayed as there had been a fatality on the line. So what should have been a 55 minute train journey turned into a 2 hour journey and we didn’t get back until well after midnight.

We didn’t take too many photos but here are a few. The flag photos are because of the Queens Jubilee (I had to be told that).

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We’re now in Banbury, just north of Oxford. We had a good flight. We got upgraded to Premium economy in the first leg to Hong Kong but had to go back to economy for the second leg. It was ok though as we didn’t have anyone sitting next to us so we were able to stretch out and sleep for the flight.  We watched a funny movie called Rubbish Bosses. It was hilarious and to top it off – had my two favourite actors in it (Kevin Spacey and Jason Bateman).

We had a speedy check-in at Heathrow through the electronic check-in. Our bags were waiting for us at the Carousel (they remove all the priority bags so they were easy to find). Our rental car is a nice VW golf.

We arrived in Banbury about 5pm and Matt and Sonia greeted us with a giant bottle of corona.

I had a bit of an incident with mine

The giant corona frothed at me

We spent a pleasant evening in the garden, sitting around the fire and the sun didn’t disappear until about 9.30pm. A perfect way to start our holiday.