Good Fridays are ......... Good

Phew, today was a bit of a rush around. I nearly forgot that it was a bank holiday and that I was due to meet Amanda (a friend from Forest Hill) at 10.30am in Oxford. As I rushed out of my apartment, I met Steve who was just coming out of his apartment.

"I say Steve!" I hailed, "top of the morning to you!" He was dressed like a rambler with boots and thick socks on, so I enquired what he was doing.

"Oi am going owt fur a long walk" he replied in his Brummie accent. I instantly spotted an opportunity to fob Naughty George off onto someone else. "Do you want to take Naughty George with you?" I asked. "Oh alroight then" he said begrudingly (opportunity spotted, job done!). It seemed like a fair trade to me, given that I was taking little Izzy to Oxford with me to play with Amanda's children, Abi and Imogen.

The morning was really good fun, and it was well worth paying £4.50 to get Izzy and Abi's faces painted as cats so that I could take a comedy photograph. Would you believe that Abi (on the right) is 3 months older than Izzy? She is sooooooo tall. I have a theory that she is going to be a supermodel when she grows up. Go Abi Moss!

So what next............ ummmmmmm. I know! - it was time to grab lunch, because I haven't eaten out in ages! We decided to try somewhere new and this time it was Cafe Coco on Cowley Road in Oxford. It is a cafe/bistro type place which has had pretty good reviews by the Telegraph, Independent and Observer.

The first thing I noticed was the the interior was very funky, but the chairs were uncomfortable - they were like patio chairs that leant back too much so only the bottom strut of the backrest makes contact with your back (if you know what I mean?!). For main courses, we ordered Merguez and Tzatziki, and Chorizo Mushroom Salad.

It took 50 minutes for the food to arrive at the table, which was pretty poor, and the quality was good, but not brilliant. One major downer was that the Chorizo salad was way too small for a main course, in that if I had inhaled too quickly, it would have been totally consumed. Actually, if you are on a diet, that could be construed as a major plus (the glass is always half full!)

After lunch, I went round to Steves apartment to collect Naughty George. The first thing I noticed about him was that he had no collar on. The second was that he actually smelt quite pleasant.

"Blimey, what's gone on here?" I asked Steve.

"He smelt loike a bag of Tangy Cheese Dorritos, so I gave him a bath," Steve replied, "but oi wish oi hadn't now because the sludge has blocked me plughole."

"That is exactly why I don't bath him, " I replied, secretly grateful that I could now be in the same room as my dog without my eyes smarting.

Once back in my kitchen, I took a picture of Naughty George in his basket. If I had tried to do the same thing yesterday, all you would have seen in the picture would have been a yellow haze.

Finally, I could not resist publishing a picture of the great British Bank Holiday weather. Yep, it's raining......... and does so without fail nearly every bank holiday. The picture above is the patio outside my kitchen doors. Llamas live in the field behind that hedge, and they seem to be but one of the bizarre pets favoured by Oxfordshire residents.