Some Jazz, Electro, and Cotswolds

Hi Everyone!

so its been ages I know. In fact almost two months since our last blog. When we started this we forgot that with sites such as facebook, regular email, and life in general there really isnt alot of time left to devote to our blog. But we shall try to rectify this. So I think this will be the first entry of three to catch up on whats going on. I thought we should title them before new york, new york, and after new york, but I have been kindly reminded that this blog is not all about me

So ages ago now my dad came to visit. And as previously threatened we took him to see some jazz (Julian Joseph trio). It was great, definitely one of the best jazz pianists I have ever seen (but also the only one). Even though I agree my knowledge of what is good in jazz is limited, I was hugely impressed and felt really inspired to start playing piano again. Jenny and Harry were also there (and for those of you watching tv in the UK you might be interested to know Harry appeared on Last Choir Standing on BBC 1 last night!).

It turned out to be a great night, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

Then Im not sure what happened. But at some point Jenny and I went to see Soulwax, a dance/electro music band. That was great actually we had loads of fun and they were extremely good. So after that I wanted to by a synth instead of piano, but now Ive reached a compromise and decided that I want both. Dont have any pics of Soulwax performing, just some I took with my phone of a couple of DJs doing a warm up set and tshirts Soulwax were selling which pretty much sum up what they are about.

And then Im sure lots of interesting things happened between that and the cotswolds, but yet again its a while back and we dont have it documented with our camera. But we did decide to go to Patrick's parents place in the cotswolds on the friday before I went to New York to Jonathan's wedding. Patrick, Louise, and Andy (who drove us) and then Jen and myself went. The "lodge" as its called is close to swindon (30 mins away) by an artificial lake and several ponds in a holiday home kind of community. So there are tennis courts etc... and its gated. We left on the Friday after Andy had finished his exams in the afternoon and got there around 7ish in the evening.

The next day we woke up and it was quite rainy and not too warm, but in spite of it all we went out and did some kayaking on the pond outside the lodge.

It was actually great fun, although Andy and I did struggle to fit ourselves into the kayaks which made the thought of capsizing slightly unnerving. But Jen was a pro from the beginning, easily managing to to get herself around whereas I constantly kept swerving and veering around. But while out there we could see the bottom of the pond was literally crawling with crayfish. So we then attempted to catch them. This consisted of us lying on our stomachs trying to grab them from the pond bottom. It didnt work too well to begin with so we tried using a range of tools. But eventually found the by louring them out with an old piece of fried fish we could use the bbq tongs to grab them one by one.

I also created a trap with a coke bottle which worked impressively considering the shoddy construction.

We actually didnt end up eating them as we had just had lunch, but we took them back to oxford in the car with us.

So yes that was part of what we have been up to. Will try to post the rest soon!