Dinner by the river

We don't go out to eat as much as we did when we lived in Oxford, which is generally a good thing. But last night we were briefly in town to check the mail at Wolfson and thought we'd have a dinner out while we were at it.

We briefly considered dinner in the Wolfson hall, but the current offerings didn't look too exciting (they rarely do). So instead we headed for one of our favorite old haunts, the Victoria Arms pub.

I'm sure I've described it before, but briefly: it's a historic pub where apparently Oliver Cromwell drank and it has a wonderful setting on the Thames River. Many people arrive on a punt rather than in a car.


A half-pint of cider for me a pint of some kind of beer for David, with a glimpse of a punter on the river in the distance.

It was such a beautiful evening and such a good time. Among our conversation topics were Top Gun (I first watched it at a 6th-grade slumber party; now think it's so corny in a high-five kind of way I can't even stand to watch it anymore; David still thinks it's way cool and cracked me up with a variety of quotes) and how David seriously considered becoming a Navy pilot or an FBI agent when both were recruiting heavily at U of O.

For dinner I had a spinach-marscapone lasagna and David had a beef lasagna, both of which were delicious. I forgot to photograph those, but I remembered at dessert:


Oh man, these were good. Mine is a "blackberry-apple flapjack crumble" and David's is a toffee pudding. Both were served hot and with that wonderful side of whipped cream. It's a really good thing we don't come here often!

In a directly related matter, last week while on an exploratory walk I discovered a hilly gravel road just across the street, which I plan to attempt to jog on. Unlike the rest of the roads around us, this one doesn't have cars brushing past your elbow at 50 mph.



I believe that all this property also belongs to our landlords, and in any case it's on a public footpath. Public footpaths are a really wonderful feature of England that I hope to take more advantage of this summer. Unfortunately, on our last walk I wore my wellies with the wrong socks and ended up with a horribly raw heel that has prevented me from wearing proper shoes ever since. So that's my excuse for not jogging yet, but the excuse will run out in a few days!