An Inkling of What is to Come

Passport? Check. Print out of tickets for budget airline? Check. Maps of various Oxfordshire towns with pubs marked on them (including the Eagle and Child)? Check. Shopping list of beers from Sainsbury's, Tesco's or pretty much anywhere I can get them? Check.

This afternoon I am flying to the UK, for the first time since 2005 - I am not the kind of expat who likes to get home every couple of months, in fact since I came to life in Prague back in 1999, I have been home a grand total of 7 times. Admittedly my parents no longer live in the Outer Hebrides, having moved to the Haute-Vienne region of France a couple of years back - so I am more likely to go to France than I am to go home, even though all 3 of my brothers still live in the UK. Having parents in France rather than the north west of Scotland actually means I have seen more of my brothers in the last two years than in the previous 7 combined.

This trip came about because Mrs Velkyal is attending an education conference in Oxford, and my elder brother lives in the town of Bicester - so why not take a day off work and have a jolly? So while my good lady wife is honing the fine art of educating kids aged 3-6 (I really wonder where she gets the patience for the job from), I will be discovering the varied liquid delights of Oxford - and maybe scampering off to nearby villages to take pictures of breweries and the like.

No doubt a lot of next weeks posts will be about my findings in the various pubs, and if anyone reading this is from Oxford and you see a rather tall chap sitting in the pub, nursing a pint and making notes in his little book, and taking pictures of his pints, then come over, say hello and have a drink.