I should stop saying I'm on a roll getting posts up, life clearly takes that as a challenge!
Anyway here is part two of July - Finally...
On Friday the 19th, the hottest day of the year so far Himself and I headed into Oxford to meet with Soo and Gav to go and see a band called Wayward Sons at the O2 Academy on Cowley Road. Himself had some sort of offer through for £5 tickets so we thought we would give them a go. The band were formed in 2017 by former Little Angels front man Toby Jepson but this was the first either of us had heard of them. Iam so out of touch with music these days.
We went over on the train and walked from the station to the James Street Tavern on the Cowley Road where we had arranged to meet. I was already melting by the time we got there, and the O2 (or The Zodiac as it will always be to those of us of a certain age!) is notorious for being hot at the best of times. It's one of those venues where thw walls literally sweat and I wasn’t looking forward to entering the sweat box.
Soo and Gav were already at the pub and had found a shady table in the garden. I ended up drinking cider AGAIN because there was no decent beer AGAIN.
SIGH.
I cannot wait for this trend of IPA being the in beer to be over, I loathe the stuff. Give me a decent pint of ale/bitter please!
It was still well over 30 degrees at 8pm. Soo had a bottle of water with her which she was expecting to have to hand over to security when she went in, but the guy said whilst ordinarily he would have taken it, due to the extreme weather she could take it in with her. He also pointed out to us where they had opened the small, bar near the entrance downstairs for anyone who needed to get free water or was just feeling the effects of the heat and needed to sit somewhere with ventilation to cool off. I don’t know whether the age of the building restricts air con being added, but I’m glad they were actually trying to do something.
Himself loved the band as did Gav. They were very good at what they did and put on one hell of a show but it was not really my thing. Probably a good job as it was way too hot to want to be dancing about anyway.
Fair play to them for giving it their all given the temperature, as you can see from a picture at the start fo the gig
I did think I saw someone I recognised in the crowd and sure enough when the lights came up and I could see properly I realised it was the drummer from my brother’s first band who I haven’t seen in years.
It was so lovely to have a quick catch up, sadly quick because Himself and I had to head off for the train, we did exchange details though and have been chatting on messenger since.
Very randomly my brother had gone to see Nephew Number One’s band play a gig in Oxford earlier in the month and the first person he saw on walking into the pub where they were playing was one of the guitarists from his old band (my brother played bass.) They had already arranged to get together for a drink and reminisce, so he was thrilled to be reconnected with his old drummer too. Himself was joking they will be reforming the band at this rate!
The 25th was my Mum’s birthday and she had decided on the weekend after she wanted us to go up Watlington Hill where we scattered Dad’s ashes. The Sunday worked best for everyone so my brother picked Himself and I up late morning and we drove over for Sunday lunch in one of the pubs in Mum’s village. Rather than a traditional roast I went with the fish of the day which was a delicious piece of plaice.
Nephew Number One arrived shortly after we have finished lunch and we all squeezed into my brother's car to head to Watlington.
The weather was glorious, and the hill was alive with wild flowers which in their turn were full of bees and other insects. It was the first time we had been since scattering Dad's ashes and als the first time the nephew had been at all. He was really taken with what a wonderful place it is with it's panoramic views across Oxfordshire.
We all took our time seperating and joining together in different groups to remember Dad, until it got too hot and we decamped down the hill to the Spire and Spoke pub for a refeshing drink.
From there we went back to Mum's and sat out on the patio chatting until it was time to head home. Even Bobby deigned to grace us with his presence!
So that was July. I will endeavour to get August and September together before the end of the year...
