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Oxford May Mornings


An early start this Saturday morning, the memory still fresh from a superlative bottle of Gevrey-Chambertin Dom Maume, 2006 last night. A glorious nectar of a wine, all sweet strawberries and warm delicate fruits. Nothing heavy here, slipping down perfectly with a pasta dish. The 2006 vintage is indeed charming, and the premier cru wines will be even better I am sure...
Into Romsey for chores, and the refreshing urgent sense of a town in the crisp pale sunlight. It may be a bit of a cliche about fresh mornings, but like all cliches, they are true for a good reason! So, lots done and home by 10am, with a smug sense of getting ahead of the general populus!
Then off to Oxford, where I am sitting at present in the Eagle and Child on St. Giles, supping a delightful pint of Brakspears. I am a bit early for an old School event in Chipping Norton, and so thought I would pass an hour in the Clarendon Street area, because you are just outside the centre of Oxford, and so can park outside, usually, for an hour, and that makes it a perfect pit stop. There are a couple of lovely shops, including one called Central, full of gorgeous designery things..all fearfully expensive though. Anyway, back to the beer - this pub is a classic old English pub, so naturally it is full of tourists and the staff are Irish and Eastern European, but the beer is at least well kept. And, I am sneaking a wifi connection from the cafe next door, which is hanging on by two bars.
Running tomorrow I hope, perhaps 9 or 10 miles, no more than that until I am certain that my little piriformus problem has gone away..a tiny muscle in the left buttock (!) that causes the leg to rotate outwards slightly, and just this little bit off 'true' is enough to set up all sorts of pains down the leg. I am now four weeks after London - the recommended waiting time - an as expected, I am just starting to want to set a new goal, and get a bit 'twitchy' for running. I shall give it a couple more weeks and then I will be eager, for sure.
Pip pip!

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