Oh what a lov-er-ly day

Well today started less than punctually so I was a bit cross with myself as I set off in the gorgeous sunshine to Oxford. And Oxford is a brilliant place to go via the Park and Ride but not so good to get into by car. Needs must though - even if it was only me driving and I am not the devil - since Frangelita needed me to be parked near the bus station. (because she had a heavy portfolio to dispose of).
Things more than merely looked up though almost at once..as after parking near where I thought the bus station ought to be I called Fran on the mobile to say where exactly is the bus station and she said don't move, I can see you, just let me get of the bus....and I turned round to see a bus drawing up beside me, literally, and Fran getting out of it! Looking like a million dollars all got up for a job interview.
Then we went to the market on the off chance that we'd be able to find The Beep at his stall! And we did, after a lot of peering surreptitiously at stall holders with antiques (and particularly with mirrors on their stalls:). It was momentarily a bit scary when we definitely identified him...chatting to next door...we hadn't warned him we were coming...he might be horrified...too busy to give us the time of day...Oh my goodness, I thought, what have we done!
Ridiculous. Just as charming and funny and likeable as his blog...more even. What a delightful man and how lovely to have met him at last:)*

After all this excitement,Fran and I had a lovely lunch, we exchanged Kenya/Thailand presents (mine is a lovely blue and turquoise, Thai silk scarf) she had an interview, I did a bit of shopping and bought a cheap SD card for my camera (hope it works) and then we met a friend of hers for coffee (originally planned to be in Blackwells....we feel that Oxford is over-endowed with Blackwells shops...there's a music shop, a bookshop and an art/poster shop...so which one has the coffee shop? The one that doesn't take cards of course. We went to Waterstones). Then Fran caught her bus and so ended a tremendous day.

So, what kind of bird do you substitute for lamps on a lamp post?

An Very Important Pigeon of course.


Coffee and sunset at Waterstones (sorry, crap picture but I had to embarrass my daughter and inconvenience several shoppers to get it so it had to be posted)

And did I mention leopards? After dinner OK?
See them now?


After chasing each other around the top of the thorn tree for a while, these two young males posed for us before turning into spotted black and yellow water and flowing down the tree trunk to run off into the savannah.
I am totally in love with leopards.

*The Beep and I have history of near but not quite achieved blog-meets! I'll definitely be back Beep. Shall I bring a coffee and a bun next time :)