I am about a week late for Valentine’s day – the annual retailer’s dream day. With most people getting flowers, chocs, champagne and dinner in a posh restaurant, perhaps you would like to see what I got……..

Because I got a dozen of Krispy Kreme . With special Valentine’s edition doughnut in the shape of a heard with a strawberry filling. Now, isn’t this better than flowers that costs 5 times more and wilt anyway? All together now….aaaawwww….

We actually started the day off in Daysinn…the cheapest of the cheap hotel. No, did not actually go there on purpose, I was still in Oxford and bacon being the super-husband came all the way from the other end of the country to pick me up – so we thought we’ll stay the night at the cheapest place we could find.

I don’t actually think the rooms are that bad…clean, spacious, complimentary toilteries and coffee/tea making facilities. Comes with free newspapers – which DeVere hotel charged me 50p for. To be honest, I would rather stay in the Daysinn rather than the posh DeVere.

We walked along Cowley road – Oxford’s famous restaurant mile, but ended up getting the abovementioned Krispy Kreme for breakfast…as I couldn’t actually find cafe that serves breakfast..sigh. After breakfast (well, brunch) we drove into Oxford city centre to have a wander around…Oxford’s a real lovely city. Ended up at the Covered Market, a lovely market housing anything from traditional butchers, hatmakers, juice bars and natural toileteries stalls.

We came across MooMoos…a juice/milkshake bar. Just look at the variety!!

Bacon bought me a mars milkshake,very similar with those from Perhentian’s!!! AWWWW! Although he did slurp it up like a pint of beer and I only really had a taste of it….hmpf. Love the hanging pineapples behind him by the way

Pie Minster serves a variety of pie with traditional gravy, mushy peas and mash. Bacon had the traditional steak and kidney ale pie. Yummilicious! There are other varieties from chorizo to thai chicken curry. The crust was crisp and non-oily, whilst the gravy is really groovy! For about £6.25 you get the minty peas, mash, gravy and a choice of pies.

All too soon it was way for us to leave Oxford having exhausted our 2 hour parking. We never seem to stay very long at Oxford due to the prohibitive parking charges. This was the first time I was actually there in the daytime, and would definately return in the near future to spend another day here…this time we will do the park-n-ride rather than trying to find parking in Oxford city centre.

To cap the day off (Leeds is about 3.5hrs away from Oxford), we left Oxford around 1.30pm for Birmingham. Bacon made a detour to Malaysian Delight at Birmingham to bring me to my favourite Assam Laksa. Checked the picture I took when I was last there – mint leaves are missing this time! Not fair! I got a tapau (takeaway) of prawn noodle for Sunday’s breakfast. No pictures there – I devoured it at 10am bleary eyed! YUMM! I can’t really compare Village Cafe’s harmeen with Malaysian Delight, but I would go either restaurant for harmeen. Not sure when will I be able to make it there again….but hopefully it is sometime soon….:)

All in all, an excellent day. Now, the diet starts…..burp.

One of the joys of travelling on business is the freedom of eating out. Or rather, non-freedom. Company expense policies stays the same for years on end, whilst the price of food keeps increasing. Remember my sad piece of chicken for dinner at Ireland?

I wised up this time around. As I managed to negotiate a bargin for the hotel, I got prior agreement for an increase in food allowance – food at The Old Swan is fairly expensive. A three course meal sets you back by £26 – a sole main course costs £15.90. As I arriced fairly late the first day, decided to pop into the Old Swan for the three course meal…

Thai fish cake starter. Not bad, loved the sweet chilli sauce which tasted home made. Fish cake were slightly like fried fish ball.

My starter of slow roasted leg of lamb. Seriously not bad and quite tasty. Comes with a side of delicious veggies – including cheesy potatoes. Like the redcurrant deco, I actually ate it with the lamb.

Dessert of rich chocolate torte. Very rich, yummy and suprisingly smooth and light.

Seeing that I was going to be there for three nights ,thought I should do one night of room service. Having decided on a delish burger, reception rang me back saying that they only had chorizo…basically offering me a spanish sausage in a burger bun. So I went for the fish & chips instead – my other choice was pasta of the day or chicken curry. I really fancied a tomato & basil salad, so had that as well, with a diet coke to wash down.

Total damage was £17.50. Suprisingly, I enjoyed everything except the actual fish. I even liked the fluoroscent green mushy peas…which I don’t usually enjoy.

From the DeVere chain of hotels comes this cutesy little hotel called the Mill & Old Swan. Theoretically two separate buildings, the Swan goes back to about 600 years whilst the Mill about 100 years. Decided on this hotel as I manage to negotiate very good price for my three night stay. Their pricing is highly dependent on seminars/meetings being run as they are a very conference oriented hotel. First and last night stay was at £39 inclusive of breakfast, a bargin. The second night was about £100, again inclusive of breakfast.

The two buildings are located across a road and are not physically linked. This is the Old Swan which I stayed in. Looks good eh? Unfortunately, it was very EXTREMELY poorly lit at night – so poorly lit that I was unable to even find my room which entrance was around the corner from the outside. Even the car park was very poorly lit. Getting around it made me thankful of my knee high boots, otherwise I will be completely mud splattered, as bacon was when he came to look for me. DeVere, that is really really poor for such a high quality hotel chain. Appaling, even.

The River Windrush, about 10 ft away from the front door of the hotel. If you are afraid of fast moving rivers, stay clear of this hotel. Maybe it was the snow melting, but the river burst its banks whilst I was there…making me worry about the fact that I might be flooded in the hotel!

This is The Mill. If you are looking into staying at this hotel, I would recommend requesting for a room at the Mill as it is more modern and better lit. I specifically requested for the Old Swan as they only do room service there – the restaurant is located at the Old Swan and they do not bring it across the road. So if you are staying at The Mill, you would need to walk across the road for breakfast.

Very tight fitting room – all the furniture are very bulky, and I had to literally walk around the furniture and shuffling around. My ground floor room (room 211) comes with french windows opening into a tiny patio…can imagine it being really pretty in summer but not in the snow! Has its own patio furniture and planter pots.

One note of caution – they provided me with one soap and one tube of shampoo for the whole duration of my trip. Nothing else. My coffee/tea caddy was never refilled even when I emptied it all out. They did not even change my sheets NOR towels for the duration of three days I was there. And one of the towels was disgusting with brown splotches of mud that I have used to wipe my dirty boots on my first night. They folded it up and placed it on the sink again – after me throwing it on the floor. How disgusting is THAT? Again, DeVere…you are degrading yourself to a negative star property. Even DaysInn motel provided me with fresh towels daily and a bigger array of toileteries – replenished daily and a quick call to reception if I needed more. Shame on you, DeVere.

However, there is a really nice wood burning fire at reception, with magazines abound and free tea/coffee section for the ultimate lounging in winter time. Nice comeback.

And with picturesque neighbours like this thatched roof cottage…who could resist this old world charm?

I tried walking to the Minster, but ended in the Church instead – which is about a 15 minutes walk from the hotel.

I never found the Minster…apparently I made the wrong turning and ended up in the dead end church..

This sign reminded me of my good friend drey…who is going on lent

OMG you mean there is more?????

Yes! I’m just not sure when is it actually going to snow ever again – especially snow thick enough to play with. Unfortunately, snow on Sunday has kinda melted, making it very hard indeed to roll. Ran out of snow, so went off to our nearest parkland where snow was still abundant. It was freezing and wet, but well worth the effort!

Looks like tic tac..

Patching up the head..

Look really closely, you can see the sno-breasts…:D

My snow-people just keep getting bigger and bigger! I like!

Cupping snow breasts..

Bacon laughed at my sheer determinance as I quickly sliced carrots before leaving the house..well worth the effort!

The snow storm from early this week have not let up yet, with temperature not letting down yet, still hovering in the negative environs. I have unfortunately not been snowed in, and had been at work all week with no chance of getting out to play. When I do actually manage to get home early enough, the snow had been too icy to play with, just like trying to make a snowman with crush ‘ice kacang’ ice.

It was unfortunate that I had to wait until the weekend before I get to roll in the snow again…but it’s back bigger than before! Yay! Rolled the snow until I couldn’t lift it anymore – who knew snow was so heavy! I had to go to bacon’s dad’s house to get fresh untouched snow(they’re not really a snow-playing famly)…and here are the results

Snowman no. 1. With ears and stalks of ice for hair waving, in the front yard so they can say hi to it when they leave the house.

Bacon stuffing the top of the snowman no.2 with straw, pretending its a scarecrow with hair.

Snowman no. 2. It is right outside his living room, so they can stare at it instead of the tv. Heehee.

Snowman no. 3. I came home and made myself another one..the snow’s melted slightly, making it perfect snowman making snow! wee!!

Angel did not work out too well though, it was slightly too hard to move around much.

In all honesty, I hope it snows tonight again, so I can have another go tomorrow. However, I can’t have snow next week….if we do have snow I will be snowed in at a hotel in the middle of nowhere. Seeing that my training venue is a farm in the middle of nowhere as well, it will be interesting when Britan runs out of salt and can’t keep the roads clear.

Snow snow go away….