Mr. and Mrs. Chunky Eat Their Way Across The UK!

After the trauma of London, they decided to buckle down and do some good old fashioned eating!  In the pub they stayed at in Stoke Row; The Cherry Tree Inn,breakfast was included and had they had two dinners there.  The big allure to staying in Stoke was The Crooked Billet.  It is always Janet and Phil's first pit stop after disembarking at Heathrow.  Two lunches:

Sea Bream with Roasted Vegetables

Mussels in a Green Curry Sauce

Risotto fritters

 Silly Janet can't remember what this was except it had polenta on the bottom, pancetta on the top and some stuff in between and was incredible!

In this tiny village of about 100 persons, there was a major car accident on the teeny tiny road outside their pub.

Air ambulance coming for the lady that was driving the overturned car.  Apparently, she wasn't badly injured.

While staying in Stoke, they met the rellys, Joe and Julia.  Janet and Phil try to meet them every year.   Julia is as sweet as can be and Joe has a wicked sense of humour.   They had a great lunch.  Julia is our Grandpa Brian's cousin.

They gave Mr. Baby the cutest gift.  Janet can't wait to show it to him.

They moved onto their one week cottage rental near Bicester, which is somewhat close to Oxford.  The cottage is lovely and they have dogs and horses.

Very close to the cottage, they visitited Stowe Gardens, which were 250 acres, not counting the approximate 750 acres of parkland.  At one point in time, this family was the most wealthy in the UK, but as is many the case of grand mansions, they overspent and lost it all.  The house was not open the day Phil and Janet were there, so they will go back to see inside.  Get this- its now a private school!  Move over GNS and SMU!  It has been a school since 1923, but they were unable to manage the upkeep on their own.  The National Trust has been involved since the mid 1980's.  How much to send your most precious moment to this quality institute of education?  Boarding is approximate $60,000CAD a year.  This excludes the $1800 "acceptance fee" and who can even begin to imagine the host of other fees that are involved?  This compares to $43,500/year at Brentwood Bay.

Sir Richard Branson is an alumni.