London Plant Associates
spend a damp day in Oxford
29th July 2009
On an overcast, damp and dismal morning, at the end of July, 86 London Plant Region Associates assembled at the usual pick up point and awaited the arrival of two coaches to take them on a day trip to the bustling city of Oxford.
Our journey around the notorious M25 was exceptionally good for the time of day. The first stop of the day was at the new Beaconsfield Service area on the M40 for morning coffee. On leaving the rain started to come down, and by the time we reached Oxford, some 45 minutes later, it was quite heavy.
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The driver dropped us off about 100 yards from the city centre so we did not have far to walk.
A very colorful array of umbrellas was seen heading off into the distance as we all made our way to a restaurant or department store for shelter.
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Other than a few short periods of respite it rained continually for the whole four and a half hours we were there.
There are quite a few pubs in the city centre that specialize in certain foods, and one that appeared to be frequented the most was the one that had numerous types of flavored sausages. The order of the day for a lot of Associates was "sausage, mash and onion gravy" - very nice too!
On returning to the coaches, despite the weather, people were overheard discussing their purchases and lunch exploits.
The journey home, following a short comfort stop at South Mimms Service area saw the sun come out, and on arrival back at the car park, no rain had fallen all day!!
Despite the first day for a long while where it had rained on one of our trips, everyone was in good spirits, and had enjoyed the day as much as possible, and all looked forward to the remainder of the events for 2009 and felt confident for better weather!!
