Today I thought I would demonstrate my gratitude to First Great Western for sending me that
voucher.
The station at Reading is set up so that I can't see if there is a train on the track to Paddington until I go up an escalator and get to the middle of an enclosed bridge. Instead of waiting until I get to the midpoint of the bridge, I
always run up the escalator...just in case I need to catch up to a train I missed really, really fast.
Today was a little different. I did my normal awkward run to find a train waiting on the track. I jumped on while scanning the departure board to make sure that the train was actually going to Paddington and not Bournemouth or some other place. Happy, I walked down the aisle of the first carriage when I noticed that one of the interior signs indicated that the train's destination was Oxford. I kept walking and saw another, and another. I started asking people who confirmed that the train was indeed going to Oxford. Ack! Since the train hadn't started moving, I launched myself at the nearest door to try and leave before the train started moving. The poor track attendant desperately tried to stop me, shouting "Noooooooo!" My head out the window, I kept (with clear panic in my voice) asking where the train was going.
I'm sure that I saw a few people nodding in their seats, secure in the knowledge that one of their stereotypes about Americans was actually true.
I scurried away to the furthest possible carriage from my shame, suitably red-cheeked, but still pretty happy that I was actually on the right train.
I found a seat and it took a little while before the train left because I had no doubt set off some safety mechanism by trying to open the door. As the train started moving I felt relieved...a little too quickly. As the train crept along the platform, I looked out of the window to see what appeared to be all of the track attendants in the station gathered in a little row to stare at me. When we finally went beyond the station, I thought the shaming must be over and then the conductor come over the tannoy to announce:
"Good afternoon and welcome to First Great Western. This is the blah blah train from Oxford to London Paddington. Our first stop is Slough. I would like to extend a special thank you to the person who tried to open the door during departure."
Argh.
Click the pic for some much needed time wasting
Venturing up the footpath a little way, behind a great mass of rock (to the right of the picture above), we saw this!
The view from the left
And to the right After a quick peak at the footpath and chatting to a couple who were sitting on a bench that asked us where the Valley of the Rocks was (duh!-there were rocks and a great valley...what else did they think they were looking at?), we decided to climb on the peaks as best we could . I'm so glad we did.
Reaching the first peak of our trek
Aaron on top of the world
Goats!
We were just about at the end of the road here. There was a sheer drop on the other side and we didn't have any rope...or actual climbing skill. We went down the side of the hill to go up the peak in the distance. 
It looks like the ruins of an old castle. Would have been nice to be able to explore that direction, but it was pretty far away and we had to head back to Exeter.
It's got tomatoes, cucumber, chick-peas, feta, green pepper, red onion, parsley, olive oil, lemon, garlic, a little cayenne and couscous in it. As you can see, there was a little too much liquid to it, but I think if I just pour the veg juice in with the couscous while it's absorbing water, it should be drier.
It's a tasty little fruit with a hint of strawberry about it, but we can't remember the name of it!
