Pete's birthday

Last week was Pete's birthday and as he takes such things far more seriously than I do, we decided to go away for the weekend. The usual trip to France was replaced by a credit crunch busting trip to Oxfordshire and the Cotswolds.

We had booked 2 hotels (1 for Friday and 1 for Saturday) ages ago, making use of a special offer. We travelled to Witney on Friday morning and, to ensure my employer paid some of the fuel, I met a client for a couple of hours while Pete looked round the shops and filled himself with lardy cake.

We then drove to Oxford and had a look around the city. Neither of us had been there before so we did a few tourist things including climbing the old church tower, looking round the shops and enjoying the architecture and general feel of the place. After a break at the hotel, we went back into Oxford for the evening. We started at the old castle, which was also a prison, but now a top hotel. It's a very impressive building. We had a couple of drinks in a bar that used to be the visitors room - a 3 story high space all painted black. It is a great place to relax and enjoy the cute waiters. After dinner in a packed, buzzing restaurant (with 50% discount using an internet voucher!) we had a couple more drinks.

Early on Saturday we drove to Uffington to climb the hill to see the white horse on the hill. For a chalk horse that is potentially 3000 years old, the design is stunning. One amazing fact is that you cant get a good view of it without seeing it from the air - what did our ancient relatives have in mind?! There is also the remains of a hill fort there.

We visited various places including Faringdon and Stow On The Wold before arriving at the second hotel in Burford. Could this be the most beautiful little town in England? We saw Kate Moss out shopping (though Pete had to point her out to me).

On Sunday, after a brisk walk in the sunshine and a crap breakfast, we headed back home via the outlet village.

It was a tiring, but enjoyable weekend.