Abingdon on Thames: Historical Oxfordshire town with Charm

Abingdon on Thames is a beautiful town located in Oxfordshire.  Abingdon is situated close to Oxford city and is about 5.5 miles away. Abingdon is historic and also has got modern outlook. On visiting Abingdon do enjoy the serene riverside walks, In case you are lucky you can also witness the iconic Bun Throwing event held during special occasions. If you are visiting town for a short time then please read below to find some of the local recommended information, you can also follow this link and this wiki here to know more about local resources and history of the town. Local Abingdon blog could also be followed to know more about what's going on locally. 

Pubs, Restaurants and Takeaways 

There are lots of good Pubs, Restaurants and Takeaways in Abingdon. Some of the ones I've been to which are decent and would like to recommend are -

 Pubs 

Kings Head and Bell - This is one of my frequently visited pubs. Good Staff, Great food and located very close to the town centre.

The Nag's Head- Near Abingdon bridge and riverside, Food is decent and reasonably priced.

The Crown & Thistle - Crown n Thistle has both pub/restaurant and Hotel. It's good but bit expensive than other restaurants.

Curries

Majliss - Indian Restaurant and takeaway , Majliss opened new branch in Abingdon around end of 2015. Service is great , food is tasty and price is reasonable. They also provide takeaways and usually delivery arrives around 45 mins from the time of ordering.

Spice Valley - Indian Restaurant and takeaway, Bit expensive than Majliss at the time of writing, food is good , service and price are also okay.

Italian

Ask Italian - Food was okay, service wasn't great but price is reasonable, worth trying once.
Pizza  Express - Good pizza's and deserts, one of the friend recommended lasagna here, apparently it's one of the famous dish of this restaurant.

Chinese 

Golden Kitchen - Takeaway, Good food , decent price
Parasol - Restaurant, They provide buffet ( all you can eat), but recently there have been mixed reviews.

There are also other usuals popular chains like Mcdonalds, Dominos and PizzaHut. If you are big fan of any of these you can find them too. 

Leisure

 

Sports & Fitness

For sports and fitness enthusiasts there is White Horse leisure and Tennis centre it's one of biggest popular centre with many sports facilities. For Athletics , hockey and football you have Tilsley park. There are many other sports clubs for Cricket , Football and Badminton. It will encourage everyone to try something to keep themselves fit.

 Entertainment 

Abingdon Guildhall host many comedy club evenings, theatre and other forms of entertainment. There are also plans to redevelop Guildhall with facilities for cinema.
If you want to visit cinemas in the meantime, Vue near Kassam stadium and the one's available near Oxford and Didcot can be visited.

Last but not least every town and village gets its shine and glamour from it's residents. In that regard  Abingdon community and residents are as beautiful and charming as it's town and best in World.

Disclaimer- Author is not doing any endorsements for listed pubs/restaurants,all the business recommendations are based on authors personal taste and is not responsible for any disappointments.This blog is informative only.

Fast Lane Garbage Truck review

This post gives a quick review of Fastlane garbage truck. Fastlane garbage truck is a good toy but it has a big issue which doesn't make buying attractive.

* The big problem is with the blue garbage bin holder , the attachment to the garbage truck is too fragile and it broke after few weeks. 

When i say fragile to use, Kids have to fix the yellow garbage bin to the holder and they lift the lever up to dump the garbage into the truck. The concept is good and very attractive one for kids. Unfortunately as this gets used too many times in the life of the toy, it is also the bit of the toy which is  most prone to get broken because of repetitive hooking and unhooking of  the garbage bin to the holder. The motor (or the pulling bit inside ) is attached to the lever by 1-2cm thick plastic , it is too weak for long term use. I would suggest the toy manufacturers to build it with a stronger, better material.

I bought the toy for £19.99 in uk , original price was £29.99. Other than Achilles heel of holder ,the whole toy itself is good. It has flashing lights , you can lift the back body to dump the garbage. It simulates the real life very well. And also for the money i paid i think its good value.

In the above pictures you can see different features of the garbage truck itself.





Disclaimer- All the opinions expressed in this blog is authors opinion and is based on the author's usage ,it doesn't suggest any opinion on manufacturer. 

Life in UK Test Tips and Process 2015

I'm planning to share my Life in UK test experience and techniques i used to prepare in this blog.
I used the following material to prepare for the test.

Material

1. Life in the United Kingdom: A Guide for New Residents, 3rd Edition (search Ebay, Amazon for cheaper priced books)
2. Around 50 online practice test available here

Reading Strategy Used 

• I allocated two weeks for preparation as i had few other family commitments as well, if you are single or lesser family commitments probably one week is enough.
• I read the book two times once before two weeks continuously for about 3 days and once quickly skimmed through closer to the test day.  
•  After reading the book I tested my knowledge using the online practice test available here.
• Wrote down important points in a book so that i would be able to remeber better and also to revise later.
• I used Acroynms to remember some key information, for example to remember saints day for all countries and also link it to national flowers of all countries.
• WNES  (read it as Wines) it stands for Wales, Northern Island , England and Scotland
• DPGA ( read it as dapja) David ( st David's day Wales) , Patrick( patrick's day of northern island), George ( st' George, England) and Andrew's(st andrew's Scotland). 
• DSRT (read it as desert) - to remember flowers for all the WNES countries , Daffodils(Wales), Shamrock ( NI) , Rose(England) and Thistle( Scotland).
•  So remebering WNES- DPGA - DSRT gets you two questions, Usually there will be definitely one question on saints day so read it thoroughly

 I found remembering History bit, especially war dates and names ( artist names, authors and inventors ) bit difficult so i only remembered the important ones. I would suggest focusing on the ones you repeatedly get in the practice test.
Practice tests were pretty good. Having said that, it is bit out of date in couple of questions ( ex : Common wealth has 53 in the book but online test shows as 54, same for EU which is 28 now but test shows as 27). Doing the practice test helps you to cover all corners of the book and helps get confidence

Test Process

• Went around 15-20 minutes before test to the test centre.
• Only candidates are allowed, no friends or relatives. 
• Was called to verify my ID and proof of adress. I used my passport and offical statement as proof respectively.
• They checked my details, asked the details in the id and took my signature.
• Then they gave me a locker to keep my belongings and was let it into test centre after that.
• The instructor in test centre logs you in to the machine, the screen will have instructions about how to use navigations and change screen view. 
• Then you get to take 4 practice questions , after that you click 'Next' and then you test begins.
• At the end of the test you click a button to 'end the test' and then you go out of test room.
• After  few minutes you will be told your results. You would need your ID all the time so keep it with you.
• You will get a 'pass notification letter' for clearing the test.

If you are reading this blog, then i know you are taking enough steps to prepare, I'm sure you will pass with flying colours.

GOOD LUCK

Millets Farm Centre - Fun place for farm lovers and Children

Millets Farm Centre is a farm with children play area and shops near Abingdon, Oxfordshire (Free Entry).  The farm has many things to attract audience of all tastes, during summer you can pick your own fruits and vegetables from the farm. When we last visited we had an option to pick strawberries, apple and beans. This would be a great option for you and your partner to try on a nice day.

Many events are organised every now and then, there was a chilly tasting event organised, we were amazed to find out the number of varieties of chillies around the world and we wouldn't dare trying the hottest chilly ever again.

                    
Children have a nice little play area with Swings, Slides and have also seen some children feeding farm animals ( not sure if it's allowed).  Kids will enjoy seeing farm animals like cows, pigs, goat ,sheep and there is Rhea bird as well.
There is a little lake with ducks and Swan , restaurant if you are hungry and farm shops if you feel like buying anything. Overall at this place you could have a nice day out as family or as a couple.

How to access Picasa using Samsung Smart TV

Accessing picasa isn't very well explained in the samsung's emanual. When you try to access picasa for the first time in Samsung smart TV you get message saying "Please sign in, use settings to update link site using picasaweb.google.com" or something similar.

So you would be wondering where the heck is settings ? In picasa or in Samsung account ? I know its one of the most unhelpful message from picasa app.

So to access picasa follow these steps -

1. Create a samsung account , Press Smart hub button and then go to Samsung apps , then press Red "A" button for login, Sign in or register for a new Account.
Check your email and activate the account if you are creating for first time.

2. Now Press Smart Hub button again , then press "Menu" button on your remote , select Smart Features from the menu and then select 'link to site' from the right side.

3. Click on Picasa , it will ask for service id and password , if you are using google , this id and password is same as your gmail id.

Once this gets through you should be able to access picasa.

Treasures of Europe , Star Tours UK review

Detailed review for the help of future travellers , we travelled in Jun -2012


Tour Manager Khushru and coach driver Barry were great and Amazing.

Day 1 - Belgium Atomium Structure gave only 20 minutes to view , couldn't get in the atomic structure instead we were sitting in the coach for most of the day which was bit disappointing. They could've spent one hour more in belgium instead of reaching hotel early.

Day 2 - Germany/Switzerland - Went to Black forest + Rhine Falls. Restaurant was crowded with other star tour groups, stayed at good hotel in luzern.

Day 3 - Mt Titlis , was the best day of the trip , had ample time to play in snow. Buy souvenir somewhere outside ,its very expensive here

-- ---
Italy Vatican and Fountain was good + Florence is time waste ( unless you are keen art lover ). Out of 3 days in Italy, every day we spend half day travelling in coach, which i feel is bad tour itinerary. If planning to travel to Europe choose the package with out Italy.

Day 4 Venice- Gondala ride not as much fun as expected, looked like normal boat ride, spent rest of the day travelling.

Day 5 Rome + Night tour of Rome- Historical Rome was good, especially fountain. Avoid night tour of Rome, not much of illumination.

Day6 Florence Italy- Worst day of the tour, only there is a Michael angelo designed church, which looks pale after visiting St, pauls cathedral in Rome, 3 hrs of walking in Forence which most of the group didn't like.

Day7 Pisa tower Italy- Worth watching, spent about 2hrs watching and rest of the travelling to Geneva, At geneva a photo stop for flower clock and fountain.

Day 8 France Paris + Night tour of Paris-Paris was very good and night tour was amazing dont miss it. Also had cruise travel of paris. Dont miss night tour.

Day 9 Top floor of Eiffel tower- Went to eiffel tower at 9.30 am and waited for 3 hrs in the queue to reach the entrance of the tower, where as people with reservation were going in 30 mins, why didn't star tour make reservations? Went to the top floor of the tower had an amazing view of the paris city and then back home.

Overall good Trip which could be improved with better planning in italy and avoiding waiting in long queues.

Food --
Food was very good , on time , well prepared. Restaurants were also good except Bhojan in France. There were few ocassions where there were two or three star groups of about 50 each which made it bit crowded.
Menu usually is - Pickle, salad, Poori/Chapati/Naan, two curry varieties (chana,moong,vegetable mix ) , rice , Dal + kadi , one desert , Paapad ,curd.
We had Poori about 9 times in the whole trip , we'll not eat poori again for this whole year :-)

ps: Please take atleast 200 Euros for the trip , dont' buy it there it will be expensive , its cheaper at your local money exchange.

I think the trip was value for the money with good memories, so i would definitely recommend it.