TRAVELLING is all very well, but after being on the move for a couple of weeks it’s time to stop and draw a breath, do the laundry and perhaps explore someone’s library. _ Hence our week in Oxford, (in a rumpled old redbrick - house just off the Banbury Road and almost next door to Lady M: . Every bedroom told a story, whether it was the array of hats or the skeleton, the > maharajah-sized lounge had the comfy kin of ’ . furniture that begs you to put your feet up, the kitchen had cn equipped by a serious ~ : cook, and that library! Right .. beside my bed I found the very book, in hardback, that I was _ about to buy in paper. os And so, sunny hours were spent in the garden with Bovril ‘the cat usually !urking in the “> “wildflowers. When provisions were required it was a pleasant . Stroll co a group of small stores that might have been in a vil- lage. ; I got into a routine every AS 1-2 category ‘early to get best choice CALL TODAY! ms VON Vat | There’s Make sunny Southern California your next holiday destination. Experience the mountains, the beaches and a land with a masic all its own. And with a Disneyland Flex Passport you'll enjoy five consecutive Don't book upgrades book your cruise until you're spoken to us. OCLAWS OF ERPTRIONCE morning with a visit to the newsagent and the baker and breakfast with my own mar- malade and no stale hotel but- fets amid platoons of badged office equipment salesmen. When London beckoned, as I knew it would, the station was an inexpensive, quick ride on a silent electric bus. Oxford to Paddington is just one hour by frequent fast train. Bur thank goodness I had a BritRail pass, for Oxtord in the summer is awash in language students and 30 of them were at the ticket counter in an exhausting Berlitz babbic. Blenheim Palace was just as irresistible. Just 15 minutes by car, it lies beside the pretty vil- lage of Woodstock. Go early before the tour buses arrive then have lunch at the Bear. Blenheim was a grateful nation’s gift to the Duke of Marlborough after he defeated the French at the Bartle of Blenheim in 1704. Afterwards he wrote a victory message on the back of a tavern bill which you can sce in a glass case. There’s also the room where Churchill was born along with pleading letters from him as a seven-year-old asking his parents to visit him at school. There’s a story in every room, such as that of the 9rh duchess, a Vanderbilt who came with a fortune to prop up the family’s finances. She pro- duced two sons to whom she referred as “the heir and the spare.” Capability Brown, as every- one knows, jaid our the mag- CRUISE TWO WEEK SALE Jan 5-17 Sunday, January 4, 1998 — North Shore News — 19 = north shore news Blenheim Castie: A story in every room nificent’ gardens, something the British do very well. Oxford, for example, has more than dreaming spires; take a walk around the university parks and indeed inside the colleges or under the beeches by the Cherwell, where one day I found a bench dedicated to Tolkien. Just off the busy town cen- tre is Christ Church Meadow, a tranquil place for cows and couples, as W. H. Auden said, and which has been the inspira- tion for generations of under- graduates and scholars. This is where many a scholar has walked and worried over a thorny matter of great con- cern. Or, maybe, his love life. As Alan Bennett wrote: What is truth? What is fable? Where is Ruth? Where is Mabel? Lewis Carroll, accompanicd by the dean’s daughter, Alice, walked this way on July 4, 1862, on the way to a boat trip, during which the tales of Alice in Wonderland were first recounted. There is much more magic to be found around Oxford. You may have to do the unpar- donable and rent a car, but there are many pubs by the river worth a visit, the Cotswolds are within an hour’s drive, while Chelrenham is within easy striking distance and so is the Vale of the White Horse in the Berkshire Downs, birthplace of Alfred the Great. And at the end of the day there was the house, with its table in the garden with over- Plus ask 990-1546 as y GQ TOADITION OF ECECULESCE® Park & Tilford Park Royal North North Vancouver West Vancouver Airlines flies from Vancouver to London and offers connec- dons with AirUK. Sainsbury’s best Bordeaux, it might just be Provence. Getting there: Northwest head vines and colored lights, so that on a warm evening, cer- tainly after a few glasses of PUBLIC COMMENT INVITED ON AN APPLICATION FOR DI AT SQUAMISH Garibaldi Alpen Resorts (1996) Ltd. has made an application for a project approval certificate under the Environmental Assessment (EA) Act for the Garibaldi at Squamish Mountain Resort Development. The application is for the approval of an all-season mountain resort to be located near Squamish, British Columbia, off Highway 99. . For the purposes of the EA Review, the Garibaldi at Squamish project includes the construction and operation of the following: 1. on-site facilities (ski lifts and runs, ski run maintenance facilities, rescue facilities, etc.); base area facilities (hotels, condos, residential units, roads, parking lots, water supply and waste disposal:systems, etc.); the proposed access road and any intercha at Hwy. 99; off-site sewage disposal facilities, water supp! systems and other linear infrastructure (transmission line system, telephone system) if proposed; and ; §. other required off-site infrastructure (in-town housing and accommodation, information centres, etc.). The application may be viewed at the following satellite repositories: Bowen Island Public Library, Cates Hill Corner, 495 Mount Gardiner Rd., Bowen island, B.C.; Lions Bay Reading Centre, 400 Centre Road, Lions Bay, B.C. Pemberton & District Public Library, Cottonwoad St., Pemberton, B.C.; Squamish Public Library, 37955 Second Ave., Squamish, B.¢.; Vancouver Public Library, 350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, B.C. (see Level 4 Librarian); West Vancouver Memorial Library, 1950 Marine Dr., West Vancouver, B.C.; Whistler Public Library, 4373 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, B.C.; and aiso at the Environmental Assessment Office Registry at ist Floor, 856 Yates Street, Victoria, B.C. A copy of the text of the lication is also available for viewing at the Environmental Assessment Office website at: http:/Avww.eao.gov.bc.ca The provincial Environmental Assessment Office invites comments on the application to ensure that public issues and concems are identified and addressed as part of the environmental assessment review process. The public comment period begins on January 12, 1998 and ends on March 27, 1998. Ali submissions will be available to the general public through the Project Registry as originally submitted and required by the EA Act. !f your submission does not indicate that you wish your address to be treated in confidence, your name and address will be filed in full, on the Registry. All comments will be considered as part of the review. Comments on the application for the Garibaldi at Squamish project must be received at the Environmental Assessment Office by March 27, 1998. Please send your submission to: David Johns Garibaldi at Squamish Project Committee P.O. Box 9426 Stn Prov Govt Victoria, British Columbia vew sv1 Telephone: (250) 356-7479 Fax: (250) 387-2208 2 3. 4. anew wave of fun ad New wave of Tun «Disneyland. “Some restrictions apply. www.disneyland.com ODisney days for the price of two!* For Disneyland Flex Passport and holiday package information, call 4-800-315-3824 or your travel agent. It’s time to catch the wave of fun at Disneyland Park.