Yesterday, we visited Alfred the Great, who sits cast in stone in the centre of Wantage in Berkshire.

OK - the visit was really to Oxford, but we passed over the Downs from Marlborough through Axford and Ramsbury, Membury and Lambourn, Wantage and Frilford on the way to give our international visitor something of an impression of the countryside that straddles Wiltshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

Wantage is a town I have passed through many times on my commute to Harwell, near Didcot, where I worked for a number of years, and indeed I used to be able to tell you which was the best chippie in the town, and find a quick evening meal there that didn't break the bank. That's now so many years ago, though, that my information would be of only historic value, I'm sure ... even though I was already giving Perl Programming Courses in those days. It shows how in some ways things haven't changed - but in many other ways they have; although I'm still doing Perl courses and can claim longevity on one hand, and being able to claim that all the examples I used in those days should still work, I can also tell you that I know of only one example - out of several hundred - that has survived without a major update.


Of course, Alfred the Great looks rather less majestic, impressive, isolated when you see him set amongst the traffic in the centre of Wantage, and it's very much the whole that counts to give the place its character. Thus with Perl - no one feature in isolation makes it a great language; it's "eclectic" taking many things from many sources, and it's the whole picture that makes the place as it does at Wantage.

See here for some more of my pictures of Wantage. I have so many excellent Oxford pictures that they're waiting for a separate follow up thread and page!

(written 2008-10-13 07:44:01)

 Z200 - Places

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