Off the A4074, 2nd September 2012

So where on Earth is this? This is a very random stretch of road somewhere between Oxford and its Kassam Stadium, and I had been dropped "near" the latter by a cabbie who wisely advised us he should go no further. He was right - the traffic on the approach to the stadium was nose to tail and at snail's pace, and we beat the drivers hands down. It was the first match of a new season in rugby's Premiership, and we'd trekked out of London to see Leicester play London Welsh. The latter are the new boys, playing here for the first time, and I was supporting them as I'm from London, and, well, I'm half Welsh. My companions are from Leicester, support Leicester to an extent that makes a mockery of my newfound affiliation, and would bleed green, white and red if you cut them (not that I've tried). 

I'm not a great believer in omens, so the sight of a balloon in proud Welsh red (I can type goch better than I can say it) didn't fill me with thoughts of an upset. And so it transpired - a lacklustre Leicester duly trounced the exiles, and we departed two-thirds happy. On the plus side, we magicked upon a taxi immediately on leaving, which had us back in the city centre in seconds. Oxford has been kind to me before with balloons, and so it remains.