Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 162

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 162

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

    Huckle My Buff

    This not very delicious sounding drink is defined by Grose as “beer, egg and brandy, made hot”. And it has come back into existence over recent years thanks to Jamie Oliver who made a modern version of the cocktail. It’s thought to have originated in Sussex in the eighteenth century, although it lingered on until at least the nineteenth century.

    The standard way, or at least one way, of making this concoction is to pour a pint of beer into a saucepan, chuck three eggs in, a big dash of brandy, 1oz of sugar and 1 teaspoon of nutmeg. I’m not sure I’ll be rushing to make it, although I’d be willing to prepare it if I can find some idiot willing to try it. It’s probably a good way to get rid of a beer that Greene King make to be fair…

    The Argus have a story about the modern preparation of this drink as well when it was part of an event held by Harveys of Lewes.

  • Eat Out to Help Out – Extension for JD Wetherspoon

    Eat Out to Help Out – Extension for JD Wetherspoon

    I can’t say that I’m surprised to see that JD Wetherspoon are sort of extending the Eat Out to Help Out scheme until their Christmas menu kicks in on 11 November 2020. It means that on Mondays to Wednesdays they’ll be charging 99p for coffees, 99p for all soft drinks, £7.50 for three small plates, £2.99 for deli deals, £3.99 for burgers and pizzas as well as £1.99 for desserts.

    I’m not sure that the staff will be entirely impressed with the influx of customers, but I’m sure it’ll be a popular move overall. Much as Tim Martin is a controversial figure I’m not entirely on board with, his pub company seems to be far more pro-active compared to some of his rivals.

  • LDWA 100 – Training Walk 6 (National Forest Way and 8 Pubs)

    LDWA 100 – Training Walk 6 (National Forest Way and 8 Pubs)

    This was our sixth walk in preparation for the 2021 LDWA 100.

    WALK NUMBER: 6 (National Forest Way, Branston, Burton and Swadlincote)

    DISTANCE COVERED: 21.2 miles

    NUMBER OF NATHAN’S FRIENDS WE “ACCIDENTALLY” BUMP INTO: 0 (but we weren’t in Norfolk)

    SUFFICIENT BEER CONSUMED: Yes

    PUBS VISITED: 8

    WEATHER CONDITIONS: Fair

    ATTACKED BY ANIMALS: Yes

    NUMBER OF SNAKES SEEN: 0

    It’s been a while since we went on what might be defined as a training walk, but we bravely decided to go out of the county for this one, to Derbyshire and Staffordshire.

    This is the YHA where we were staying. More on this later….. Incidentally, since I get a bit complainy later, I would add here that the staff at the hostel were friendly and it was one of the quieter ones that I’ve visited.

    And the trek started by walking into the village of Overseal, where the pub the previous evening hadn’t quite met our expectations. More about that in another post though….

    The weather looked favourable in the morning and we were following the National Forest Way from Overseal into Branston, a section which was about 15 miles.

    My navigation was excellent and we strolled past lakes, trees and fields confident in our direction. By excellent, I mean generally excellent, there were a few fields which proved to be confusing.

    Walking through some crop things.

    The trail was relatively well signed throughout, other than when someone had built a reservoir across the path. But I’ll come onto that later. The Best Kept Villages trail is a nine-mile circular walk that takes in Coton, Botany Bay, Netherseal and Lullington.

    The path went off into the trees near to Rosliston Forestry Centre. It got a bit muddy here.

    And a rather pleasant lake.

    By now, it was 11:30 and we were approaching the village of Rosliston. So we faffed about by going to the Co-op and looked around a church, as that meant we could visit our first pub of the day which opened at 12:00. Incidentally, the Co-op sausage roll was packed with 7% pork and it was a pretty dreary affair. But, at least it was hot. The village needs a Greggs is all that I’ll say here.

    The main excitement of our outdoor lunch spot wasn’t though waiting for the pub. It was watching Nathan preening himself with tissues. Some mud had splattered up his leg and so he purchased a multi-pack of about 8,000 tissues that didn’t even fit in his bag. Not through choice, more because that was all that they had left. So, he confidently cleaned his shoes confident that we wouldn’t be going through any more mud. This was aspirational to say the least.

    The Bull’s Head in Rosliston and I will write all of these pubs up separately, but for now, I’ll limited myself to brief comments. We liked this place as it was quiet, traditional, laid-back and seemed like a competently run village pub. It was also a chance to get a pint of Marston’s Pedigree.

    The next stretch of path was from Rosliston to Walton-on-Trent. Here we are in the above photo with Bear Grylls battling through the undergrowth and hardly complaining about the nettles and thistles. I didn’t say anything and just let him get on with it.

    We had a little incident here. Let me paint a picture of what was in the next field. Imagine a field full of cows in our way. Right, that’s the picture painted. That is undeniably a bloody inconvenience as I don’t like cows (nothing personal, they’re just big and threatening) and Nathan is hardly a cow whisperer. These big muddy patches are a legacy of the cows stampeding around the corner and we wanted to avoid that.

    So, we decided we’d ignore the National Forest Way and just go down a track via a farmer’s field. This was easier said than done as the farmer wasn’t fussed about mud as they no doubt get about their land using a tractor. And then we had the delight of the farmer watching us, more puzzled than angry I’m pleased to say. So, we admit that his cows scared us and we want to use his farm to get out. The farmer was willing to deal with this crisis dumped upon him, and so we were shown the muddy path to escape. I suspect he thought that we were idiots.

    I’ve never heard of Joseph Heler Cheese, but I liked the farmer who let us escape without being trampled by a herd of cows, so I’ll eat some if I see it.

    We debated whether or not we should go into the Swan at Walton pub, but not for long, so we went in. For another pint of Pedigree, albeit served in a London Pride glass from Fuller’s. This tasted the same as the previous Pedigree and we were fortunate to get space in the beer garden as inside was full. Nathan’s shoes were also covered in mud, which he half-arsedly tried to clean again before we went in, so probably best we were outside away from their clean floor. The food coming out from the kitchen looked all rather lovely, but I had a pasta salad from the Co-op and Nathan had a scotch egg from the Co-op so we didn’t want to be too decadent by buying a rather lovely looking burger as well.

    I had to have a quick look at the church opposite to the pub, some interesting history there. More on that in another post, as my posts about churches aren’t exactly the most stimulating content to some people (everyone) so I’ll contain myself here.

    The bridge we crossed into a new county. There were a family the other side who looked moderately annoyed that we were on the path. But we ignored them and started to get ready for our river walk.

    Incidentally, this is the change in county from Derbyshire to Staffordshire. As an aside, Staffordshire is home to the marvellous Keele University, so this sign is a distraction.

    This bit puzzled us. We might be two of the finest minds in the long-distance walking community (I hope no-one else from the LDWA reads this as I’m clearly lying here) but our route seemed to be flooded. After some investigation, it was less flooded by recent rain, and more flooded as there is a reservoir built on the route. After we stopped for lunch by a bench looking at this irritating dollop of water dumped down, we meandered around it. It took ages and the signage wasn’t great.

    Back to walking by the River Trent. The pleasing thing was that we could still get around the lake, as otherwise it would have been a fair amount of road walking.

    Even the railway crossing had moved, they’d built this instead of expecting people to walk across the track. It was also here that it decided to rain, the only really bad weather that we had in the day. It started to rain three seconds after I took my coat off, which annoyed me and humoured Nathan.

    The path goes across a housing estate at this point. I say path, but I more mean stream with some delicately placed bricks to walk on.

    We had now reached the town of Branston and this was enormously exciting as this is where the pickle first came from. Branston Pickle is a food of the Gods, so we were delighted and honoured to be in such an historic place. There are no Good Beer Guide pubs in Branston, despite my hope they’d serve a marvellous Ploughman’s lunch with pickle. So, we opted for the Blacksmiths Arms. The first pint we ordered was not well-kept, and despite Nathan trying to battle through it, I have a very developed beer palate and I sent mine back. Nathan decided to keep testing his pint before sending his back. The staffing was friendly through and it got us out of the rain. Despite trying not to order Pedigree, we got another pint of it here, so our third of the day and it tasted like the other ones.

    I’ve commented on numerous occasions over the last week about how Greene King really aren’t very innovative in their management of pubs, with beer choices being often way below par in my view. So, this is a great innovation, someone has paid for a support centre to deal with customers who have been traumatised by Greene King pub experiences.

    I have no idea why Punch Pubs have that logo, but this is a PubCo that really needs putting out of its misery. Anyway, let’s not get political here.

    Walking into Burton was quite exciting, as this is the brewing centre of the UK. And there were no shortage of Good Beer Guide pubs for us to go in. This is the Last Heretic, an excellent micropub that I’ll write about separately, and we moved away from Pedigree at last to Antracite. As a pub, this was really was a treat and I hope that it can go from strength to strength as it’s a location that Burton should be proud of.

    After the Heretic, we walked around the corner to the Roebuck Inn and had a Theakston’s Old Peculier, a beer I’m rather partial to. The pub was friendly, you could play football in the toilets and it’s another justifiable entry into the Good Beer Guide.

    The Burton brewery of the huge Molson Coors.

    Opposite the brewery was this marvellous pub, although we were disappointed that they weren’t doing their home-made Scotch eggs. The rum porter I had was rich and delightful, so lots more about this pub in another post. This was our sixth pub of the day and we were going to pop to the Wetherspoons in Burton for a quick snack, since we couldn’t eat in the Coopers Tavern. The Wetherspoons looked a bit full, and just a little raucous so we went to McDonald’s, which was annoying as they were shoving all their customers into the same area and hidden the toilets. The wrap of the day was delicious though, so I forgave them.

    Nathan, who is obsessed with buses, took control of getting us to Swadlincote. He did tell me all about the bus we were on and who made it, when and where, but I didn’t bother listening.

    Our seventh pub of the day was Bodell’s, where there was a decent choice of beers, although I thought they were being served just a little too cold. Anyway, more on that another time. I’d add that Nathan will get annoyed if I mentioned that his sports casual outfit (or sports sports outfit as he called it) was probably looked at by customers in pubs since it was Saturday night. But I didn’t say anything.

    Our final pub of the day, and pint number eight, was the Wetherspoons in Swadlincote and it was by now just before 23:00. They were serving reduced priced curries, so what better thing to have at this time of night than a £3.99 chicken vindaloo? This was one of the better JD Wetherspoon outlets and not a bad place at all to end the day.

    Then it was just a three-mile walk back to the accommodation from Swadlincote. Nathan was livid at this bus stop opposite a bus stop, but he calmed himself down after a while at the lack of bus stop planning.

    The story should end here really, it took us an hour to get back, so we reached the YHA at around 01:30. Now, I’m very forgiving, but it’s fair to say that the YHA here failed us. They had told us the door code when we checked in, but they didn’t make any reference to it changing every day. The new set-up also means you leave the YHA via the back door, so it’s actually essential to tell people at check-in that it changes, otherwise they can’t possibly know.

    To cut a very long story short, the YHA emergency number wasn’t answered, the YHA itself didn’t answer and there were no clues as to how to get into Fort Knox. I became expert at checking every door in the building and managed to get into the meeting rooms section of the building, but this didn’t allow access to the main area. I was considerably annoyed at this situation, as it was avoidable by either having an emergency contact who answered, or not putting people in this position in the first place. A YHA in the middle of the country will likely frequently have walkers or cyclists coming back late, but I won’t dwell on this.

    After debating what to do, my investigations continued and banging on a door did manage to get the YHA custodians out, much to my relief. It’s fair to say they knew that I wasn’t best pleased, but it did mean that we could get back in and life was again back to some sort of normality. They were keen to explain that code to the corridor upstairs had changed as well, but since that corridor has a door where the lock doesn’t work anyway (it just opens without the code), I wasn’t going to overly concern myself about this. Nathan was back in his bunk bed (this in itself says a lot about the luxury accommodation that we had chosen) by 02:00 and all was well with the day. Well, all was well with the night.

    YHA debacle aside (and I can’t see Nathan going back, but I have to since I’ve got numerous YHA bookings ahead) this was a marvellous day. It goes to show what thirsty work this walking is, since we had to go into eight pubs (plus a McDonald’s and a Co-op) to stay hydrated, but that’s very important. I think we probably meant to order half-pints, but we got muddled up and never managed to do that. The total walk distance was 21.2 miles and we’re now prepared for the LDWA 100. Well, we’re not, we spent most of the day practicing our pub skills, but it was still a very brave effort.

    Very lovely.

  • Cambridge – Fitzwilliam Museum (William Glendonwyn by Sir Henry Raeburn)

    Cambridge – Fitzwilliam Museum (William Glendonwyn by Sir Henry Raeburn)

    The reason I pondered this painting is that I’m not sure that by today’s standards that Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823) has portrayed Glendonwyn well. There’s not much to be readily found out about Raeburn’s subject, other than Glendonwyn was a wealthy Scot and his surname is linked to the Glendinning family.

    The notes by the painting mention that the light falling on his forehead is deliberate, it’s meant to show that the subject has intelligence. I’m not sure that this effect still holds, although this was painted in the 1790s and things were just a little different then and now he looks more aloof. Raeburn, who became the official portrait painter in Scotland to King George IV, painted over 1,000 artworks during his career and he rarely used preliminary sketches.

    The painting came up for sale at Christie’s on 22 February 1890 and was then in turn acquired privately by the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1892. At the same auction in 1890 the accompanying portrait to this, that of Glendonwyn’s wife, was sold, but the whereabouts of that are unknown.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 161

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 161

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

    Hot Pot

    This isn’t the definition that I expected from Grose, which is “ale and brandy made hot”. Grose didn’t mention this in the dictionary, but it’s likely a phrase used in Norfolk and Suffolk in the eighteenth century, simply meaning a warm ale or a warm brandy. This is a literal definition, as ‘pot’ used to mean a drinking vessel, and a few real ale drinkers still use that word.

    Incidentally, and as an aside, the English dish of hot pot likely has a different meaning, from ‘hodge podge’, or a random collection of ingredients.

  • National Express : Cambridge to Norwich

    National Express : Cambridge to Norwich

    And, that’s the end of my little adventure in Cambridge. The National Express pick-up is clearly signed at the edge of Parker’s Piece and there’s a covered bus stop there.

    Another packed service….. I think there were five people on board, including the driver. Unlike the coach on the way to Cambridge, there was no hand sanitiser on this coach, it looks like it has got knocked off the panel where it was behind the driver’s seat. There were also no announcements to passengers, although I joined mid-journey, so perhaps they’d already done it. My wrist wasn’t checked on entry this time, instead my forehead was measured for temperature. I still have no idea if that actually works, but I’m happy with it if the driver is.

    It’s not quite as exciting as getting the exit row on an aircraft.

    This is the television screen at the front of the coach, which I quite enjoy watching. Even when I could just look out of the front window, I still find myself watching the screen. Anyway, the driver was more than competent and the journey was trouble-free. The power worked, the toilet was clean and the temperature was a little cold, just as I like it.

    And safely into Norwich, a few minutes ahead of time. The journey cost around £10 including the booking fee, which is good value compared to the price of the train.

    As an aside, and something I forgot to mention before. I try to avoid coaches because I prefer trains, but I find National Express just a little odious with their NX Rewards scheme (and here’s the Trustpilot reviews about it). I know some people (well two – and they were idiots to fall for it) caught by this, they try and get people to claim a discount of £17 off their next National Express fare, but there’s then a charge of £15 per month for anyone who forgets to cancel as it’s a subscription thing. And the cancellation system is rather unusual, involving a PDF form rather than an on-line cancellation. Having never joined up, I’m not quite sure what people get for their £15, but not a great deal is the sound of it, it seems to be less a loyalty scheme and more some Quidco type set-up. It looks though like anyone who complains on Trustpilot is getting a refund, but this isn’t really the look of a professional company.

    National Express can do what they like, but I think it cheapens their brand and if Flixbus (OK, I’ve grown to like them) include Norwich in their expansion plans, I can switch entirely away from them.

    Incidentally, Flixbus currently have these routes in the UK:

    London – Birmingham
    London – Bristol
    London – Portsmouth
    Guildford – Portsmouth
    London – Brussels
    London – Paris

    And just in time to get to Tesco in time for their discounting. How lovely.

  • Cambridge – Fitzwilliam Museum (After the Wedding by Laurence Stephen Lowry)

    Cambridge – Fitzwilliam Museum (After the Wedding by Laurence Stephen Lowry)

    This artwork was painted by LS Lowry (1887-1976) in 1939 and as the name suggests, it’s themed around the wedding that is taking place. Well, and the Corner House pub. Lowry had started to paint these matchstick men in the early 1920s and they became the imagery that is mostly now seen to define his career. I’ve been meaning to visit the Lowry Gallery in Salford, but have never quite got round to it.

    I can’t add much to this as the Fitzwilliam’s image database is down for security issues, so all I know is that it was given to the gallery by Mrs FJ Collard in 2002. I don’t know whether the Corner House pub actually exists, or whether it was a figment of Lowry’s imagination. I like that, despite the overall theme, the top half of the artwork is all about pollution and industry, the wedding isn’t given automatic prominence here. And, indeed, even the wedding party aren’t seen as the main central characters, everyone seems to have a purpose here and is no more important than anyone else.

  • Cambridge – Cambridge Brew House

    Cambridge – Cambridge Brew House

    The Cambridge Brew House is another of the pubs which is operated by the City Pub Company, which includes the Old Ticket Office in the city, and it has obtained itself a decent reputation. I decided to book a table for myself and had to make sure I got there, as there’s a £10 deposit per person which is charged for no-shows. I can understand why they do that though, it must be a nightmare to get a heap of no-shows.

    I wasn’t entirely thrilled at this as, personally, I think this is a slightly unbalanced choice of beers with nothing remarkable. I’m sure others would disagree and I’m conscious at least they’re making their own beer.

    The decor is all modern in its style, with everything feeling clean and organised. Incidentally, I liked the table I was given as it gave a vantage point over the pub. It reminded me that recently pubs and restaurants have been very good at giving me a decent table despite sometimes booking just for me. I’m hoping gone are the days that sole diners are shoved in a corner near the toilets on a wonky and rickety table.

    The strong point of the pub was though the staff, they were exceptional in terms of their engagement, helpfulness and welcome. There were certainly no issues with customer service that I noted during my visit. I was also pleased to note that the City Pub Company were giving customers £5 off if they used the pub’s app, so along with the Government’s ‘eat out to help out’, this was making it a good value expedition.

    The King’s Parade from Cambridge Brewing Company, which is the brewery that is attached to the pub. It was fine and had a malt flavour of some depth which let me pretend that I was eating biscuits, although there was a limited depth of aftertaste.

    The starter of crispy salt and pepper squid with chilli mayonnaise. The squid was well cooked and evenly coated, although there was no evident salt and pepper taste to it that I could discern. The mayonnaise was rich and the squid did have that melt in the mouth texture, with the dish being well presented.

    OK, I probably didn’t need fish and chips for the second time in one day. The fish was slightly over-cooked, but at least they’d drained it properly and so it didn’t make the chips greasy. The fish was of a high quality, but I’m not convinced that batter was fresh, it was lacking in flavour and was quite bland (and the batter should be the tastiest bit as far as I’m concerned). The mushy peas were though decent and the tartare sauce was marvellous, I liked the chunks of capers and gherkins, two of my favourite items.

    As mentioned, the service was excellent and the environment was clean and comfortable. I liked the whole relaxed feel to the proceedings, a service style which was informal and that suited the environment. The total bill came to £10.50 (although that’s after the food was made half-price and they gave me £5 off), for two courses and a pint of beer, which I considered to be entirely reasonable. Other than the customer service, I’m not sure though that there was anything exceptional here as there were no beers I’d particularly mention to others and the starter was above average, but the main was firmly just average.

  • Cambridge – Boathouse

    Cambridge – Boathouse

    Another Greene King pub and as Nathan said when I told him, “I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed”. This one has a beautiful location by the river and it’s also next to the boarded-up Tivoli (visible in the above photo) which is the JD Wetherspoon outlet that caught fire and never re-opened.

    Fortunately, this isn’t the pub’s name given what I think about snakes.

    I can’t keep going on about the dreadful choice of beer at Greene King venues. But here, once again, is the best choice of drink that I could find. A half-price, thanks to eat out to help out, Coke. It was fine.

    The staff were friendly and the track and trace procedures were being followed, with a staff member guiding me towards a seat outside after I expressed a preference for that. Which was very brave given that I’m normally attacked by wasps or other insects. I didn’t get any photos of the interior of the pub, but it’s quite a modern decor that looks like Greene King has paid a fair sum to a design agency. I wish they’d pay a fair sum to someone who would install some decent beer, but I’m labouring that point now unnecessarily.

    I braved the outside area, which has its own bar, although this was rarely used as most people seemed to be paying via the app. The river is off to the right, and that’s the much-missed (well, by me anyway) Tivoli behind, which would have at least had likely had some decent beer. Anyway, I’ve veered into that again. I have to be fair to Greene King though, at least they’ve given the pub a better name than when it was called the Rob Roy.

    The new temporary entrance to the pub, where they’ve built a little obstacle course of having a mini river of what smelled like beer in front of the steps up.

    The reviews for the pub aren’t great, indeed, they’re towards the lower end of licensed premises in Cambridge on that front. I was amused by the review, and this is the entirety of it, which said:

    “Ordered a mixed grill which says two sausages. Only came with one. Serving staff lied and are rude, avoid!!!”

    I love listening to drama like that, I wish I’d been there. And, yes, I need to get out more.

    All told, this is a perfectly acceptable pub for sitting and watching life go by on the river, with the staff being friendly and helpful. But, as I keep finding myself writing, there’s nothing particularly exceptional about the pub and it’s all a bit generic and formulaic.

  • Cambridge – Fitzwilliam Museum (A Village Festival by Pieter Brueghel the Younger)

    Cambridge – Fitzwilliam Museum (A Village Festival by Pieter Brueghel the Younger)

    This painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564-1638) is my favourite in the Fitzwilliam Museum, with its full title being “a village festival with a theatrical performance and a procession in honour of St. Hubert and St. Anthony”. It was painted in 1632 and came into the collections of the Fitzwilliam in 1927 when it was donated by the first Viscount Rothermere. Actually, that’s an awkward thing for the museum, as the politics of Rothermere are controversial to say the least, but there’s not much that can perhaps be done by the museum about that now.

    My photo of the painting isn’t great, but there’s so much going on that it’s like some epic by William Hogarth. It looks like a night out in the city centres of today, but then again, that’s often what fairs were like and the authorities were frequently appalled at what people got up to at them.