Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Liverpool – Mathew Street YHA

    Liverpool – Mathew Street YHA

    This YHA is located at the end of Mathew Street, located close to the Cavern Club and the heart of Beatles territory. It was operated by another hostel company until just a few weeks ago and it’s now marketed as a “hip hostel”. I mean, that clearly describes me doesn’t it? Hip? Yeah, maybe not. Anyway, they had an offer of private en-suite rooms for £12 per night, so I was tempted by that alone.

    This was, until recently, a four bed dorm room, although it’s now a double room. The cleanliness was a bit skin deep, as visible surfaces were sort of clean, but other surfaces such as under the bed, and indeed, under any surface weren’t at all clean. But, it’s a little hard to complain at a price of £12 per night.

    I think a lot of the decor actually comes from the previous hostel operation, which was itself not that old. From what I can see, the YHA have tried to take over the ‘hip hostel’ theme here, although it’s all a bit muddled now as it doesn’t quite fit with their usual branding. Although that probably doesn’t matter, it’s just providing cheap and cheerful accommodation.

    Mathew Street is popular with stag and hen groups, as I discovered during my three-night stay. Fortunately, I actually like this sort of background noise, although I can imagine it might irritate some guests. I was pleased they allocated me this room though, it was quite enjoyable people watching down the street.

    The building that the YHA is located in is a former shop and there are some traces of the history of its original use, although it’s not all in great condition. I’ve seen some of the YHA’s recent efforts and I think it’s fair to say that they throw cash at some sites, with refurbishments often being multi-million pound projects. I’m not sure where they get all this money from, as some sites now have the appearance of hotels and seem over-spec’ed, but perhaps that’s what customers demand. This YHA doesn’t seem to have had the same love, it seems to just be a takeover of what was here before, with I imagine some changes now planned in phases.

    The whole set-up was very unlike a YHA though, there’s a strange lack of structure to the site, with an absence of food menus visible at the location, although they are on-line. And the prices for the food are, frankly, way out of proportion with the local competition. They’re charging the best part of £15 for a cheeseburger and pint of beer, which might be tolerable in a quiet out of the reach location in the countryside, but they are literally fifty feet away from a Wetherspoons. It was no real surprise that every time I walked by the cafe there was nearly no-one in it and I never had any idea what time breakfast was served, and that menu isn’t available on-line to check (although I did find the breakfast times on-line when writing this). I’m not really sure why the YHA don’t just set up a cheap bar on the ground floor so that visitors can drink there if they want. If they’re determined to offer a mid-price point restaurant on site, they probably need to put menus in the room, or at least in more visible locations.

    Anyway, I can’t complain too much about this stay as it was so cheap and the location couldn’t have been much better for reaching Liverpool city centre. The YHA seemed quite quiet when I was there, but I’m sure it’ll get a lot busier when people get used to it being there, as for groups it’s a convenient and easy option which isn’t too expensive. For the money, it was all very lovely.

  • Norwich – Spice Valley

    Norwich – Spice Valley

    Thanks to the observant Brian, we managed to get seats at the one year anniversary of the opening of Spice Valley, on Magdalen Street in Norwich. I was aware of this Indian restaurant, but it was one of those places that I hadn’t quite got round to visiting. Free food and drink is though always a way to encourage me to visit….

    The decor was modern and bright, with a staff member welcoming customers on entry. Since the restaurant wasn’t charging for food and drink, it was busy, but there was an orderly feel to proceedings and our party of five was promptly seated.

    The restaurant’s generosity included not just free food, but also free drink. There was a wait on the drinks order being taken, but I can hardly fault that situation given they weren’t charging for them, and I’d add that later on they were pro-actively offering more drinks to customers. I think it’s fair to say that I wouldn’t usually drink Kingfisher, but it was at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature and all that. I understand that the restaurant does sell local beers as well, but their on-line menu doesn’t mention that. If, however,  I discovered that they were selling craft beers, that would be an extra reason for visiting…..

    All very clean and tidy, the dining environment was comfortable and organised.

    It was a little hard to get a photo of the food given how busy it was, but there were some poppadoms, starters and mains. The poppadoms were decent, with some flavour to them, and the onion bhajis and meat samosas were excellent, with the onion bhaji being crispy, but not too hard. I was slightly unsure what the curry was, I think it was chicken korma, with the meat being tender and it had taken on the flavour of the sauce, although it was quite a lightly spiced dish.

    There was nothing at all wrong with the food, although it inevitably wasn’t possible to see how the food would usually be presented because of this one-off service style. And I very much like this whole gesture of inviting customers to have a free meal and drink, it shows that the restaurant is proud of their cuisine and keen to show it off. Since I’m also easily bought, I will likely come back in the near future, so their generosity won’t be entirely wasted on me. One thing that I felt was evident is that if a customer did have a problem, I’m pretty confident that the management would fix it promptly.

    All very lovely.

  • GeoGuessr – Summary

    GeoGuessr – Summary

    OK, that’s the end of our first GeoGuessr adventure and my posts about it. The aim of this was to use the GeoGuessr web-site to get a random place to visit in England or Wales, and then for Nathan and me to just go there. Our first one was just outside St. Osyth in Essex, and the below series of blog posts tell that story (some are more exciting than others if I’m being honest).

    The point of this random and irrelevant series of posts is though to show that there is a story to be had from any adventure. The theory Nathan and I have, which was developed after several pints in the pub (as all best plans are), is that there is history, culture, pubs and excitement everywhere and anywhere. Nathan and I still consider this to be the best plan that we’ve had, which goes to show just what other poor decisions we’ve come to….

    We don’t have many rules, our location just has to be in England or Wales (we’ll go further afield later on) and we will try and get there by public transport. Going by car simply isn’t an adventure, slumming it a bit by walking long distances and getting endless trains and buses is. We’ll try and do it in a day if we can, or a weekend if we can’t get there and back time-wise.

    Our first expedition was a bit of a test case to see if we thought this worked, and we think it did. We’ll do more video next time, but the theory will remain the same. And, so, the question has to be, was there enough of a story about our first location?

    Well, I think there was. In short, we visited five pubs, one restaurant, one artisan bakery, we took two buses, seven trains and walked around ten miles. We were told that we were in a female waiting room at a railway station (a concept abolished decades ago), we got lost, had to run across Colchester, we walked through a field of adders, got confused what dks was on a menu receipt (it was drinks), saw a church, former priory, arguably the most haunted house in the country and saw a rubbish bin by the side of a road that it would be nearly impossible to use. We then witnessed customers barricading a rail replacement coach in and watching the arguments and disputes following that.

    That’s not bad for our first trial run….. For those interested, here’s where location number 2 is for anyone who wants to work it out. BTW, sorry there weren’t more Inbetweeners references in the blog posts, I’ll try harder for the next one.

    Finally, some books about St. Osyth. And if anyone wants to visit St. Osyth, here’s an accommodation suggestion.

     

    It’s All Happening Now

    Diss Railway Station

    Colchester Wetherspoons – Playhouse

    Slight Miscalculation

    Great Bentley Railway Station

    Adders Sign

    Great Bentley to St. Osyth

    St Osyth (Balti House)

    St. Osyth (Longfields)

    St. Osyth (King’s Arms)

    St. Osyth (Red Lion)

    St. Osyth (And We’ve Reached the Spot)

    St. Osyth (The Cage)

    St. Osyth (The White Hart)

    St. Osyth (The Village Sign)

    St. Osyth (Trevor Osben)

    St. Osyth (St. Peter and St. Paul Church)

    St. Osyth (St. Osyth Priory)

    Walk Back to Great Bentley

    Royal Fusilier (Aingers Green)

    Plough (Great Bentley)

    Sandwich

    Great Bentley to Colchester

    Colchester (The Odd One Out)

    Colchester Town Railway Station

    Greater Anglia and the Case of the Missing Bus

     

  • GeoGuessr – Greater Anglia and the Case of the Missing Bus

    GeoGuessr – Greater Anglia and the Case of the Missing Bus

     

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    OK, I’m going to skip a little bit of our story now, but in short, we travelled on the train from Colchester Town to Colchester, than boarded the mainline train from Colchester to Diss. We were pretty pleased with our day, and all was going well in terms of the train connections and times.

    Then the story gets interesting. And, I’m going to admit here and now that I’m a Greater Anglia fanboy. Most people pick a sports team, an entertainment personality or a television programme. No, I pick a bloody railway company. I seriously need to get out more, or more safely, stay in more. In terms of their operation, they’re a forward thinking and dynamic company, although sadly things seem to have been going askew with their customer service recently (although not with the ground level staff I’d add).

    Now, I’m also going to admit here that I’m not going to upload everything that I have, which includes videos and a larger collection of photos than I realised that I took. The video is of a 67-year old man with heart problems (I know this as he told everyone) who (along with others) physically blocked the rail replacement bus from leaving, complaining angrily and loudly that he has a heart problem and Greater Anglia have repeatedly done this to him.

    I have a dilemma here because journalism runs through me quite deeply and I’m the only one who videoed this, but I don’t want to show a video clip that no doubt the media would willingly run, but which might embarrass the individual involved and does no good for the rail network. And I don’t want this blog to take on the morals of the Daily Express.

    I have informed Greater Anglia of the incident and although I’m satisfied by their response, I’m also not impressed enough to totally ignore this incident. I’m not impressed by the management decisions at Greater Anglia over the last year and I think they’ve damaged the reputation of the rail network with some of their decisions. And also, and primarily, the point of the day was to report back on an adventure, however irrelevant it is to most people.

    So, this is the story.

    The train arrived into Diss on time, with around twenty minutes until the bus replacement got into Norwich. It became clear that one coach clearly wasn’t going to be enough to deal with a train that had around twelve carriages. But, we waited in the line for the coach and boarded because we thought there might be empty seats at the rear of the coach. There weren’t, it was standing room only.

    Now, the coach driver was letting on as many people as could fit. I’m not going to stray into telling a coach operator on what they should do, but I will say that it shouldn’t be for passengers to tell a coach driver that he’s carrying more people than is legal to do so. In the defence of the coach driver, perhaps he was overwhelmed with the numbers and never intended to carry the number of passengers he had already let on.

    So, Nathan and I (along with 30 or so other people) disembarked. I will say, as I sadly follow these things, that the person responsible at Greater Anglia for bus replacement services has said at recent meetings that they’re pleased with how more rail replacement buses now have wi-fi and power points. I’m slightly bemused by this, it simply is no good to worry about that if there are no systems at Greater Anglia to actually remember to put a bus on in the first place. And, I will add, the staff on site said that this wasn’t a case of not enough buses, the service had been forgotten about.

    I’m going to shorten this saga a little by saying that most customers were just resigned to the wait and remained perfectly happy. But a handful weren’t (which is fair enough), and the coach driver was doing his best to deflect the criticism. Most of the complaints being made to him, and another staff member going off duty, were unfair as he wasn’t responsible for this. He came to work to drive a bus, he wasn’t in charge of the logistics of this little operation.

    I’m also going to skate over some of what happened between the passengers and the coach driver. This is partly because at this stage a member of Greater Anglia staff appeared and he was calm, confident and professional. I liked his approach and he called on the bus which Greater Anglia hold in reserve and told everyone that it would be here in thirty minutes, and although that time estimate wasn’t quite right, it wasn’t far off. He also told customers that they could reboard the train if they were cold, as it wasn’t departing back to London for a while.

    However, I can’t miss out from the story that passengers tried to block the coach that was there from leaving, by standing in front and behind it. There was a danger of injury, but none took place, so there’s no point of writing about what could have been.

    And I think this is where I’ll end this part of the story. Rail companies shouldn’t have to be told that if a mainline train isn’t running it’s not acceptable to forget to put a coach on. It was avoidable, but it at least gave me a story for the blog. And triggered a delay repay claim, so that’s a bonus. We also got to go home on a Megabus as well, as that was the replacement coach that was used.

    I think this post is a very fair compromise between not embarrassing any individual (other than me, but I do that nearly all the time with my general stupidity) and not bringing the rail network into total disrepute. And since only about six people will read this, it doesn’t much matter…..

  • GeoGuessr – Colchester Town Railway Station

    GeoGuessr – Colchester Town Railway Station

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    I’m not going to go into much detail about this railway station, but I’d note that the pigeon spikes aren’t entirely functional and that must be the one of the oldest screens in the Greater Anglia network…

  • GeoGuessr – Colchester (The Odd One Out)

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    We had an hour in Colchester whilst waiting to get the train from Colchester Town to Colchester railway station, so that was enough time to visit a pub in the Good Beer Guide. This one sounded excellent from the description and it’s now run by Colchester Brewery as their first pub.

    My first impressions were very positive, an extensive selection of real ales and some dark options were available. It felt old-fashioned, which pleased me enormously, and everything felt calm, welcoming and just as it should be. There were no gimmicks, disturbances or pointless distractions, all very lovely.

    Some of the beer selection and there wasn’t much need for me to hesitate as there was a porter available, the Old King Coel London Porter from Colchester Brewery.

    Here it is in its glory and I thought that it was better than the reviews on-line suggest it is (not that they’re at all bad, they just don’t rate it as exceptional). I thought it was delightful though, a rich roasted malty taste and very drinkable.

    I didn’t even try to work out why this was here, but despite it not really matching any of the decor, it still seemed to fit in.

    Above the bar. And I’m delighted that the Good Beer Guide brought me here and I’ve also found out that it has been in the book for over thirty years, the longest run of any pub in Essex. It’s all very well deserved, every town (and village) should have a pub like this. Friendly, welcoming, decent beer and calm surroundings. So very lovely.

  • GeoGuessr – Great Bentley to Colchester

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    We got back safely to Great Bentley railway station, and its tall bridge, to journey back to Colchester. I bravely took this photo and didn’t require Nathan’s help, but he pro-actively decided to act as lookout in case I didn’t manage to notice a train was crossing.

    I only discovered later on that this line is known as the “Sunshine Coast Line”, making eastern Essex sound like some Californian or Australian beach destination. Anyway, if it works for them….

    Oh, and although I have no particular interest with train spotting or trains, I do like a good fact or two about railway stations. Although that’s not really any more inspiring perhaps… Anyway, Great Bentley railway station opened in 1866 and was then known as Bentley Green, but it was renamed to its current name in 1877. Well, that’s what Wikipedia says anyway, although it still seems to have been called Bentley Green for some time after 1877 in the media and by some locals.

    One story about this railway station, which is from December 1866. The station master, Samuel Clarbour, was in charge of getting a customer’s dog to Colchester, which isn’t a service that I can imagine the current station staff offering (which is handy as there aren’t any staff at the station now). Anyway, another individual, Herbert Warren, comes along and tried to claim the dog as his. The station master was a sensible man and realised this wasn’t right, and he refused to release the dog. So Herbert Warren hit the station master and there was a scuffle at the station, a case of dognapping and this wasn’t a crime I considered was a problem in Victorian times. For anyone interested, Warren was fined 2s 6d  and also had to paid the costs of 17s (about £65 in total in today’s money).

    And our carriage awaits, on time again, we’d (at this point, but as a spoiler, this didn’t last) been fortunate on today’s adventure with some very punctual trains and buses.

  • GeoGuessr – Sandwich…..

    I’m not claiming that this is the most inspirational content on the Internet, but I would like to thank the nice man who worked in Tesco for patiently stopping what he was doing and reducing the sandwich I wanted in price (he was busy doing the tuna mayo sandwiches, which I didn’t want).

    Although, just a little extra comment, I could have done without Nathan coming over to interfere with my operation of the self-service till because he seemed to think that I was some senile and confused individual who was unable to cope with how to use it. Although, I will say that his help was useful….

    BTW, the sandwich wasn’t like that in the shop, that was the result of being in my wet bag for an hour.

  • GeoGuessr – Plough (Great Bentley)

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    We couldn’t not visit this pub, it’s just a few minutes walk away from Great Bentley railway station. The previous pub had been quite quiet, but this was a more lively affair and it felt as though it was a fun community pub which didn’t take itself too seriously.

    The Plough is owned by Wellington Pub Company, which I have limited knowledge of, but I’m aware that they’re a large landlord who offer free of tie lease agreements to landlords. It’s a great shame for the entire licensed trade that there aren’t more companies which operate on these terms.

    There were a couple of beer options from the Bishop Nick Brewery in Braintree, Essex. Just as an aside, that’s some really good branding from Bishop Nick Brewery, very on-trend. Slight downside, I thought that the real ale was slightly on the turn, although it was at the appropriate temperature. Nathan, who is our self-appointed beer connoisseur,  felt that it was just about acceptable, so we stuck with it. Actually, he was right (hopefully he won’t read that, although he probably will) and it was tolerable, perhaps it had lost a little flavour, but it still tasted fine.

    There seemed to be some form of entertainment going on later on in the evening, but that was taking place after our train left. So, for the time we were there, we found a table in what I assume was about to become a stage. The service at the pub was efficient and friendly, with a relaxed and informal feel to the surroundings. All perfectly acceptable, I can imagine that this is a reliable local pub.

  • GeoGuessr – Royal Fusilier (Aingers Green)

    This is part of the GEOGUESSR 1 series of posts.

    I’ve had to really ponder what to write about this pub. Nathan, being well, Nathan, carefully writes down every pub he visits and I know that’s he just visited over 100 this year. I don’t keep such assiduous records, but I think I’m at something like 125 (irritatingly, not that many more than him). I mention this just to quantify the number of visits we make and so that our expectations of pubs generally aren’t unnecessarily skewed.

    Anyway, I don’t really ever get bad service anywhere, as I’ve carefully selected pubs that I think I’ll like, that are in the Good Beer Guide or manage to be on-trend and exciting. There’s a bit of a theme on this blog where I keep writing that everywhere is friendly, but that’s not really surprising given how I’m trying to pick decent places to go.

    Normally, if I had a bad experience in a pub, I probably just wouldn’t post about it (although I’m struggling to remember a bad experience this year). It’s important to remember that a publican has a difficult job (I should know…..), they may be having an off-day, they may come across in a way that they didn’t mean or they might have an issue that they’re dealing with in the best way that they know. So, I’d likely just not post anything about an experience which wasn’t friendly.

    But, I’m trying to write here about the day we had whilst on our pointless and irrelevant GeoGuessr adventure, so I can’t really miss much out of the narrative. And, before I write the next paragraph, I’ll say that it’s great this pub is open and it’s clear that someone has spent lots of time and energy trying to make it work. It’s well reviewed, especially for food, and I took some photos of the interior which show-cased some of their work. I tried my very best to like this pub given all of that.

    But, there seems little point in writing too much about that, as it was clear from the off-set that we weren’t welcome. On the grounds that we were just trying to get a quiet drink (of real ale, not Stella mixed with Aftershock) I can’t say I entirely understand what the issue was from the staff, but I’ll assume there were factors involved that I didn’t understand.

    Anyway, we had one more pub left before we left Great Bentley for the bright lights of Colchester (and as a spoiler to cheer things up, we had an exceptionally good experience at a Colchester pub) so we marched off into the dark ready for a short stroll.