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  • British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Dublin)

    British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Dublin)

    A couple of days ago, my friend Liam and I headed off from Heathrow T5 to the delights of Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. More on the lounge in another visit though, which all went well.

    The gate was called relatively late and it wasn’t particularly well organised when we got there. A staff member apologised and said that she was the only one at the check-in desks and that she hadn’t had to do that before without assistance, with everything moving quite slowly as a result. The boarding by groups was also abandoned which caused a fair amount of confusion judging by other customers trying to cut the line without realising that there wasn’t another line to cut into. The situation wasn’t ideal, it all felt a bit more Ryanair than anything else.

    And joy of joys, a bus gate…. The aircraft driver (excuse the Inbetweeners reference) later mentioned that this wasn’t ideal, but that it was quicker to use buses than to get the aircraft towed to a gate.

    We were on the second of the three coaches which took us not very far away at all in order to board. The journey to the aircraft was short and the coaches weren’t crammed full.

    Of little relevance to anything, but this is G-EUYR. the Airbus A320 which I flew on last year to get to Warsaw. There was a friendly welcome from the crew when boarding and every customer was handed a wipe so they could clean their seat area to their heart’s content. Masks were compulsory throughout the entire flight unless eating or drinking, which I didn’t see being enforced (I mean the masks situation, not enforcing the eating), but it was honoured in the main anyway.

    I kindly let Liam have the window seat on what transpired to be a full flight. The boarding process was delayed for around fifteen minutes as the crew were struggling to get all of the bags to fit in the overhead lockers. The airline has made huge efforts to reduce the number of customers putting bags in the hold, meaning that the cabin bag capacity is effectively exceeded. We were seated in emergency exit row seats and so couldn’t put bags on the floor under the seats, but the crew were telling those with smaller bags they must move them onto the floor to make way for the bigger bags. This simply means that customers wanting to ensure they have floor space are advised to bring big bags, which isn’t ideal. There was the usual debacle of some customers not entirely understanding that if their bag is bigger than the hole they’re trying to put it in, then it won’t go in. Fortunately, the crew were being pro-active and resolving such little problems quite promptly.

    Anyway, bags aside, the crew and pilot announcements were friendly and welcoming, although I understand from the news this week that BA are moving away from the welcome the pilot offered of “welcome ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls”. There’s now a free snack and water provided on the flight, which was perfectly satisfactory for a journey of less than an hour.

    The disembarkation process was handled well, with customers asked to remain seated until their row was called by the crew members. That did make for a more peaceful and calm way of leaving the aircraft, although I suspect it’ll be abandoned once this health crisis is out of the way.

    The aircraft after landing at Dublin and it’s rare for me to be able to get photos of British Airways aircraft like this as there are usually air bridges to walk across to the main terminal building. The pilot had made up some of the time lost at Heathrow which meant that we landed only around five minutes behind schedule.

    Here we are safely in Dublin with no documentation checks for immunisation, although some of that process might have been automated. It took just a few minutes to get from the aircraft to the outside of the terminal building, all very efficient. After Avios adjustments and the like, this single flight cost me around £20, which I think is excellent value given that they also funded my lounge visit as well.

  • Burger King – Burger Roulette

    Burger King – Burger Roulette

    Back to my entirely random posts again….

    I saw this stupid promotion a few weeks ago and meant to check review sites to see if it worked out. The idea behind it was that customers could go into Burger King and get a random burger for £2. There were very clear warnings all over the Burger King web-site that this wasn’t suitable for vegans, vegetarians, anyone with an allergy, anyone who didn’t eat bacon, anyone who hates halloumi and so on. Realistically, that’s a huge number of people ruled out of the entire promotion.

    I thought initially that users of the app could see what random burger they would receive before committing to purchase it, which I thought was quite clever before I went to the web-site to read more. Burger King has had to add to their web-site policies explaining that customers cannot refund these burgers or request any changes. If you don’t like it, the burger has to be binned which doesn’t strike me as the most environmentally friendly option.

    Anyway, I’ve gone to look at the reviews and I can’t find a single positive one (and I’ve scrolled through a lot of pages other than the pointless press releases they dumped out at the start of the campaign. I’ve found tens of negative ones though. This one probably sums the whole thing up:

    “Burger Roulette is a fake game.
    1. Every time I try, I get the same burger… NO surprise, NO roulette
    2. They never show you the result in front of you.
    3. The roulette is not transparent and kind of cheating roulette.
    4. ALL roulette MUST reveal and show to customer in front.
    This is fake roulette, at least I never seen any fair roulette in front of me!”

    How on earth this was Burger King’s big idea of the summer I’ll never quite know. Perhaps people loved the concept very secretly. Anyway, random post over.

  • Norwich – Redwell Brewing

    Norwich – Redwell Brewing

    As the sign handily indicates, I booked a table for four people to go to Redwells, located in railway arches between the village of Trowse and the decadent offices of Norfolk County Council. It’s good to support a local brewery, although I’ve rather lost track of their financial issues, staffing changes and the like that have been reported in the local press.

    The entrance would be slightly more impressive without the cars, but the signage is pretty clear to guide customers in.

    This is a working brewery, with the brew tap type arrangement open on Fridays to Sundays.

    The beer choices were all from Redwell, with no guest options available. I can’t say that there was anything sensationally good and there were a limited number of different beer styles available, but the West Coast Pale was definitely above average and I’d willingly have that again.

    There were two food options, the pizzas which I think are always here, along with the rotating extra food option from Namaste which is a local vegetarian Indian restaurant that I quite like. I’m not sure how financially useful these pop-up arrangements are for companies such as Namaste as Redwells wasn’t that busy, but I suppose it’s good advertising and decent promotion for them.

    I went with the Indian option, although I know from past experience that the pizza options really are beautifully decadent too.

    I decided to go for the Maharaja Combo Meal, with a samosa, chilli cauliflower gobi, chana masala and rice. I have to say that it was really rather lovely, even the cauliflower tasted decent. A richness of flavours and a reminder that vegetarian food can be absolutely delicious.

    And here’s the brewery set-up at the rear. There’s plenty of inside seating, although it’s best to book this in advance, with outside seating as well during the warmer months of the year. Beer ordering was either at the bar or using the app, and although the others in our group went to the bar, I was quite content using the app and not having to walk anywhere.

    In an ideal world there would have been a decadent dark beer for me, but the environment was clean, the service was always polite, the company was charming (especially mine) and I enjoyed the food. A rather lovely experience and I’ll keep a little eye out for whatever food outlets will be making an appearance here.

  • Norwich – Norwich Cathedral (Dippy Visit)

    Norwich – Norwich Cathedral (Dippy Visit)

    As I’m back in Norwich, I thought I’d take the opportunity to go and see Dippy at Norwich Cathedral before he (or she) departs on the end of its tour of the provinces. The cathedral has clearly put a huge amount of effort into this whole arrangement and there are what seemed like endless amounts of volunteers, who all seemed happy, engaged and content. Rather like Rochester Cathedral and its golf course, I think it’s a clever way of getting families in to see the building as well as Dippy.

    The usual entrance to the cathedral has been closed for the moment, from its rather decadent entry near the front of the building to a slightly hard to find (well, for someone who isn’t local) entrance around the side. There is signage, but I was slightly puzzled why they had moved away from their recently professionally constructed entrance to guide people through the cloisters.

    After navigating around a bit, here we are in the aisle of the cathedral. The whole thing is just a copy of the original which is located at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, which was annoyingly shut when I went to the city. I’ll go back one day as I liked Pittsburgh.

    Underneath…..

    To the side…..

    The number of volunteers on site helped give a friendly atmosphere to the arrangement, there were a number of families with excited children (well, and some less excited, but let’s dwell on the positives) and other interested spectators. I read some reviews and most people are positive, although there are a few sneering about the presence of a dinosaur and its presence in the nave. Personally, I thought some of the complaints were a little ridiculous, it’s not as though the cathedral has got its head sticking out of the roof or something. Engagement with new audiences is perhaps far more important.

    It’s apparent just how big the cathedral nave is here as Dippy looked quite small when standing back a little. I’m impressed at how well the cathedral authorities have handled this, also providing another visitor route for those who really just wanted to see the building and not the dinosaur. Everything co-exists in harmony, which is just what I’m sure the cathedral hoped would happen.

  • London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – The Drum (Being Closed by Wetherspoons)

    London – Waltham Forest (Borough of) – The Drum (Being Closed by Wetherspoons)

    I wrote about this pub last year, it’s been operated by JD Wetherspoon since 1986 and is one of the older pubs in their estate that’s still open.

    Drum Sale Document

    However, as can be seen at the above PDF, the company is getting rid of it and it’s apparently now under offer. It seems a shame to sell the freehold of a pub that they’ve operated for 35 years, but perhaps they’re opening something else nearby or there’s a localised problem that they just can’t fix. In terms of running a pub, I can’t think of a harder challenge of taking on a JD Wetherspoon venue after they’ve sold it, as the customer base is going to be hard to please given what they’ve become used to.

  • Norwich – An Attempt at Playing Squash

    Norwich – An Attempt at Playing Squash

    Some of the ideas that my friend Nathan and I have in the pub transpire to be perhaps a little braver in the cold light of day than we had initially anticipated. The latest visionary idea this week is us playing squash, although he’s quite competent at that, and it’s fair to say that I’m not. The idea was that we would have a little go today, which sounded a marvellous idea at the time.

    On reflection the day after I realised that there was the little problem that I wasn’t really kitted out for all of this. My trainers were rather muddier than I had remembered them being, primarily as I keep walking everywhere traipsing through fields. The upshot of all that is that I required a morning trip to Sports Direct, the only shop that I could find that sold suitable shoes at a bargain price.

    I meandered into Sports Direct and was already slightly pre-annoyed as it’s a controversial company that isn’t perhaps always known for doing the right thing. Anyway, I decided not to get too involved in the politics of commerce and I was moderately annoyed to find that for the first time in years when I needed assistance from the staff that they weren’t very forthcoming. After I had decided this was all too much stress I found a staff member and asked where the squash shoe things were. It transpired that I was standing next to them, which wasn’t ideal as it made me look like an idiot, but I was able to answer the key question asked of me quite decisively. Namely answering the “how much are you looking to spend?” with the answer of “these ones look the cheapest, I’ll have these”. Bargain found in the shoe size that was convenient, I then went to Pret to have a rest. I can see now why people need to go to a cafe after shopping, it’s frankly exhausting.

    I’ve digressed here. I nervously walked to the squash courts to see Nathan looking like Jonah Barrington, which didn’t add to my confidence levels. Fortunately, he proved to be a very tolerant and good teacher (Nathan, not Jonah, although I’m sure that he was too) and he was able to turn the heating off in the courts which was my first concern. Why the hell is there heating in a squash court? I was reassured that there was no-one in the viewing gallery area above, as that would have very definitely annoyed me.

    There seems to be a lot of running about and the ball bounces in a slightly different way to what I had expected, with rather more walls to bounce the ball off than I had anticipated. The serving bit was a bit of a faff for me for a while, but I’m nearly professional quality at that now. I will accept that I’m not of an Olympic standard yet (although having checked, squash isn’t in the Olympics which seems an omission to me) but maybe in a few weeks.

    I read on Wikipedia that there are four main types of player which are power players, shotmakers, retrievers and attritional players. I felt like a retriever for the first part of the session collecting the ball from where I had missed hitting it when it went flying by me, although I suspect in a different meaning of the word. I also looked up what the technical word for the ball was in squash, and I’ve discovered that it’s “ball”. I had expected something a little more decadent.

    All told, I rather enjoyed the whole experience, although writing this a few hours on, my ankles aren’t perhaps as sympathetic to the whole arrangement as I am. They seem to be a bit sore, but I’m not sure I’ve given my ankles such exercise before. I shall be going back next week, partly because I’ve now spent £20 on shoes but also because it was quite an interesting little adventure. It’s exhausting, but it has the advantage over long distance walking that it’s only very tiring for a relatively short period of time….

  • Saltaire – Salts Mill

    Saltaire – Salts Mill

    I had a little visit to Salts Mill in Saltaire a few weeks ago, a building which was originally constructed by Sir Titus Salt in 1853. Salt wanted to create a modern village for his workers and what he built is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

    The mill building today is a combination of art gallery, antiques emporium, bookshops and other random stuff. The building remained in use as a mill until 1986, but the sheer amount of floor space and the falling price of imports meant that it became unviable as a business.

    I have to be honest and comment that I thought this was a deathly boring place, but I’m perhaps not the target audience as I wasn’t intending to spend a lot of money on artwork. The building was fascinating and this could make for a museum that was world class, but there’s nearly nothing here about the actual structure itself. Anything of interest in terms of what was once in the mill is down the road in Bradford’s rather excellent Industrial Museum.

    I’m sure that this sort of thing has a big audience, but I found nothing to engage me at all. I accept that’s not the mill’s fault…

    Signage around the mill was poor and confusing, not helped by certain sections being shut such as the 1853 Gallery which was probably potentially the best bit of the building. The cafe arrangement was all over the place with more confused signage and people muttering about being lost or not knowing where to queue. I would go as far, as I’m in a critical mood, to say that the signage was inept, which is evident from the sheer number of reviews where different visitors are finding different things. One person said that there was a marvellous 45 minute video introduction covering the site’s history, and I’d note that would have very much been useful to me and others, as the theme of there being nothing about the building’s heritage is a common one. I have a slight suspicion that there is actually more at this site than a fair few number of visitors, including myself, have managed to locate.

    Another floor, this time selling books.

    It’s fair to say that I didn’t manage to find anything to me of interest at the site (and I’m struggling to recall a time that I’ve thought that about any site such as this), rather disappointing as I was hoping for some interesting art exhibition or information about the building. I think I managed to spend about 15 minutes at the site, and that involved lingering around a bit to try and lengthen the experience. But, it was all free of charge and the reviews of the site suggest that many people do get a lot out of the site. There are a fair few reviews of people who like me didn’t share the love of the place, but I’m glad that the building has survived as it’s an important part of the region’s heritage.

    I’ll leave this in agreeing with a review posted a couple of weeks ago which gave 1/5 and said:

    “Absolutely nothing to give a nod to the sites history and a seriously missed opportunity. Having studied Salt and his impact on society we took a drive to Salts Mill. There was a Hockney exhibition and a glorified Waterstones.”

    And the Hockney exhibition was shut when I was there…..

  • Shipley / Saltaire – Cap & Collar

    Shipley / Saltaire – Cap & Collar

    The sun hasn’t helped me here in delivering a quality photo of the frontage, but there’s always Google Street View for anyone who requires better imagery…. Anyway, this is a Good Beer Guide listed micropub which was established in 2014 and I wasn’t going to miss out on visiting this when I was in Saltaire.

    I understand that there’s a beer garden to the back, but otherwise this is a relatively small pub. The main bar area is visible and the welcome from the staff member was immediate and seemed genuine.

    The beer options, inevitably limited given that this is a micropub, but a few cask and keg options, although nothing dark. There were though some bottles and cans which I didn’t investigate at the time (but have now looked on-line and there’s plenty of choice across most beer styles), so there were some additional choices there. They also have their own branded clothing on display, which felt a bit aspirational, but there we go…..

    I went for the Spectrum Eclipse from Vocation Brewery, along with Seabrook crisps which I think I’ve become addicted to. As an aside, I used to wonder why Morrisons stocked so many Seabrook crisps, but I’ve now discovered that both of them are headquartered in Bradford.  Very hoppy and fruity, it was a refreshing beer although the lingering flavours were a bit weak.

    There was a nice and friendly neighbourhood and community vibe to the micropub, deservedly in the Good Beer Guide I thought as the beer offerings were something different from the generic. Apparently (well, I’ve from CAMRA) that there a frequent tap takeovers and there are sometimes folk music performances. For those who don’t sufficient Seabrook crisps enough, the pub also has some street food vendors that attending on a rotating basis, giving a bit of choice to customers. All very lovely…..

  • Huddersfield – The Sportsman

    Huddersfield – The Sportsman

    Going back a few weeks (my backlog shows no signs of going away, but I shall persist….) to when Tony and I had a little expedition around the pubs of Huddersfield. This is the Sportsman, a Good Beer Guide listed pub which is noted for its historic pub interior and its selection of beer.

    There’s one main bar in the pub and there are numerous rooms leading off from it. The beer options are on the chalkboard at the end of the bar, neatly divided between keg and cask. There was also a printed menu of Belgian beers, which isn’t something that I really have much knowledge of, but Tony commented that it was a very decent selection.

    I liked the little touches from the 1950s refurbishment, such as the bell for drinks service. Some pubs put systems like this back in over the last couple of years when table service had to be reintroduced.

    We were seated in one of the side rooms and that’s half a pint of Plum Porter from Nailmaker Brewing Company who are from the rather lovely town of Barnsley. It was a very acceptable pint, one of the better porters that I’ve had.

    Having visited Saltaire, I’m happy to try some of the brewery’s beers and this red ale had some interesting notes of fruit, but was otherwise perhaps a little unexceptional. Well kept and at the appropriate temperature though, so no issues there.

    I don’t normally feel the need to take photos in toilets, but I like their heritage in this pub. In terms of the main part of the building, it would have been easy for a pub company to entirely knock out the internal walls of the pub, but enough has survived here to give it that historic feel, with some old plans of the building on the wall as well.

    Reviews of the pub are nearly all positive, just with the occasional one like:

    “Need to get this OTT OCD covid attitude rectified or it’ll go the way of the Corner. Soulless and sterile as things stand.”

    It’s disappointing that customers don’t perhaps recognise just how difficult it is for pubs to try and please their wider customer base, but I thought they were doing a really good job with a combination of serving at the bar but also with the team member coming over to offer table service for our second drink. The pub responded politely to the review as well, all nicely done.

    Anyway, this was a friendly and welcoming pub, with something of a community feel in all of the positive meanings of the word and I can see why it has won numerous CAMRA awards. Other customers were conversational and welcoming and the staff member was engaging and knowledgeable about the beer options. I liked the choice of beers as well, there was a range of styles on the extensive beer list. I’m glad that it’s in the Good Beer Guide….

  • British Airways – A380 is Back

    British Airways – A380 is Back

    (Copyright of British Airways)

    This is a bit geeky I accept, but the A380 is my favourite aircraft and it’s coming back. There were rumours for a while that British Airways would have no future need for this behemoth of an aircraft. As I’m not a journalist and don’t need to embed this into a news article I’ve carefully and lovingly written, I’ll just copy and paste the press release from British Airways (yes, I know that’s lazy….).

    PRESS RELEASE – 6 October 2021

    British Airways is set to welcome back its first A380 aircraft in November and operate its biggest schedule since March 2020, with additional services to cities across the globe, including the US.

    British Airways’ A380 will initially operate to a number of short-haul destinations to allow for crew service familiarisation in November, shortly followed by operating to Miami and Los Angeles in the US, as well as Dubai in December.

    News that the airline’s A380 aircraft is re-joining its fleet follows the announcement that vaccinated Brits will be able to travel to the United States from November. The airline is set to fly to 23 US airports this winter* with up to 246 flights a week, more than any other transatlantic carrier.

    Across its US network, British Airways will be increasing the number of flights it operates with services to city destinations including New York, which will initially be increasing to five a day, followed by eight in December. The airline will also be operating double-daily services to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, Dallas, Miami and Toronto, as well as daily services to Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle, Atlanta, Denver, Houston and Vancouver

    In addition to frequency increases, in October and November British Airways will restart services to Austin, Orlando, Tampa, San Diego, Las Vegas and Baltimore. In December the airline will also start flying to Nashville and New Orleans once again, which both proved to be a hit with customers when they first launched.

    Closer to home, British Airways has increased flights to a number of short-haul destinations by adding 13,000 more seats to holiday hot spots for families to get away this October. Popular leisure destinations Marrakech and Dalaman will appear on flight schedules again in time for October half-term, and brand-new services to the Turkish resort of Antalya will also be launching. Looking ahead to the winter, British Airways will be restarting a number of ski destinations including Innsbruck, Grenoble and Salzburg from December.

    To help customers get away for some much-needed summer sun this Christmas, British Airways is extending its Caribbean programme with 12 services a week to Barbados and nine each to Antigua and St Lucia, which will be split across Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Flights to popular luxury Indian Ocean destinations, Maldives and Mauritius, will also be increasing to 10 and six per week over the Christmas period.

    Neil Chernoff, British Airways’ Director of Network and Alliances, said: “This is an exciting time for British Airways and our customers as we see borders re-opening. With welcome news from the US, we are dramatically increasing flights and bringing home some of our A380s to give our customers as many options as possible. Elsewhere across our network we are also adding additional services to destinations all over the world, to ensure our customers can take advantage of a much-needed holiday.”

    Elsewhere across its short-haul network British Airways will be increasing flights year-round to key European cities with 48 weekly services to Amsterdam, 33 to Geneva, 35 to Dublin, 28 to Milan and 21 to Berlin, Paris and Rome.

    British Airways’ subsidiary BA City Flyer, is expected to operate a schedule of 43 flights a week to Edinburgh, 33 to Dublin, 25 to Glasgow, 18 to Belfast, 16 to Amsterdam, 15 to Rotterdam, 15 to Berlin, 12 to Frankfurt, 12 to Dusseldorf and 11 to Zurich. The airline is also set to launch a new route from Belfast to Birmingham, as well as new ski destination Salzburg, from London City and Southampton.

    To coincide with the increase in services as the world re-opens, the airline’s lounges are also welcoming customers back. In September customers were invited to enjoy British Airways’ Concorde Room in London and New York. Lounges in Chicago, Washington, San Francisco and Houston are expected to open this week.

    Customers using exclusive lounges can benefit from exciting new developments, such as the introduction of ‘Your Menu’ – a new initiative developed in the last few months to allow customers to order food and drink directly to their seat by simply scanning a QR code on their mobile device.