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Category: UK

Norwich – Cluck’d Chicken Restaurant

James and I always look out for what we consider decadent dining options, which normally involve market stalls or places that serve chicken. I’ve walked by here a number of times and been tempted to go in, so when James and I discovered that our preferred market lunch option was closed, we came here. This venue is one of two in the chain, with the other being located in Milton Keynes.

The menu is quite substantial and the ordering system is a little unclear, although ultimately it’s seat yourself and then go to the counter to order. There is an online ordering system but it doesn’t have the discounted prices available.

The lunch menu and I wanted this, so I ordered at the counter. I accidentally decided that I should also order five chicken wings as that meant I got another five free as it was Wings Wednesday. There are times that I try and be dignified and moderate, but then things go a little awry….

The interior was mostly quite dirty when we entered with only one clean table, although that seemed to be more a lack of staff rather than a lack of effort.

There were a range of sauces in a style similar to Nando’s although I didn’t use these as the food arrived with more than enough sauce already on it.

I went for the £5 chicken and rice box with the Screaming Hot sauce and Korean BBQ, along with five chicken wings with the Screaming Hot sauce and the free five chicken wings which had the Tingly sauce on. Firstly, the Screaming Hot sauce was lacking in any sort of heat which for something advertised as “try it if you dare!” is perhaps rather sub-optimal. The Korean BBQ was a bit too sweet for me and the whole arrangement was also a little salty.

The chicken and rice box were rather swamped by the BBQ sauce and the rice was a bit bland, with the chicken pieces being tender but also lacking in much depth of flavour. The chicken wings were generous in size, as it included the entire wing, and they were all fine although they weren’t particularly impactful in terms of the taste with the chicken seeming to be slightly watery. I preferred the wings where the skin was blackened as it gave it some texture, but everything was cooked appropriately. But, if I had my way, chicken wings would always be crispy.

In terms of value for money, this was very reasonable and the portion size was generous for the price paid, although I accept that I leaned into the offers that they had. I struggled to finish all of the food because of the portion size, so that was a positive that I didn’t leave hungry.

James went for chicken pieces and fries, which fell outside of their lunchtime offer, but he’s far more decadent than me. He enjoyed his, probably rating it all a little higher than me. James also made less mess than me, it took me some time to get the sauce off my fingers although they did provide gloves which would have been far more sensible for me to use. However, James would have commented negatively on that as he has a laddish side, so I didn’t.

The team members here were friendly and personable throughout, and they did eventually get back on top of cleanliness in the venue. It’s all well reviewed online and it was a perfectly agreeable lunch, although I’m not sure that there was anything unique enough here to make me want to visit again. This might be one of those times where the problem is the quality of the meat they’re buying, rather than any particular problems of how they’re cooking it.

They are perhaps a little unfortunate to be so close to a Wingstop who have some dry rub options which can pack some spicy hit, as well being more flavoursome chicken going by my previous experiences. However, it’s all on trend and the restaurant was reasonably busy for a lunch-time, so they look as though they’re doing well. Anyway, I wasn’t blown away by the meal, but it was competent, the team members were helpful and I might return to try some other chicken items on the menu as locations are often best tried twice.

May 27, 2026
Norwich – Bloody Bar Billiards (Game 4 – Artichoke Hearts vs Red Lion)

Our fourth game was away to the Red Lion in Coltishall and they’re a new venue and a new team to the league. I’ve also never been to the pub before and I really liked going somewhere new, so I’m all in support of having more non-Norwich venues in the league. Or at least I was until we lost heavily, at which point my commitment to rural expansion became rather more nuanced.

Still, I suppose I had better write about it so I do not look like a bad loser, which is important because I am obviously a gracious and reflective loser, provided nobody mentions the score. Many thanks to Luke for getting me to the pub safely and nice and early, so we could have a proper look at their table and begin forming opinions that would later prove tactically irrelevant.

The table is up against the wall which is an interesting location in quite a large room, although I quite liked making shots whilst having a little sit down on the window ledge. Bar billiards is a sport of immense physical endurance, so it is important to conserve energy wherever possible, ideally before missing. Here’s Luke getting warmed up for the big event.

I had a practice with the final game shot and then had a sit down with a pint of ThreeOneSix from Grain Brewery. This was a fruity, hoppy and slightly toffee flavoured beer, all very agreeable.

Here’s Luke and a lion. Luke’s on the left.

The anticipation before the draw.

And the completed draw, what could possibly go wrong? We soon found out in the rather comprehensive way that someone might discover a roof leak during a thunderstorm.

PJ and Vaughan started us off and let’s just say that we lost the first two games.

The Red Lion kindly provided us with some free sandwiches and when they were placed down I pretended that I wasn’t desperate to start eating them. I waited for a reasonable period, I think around twelve seconds, and started in the hope that no-one noticed. I tested a lot of these on behalf of the team as leadership comes in many forms and this week it involved bread.

It was a friendly pub and they had three real ales available, with the two I tried being well-kept. This was a decent distraction during the controlled demolition process taking place in the bar billiards room.

The set-up requires some short cues….

My second beer was the Best Bitter from Grain, malty and good with my third helping of sandwiches.

Luke the Lion won his game, I didn’t doubt him. That brought it back to 3-1 and it was me up next against Jon. My normal tactic of getting to 1,000 was a success, indeed, I got 1,260. Unfortunately, Jon scored 1,710 so that tactic didn’t bring us to 3-2.

It’s evident that my enthusiasm towards this blog must have waned, this was my only other photo of the game. We lost quite a few of the games after Luke’s success. Well, actually, all of them. Bloody game….

Luke and I have no further statement to make and we will not be responding to any further media enquiries about the situation.

But back to the pub, which is a really quirky shape with lots of character across a couple of different levels. The staff were friendly and many thanks for the beer choices, the free sandwiches and the welcome. The Red Lion team led by Tom were also great fun and it was a very enjoyable evening out. Well, quite enjoyable, that score was sub-optimal.

But, from failure comes strong leadership and we hope to lose by less when we play the King’s Head next week in the cup.

May 21, 2026
Chatham – The Thomas Waghorn (JD Wetherspoon)

I haven’t wittered on about JD Wetherspoon venues for a couple of weeks, so it feels about time to post something. This is the Thomas Waghorn in Chatham which I visited on the first May Bank Holiday.

It’s a grand building which is located in the town’s former main Post Office.

The information panel outside the pub and the chain adds on their website:

“The well-known statue (erected in 1888) by the bridge over Railway Street commemorates the ‘postal pioneer’ Thomas Fletcher Waghorn – the Chatham-born naval officer and merchant seaman who developed a new postal route from Great Britain to India. His 6,000-mile overland route replaced the 16,000-mile sea journey, reducing the time taken from around three months to just 35–40 days.”

As mentioned, JD Wetherspoon opened it in 2016 and they spent £2.2 million on the building and the conversion, so a fair commitment.

It’s a large venue inside with this space in front of the bar and they’ve also got an open kitchen. There is an upstairs area and a garden with a choice of around seven real ales and numerous craft beer options.

My obligatory carpet photo and it was all a bit grimy.

This was around £9 which really is decent value for fish & chips and a bottle of Staropramen. All tasted as expected, was at the appropriate temperature and was served promptly. The Staropramen was agreeable and actually served in a clean glass, those larger ones are often not particularly well presented.

It’s fairly well reviewed online for a JD Wetherspoon venue, but I felt the need to check as usual.

“I am not happy with the way my son and his friends were treated by the staff at The Thomas Waghorn, my son bought an alcoholic drink Mango loco that cost him over £9 & his friend only had a drop of it(only put a tiny drop of it on her finger, she didn’t have a sip of the drink at all) & my son & his friends were kicked out of the place. My son is 18 & a half & I am not impressed with how the situation was dealt with by the staff, I certainly will not be going there ever again as my son has come home in tears as has my niece(who was with my son). This situation should have been dealt with more understanding rather than with rudeness”

Or just don’t let children have any alcohol in a pub maybe…..

“Me (17) and my partner (18) came here for their birthday and they ordered two drinks, both for them. The waiter took the drinks away and offered us juice instead. He then told me with a very smug look on his face that he couldn’t give me a refund as it says in ‘small print’ on the website. This has never been a problem anywhere else.”

I can’t imagine what the problem was here given one was 17….

“WARNING: Filled with old racist men waiting for death. Hateful 20 IQ door staff discriminate at random. Miserable bar staff who cant pour pints they’re so overworked. Reheated freezer food. Literally every surrounding bar in the area is better.”

I don’t think this customer likes the pub…..

“I was simply kicked out because staff did not like my children around”

I would be interested to know what these children were doing….

“Atmosphere of a wake.”

Good, venues can have too much frivolity sometimes….

“Found a 5p in the salt that we sprinkled on our food”

I’m not sure that I’ve seen a review mentioning something like that before….

“The young male server in his 20s who I’ve been told is possibly called Robin ( not sure how accurate that is and dude was also probably autistic) that seemed to really struggle with understanding humour and very obvious good humoured sarcasm had genuinely ruined my evening out with my friend and partner. He was so patronisingly rude and unpleasant that I eventually stopped ordering through the app and went straight to the bar just so he would stop serving my table. He very clearly had a huge attitude problem with power tripping from his server position as he continued to be rude and in a poor rendition of what he thought was an Essex accent said to me “I didn’t see your drink at the end of the bar lovey” in a mocking tone and in reference to myself making a joke about wanting a beer like my friend. Also he asked my partner “If things go down the wrong holes often” when she was choking on her food. Weird to make a sexual innuendo at a person who’s actively choking. For the first time in my life I wanted to talk to the on shift manager as the server was actually bordering on hostile after our 4th encounter which was extremely strange. This is the first time he’s done this as he in a poor attempt at humour called my friends partner fat on another occasion and once couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that someone at our table didn’t want ice cream with their brownie so he legitimately stood there staring in confusion and contempt for 2 minutes I’m silence whist our table watched him in confusion”

Well, I like a bit of drama…..

“Manager refused to deal with my issue after being presented with a side dish that was included on my main plate and so tiny it was like a the kitchen staff had been dared to do it. He wanted more money to rectify it and refused to give me his name when I asked for it, stating I could describe him on the complaints form instead. He was a child but had no self awareness and shouldn’t have been in a management position. Harry Potter specs, curly black hair and an attempt at a man’s stubble? I think? He was very forgettable?”

Those last couple of lines are hideous, how customers think it’s somehow acceptable to talk about team members like that…. Anyway, I digress.

The pub did though hit the newspapers a couple of years ago when two elderly customers were confronted by a duty manager and thrown out for using drugs. Anyway, JD Wetherspoon formally issued an apology and said that the duty manager had made a mistake. However, one of the two had phoned the pub manager up and was rude, and so JD Wetherspoon said he was permanently barred for that instead.

The venue could do with a bit of a deep clean, but it was cheap, welcoming and everything seemed to be served efficiently. It’s a decent venue as well and I’m not sure that many other operators could have made this work.

May 20, 2026
Chatham – Historic Dockyard Chatham (Brunel Saw Mill Lock)

I thought this was some sort of pond and although that’s technically correct, it’s a piece of engineering by Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849). In short, the Navy needed vast quantities of timber for ships, repairs and maintenance, and the old hand-sawing methods were slow, exhausting and inefficient. Brunel’s answer was not just to introduce steam-powered sawing, but to think about the whole process. Timber could be floated from the South Mast Pond into the canal system, through the lock and onwards towards the sawmill. This is pretty much all that is left of the arrangement and it was discovered in 2008 by archaeologists and uncovered in 2018.

My point of interest though was finding out more about Brunel, who I hadn’t realised was French. He fled to the United States due to the little problem of the French Revolution and it seems that he was lucky to escape with his life as he was a Royalist. Not that any of his work survives from there, but he was the Chief City Engineer for New York and then came to the UK where he promptly lost all his money and ended up in a debtors’ prison. Fearing that he might go and work for Tsar Alexander in Russia, the British Government bailed him out and he was engaged with numerous construction projects.

That’s certainly some biography to have, although he is perhaps now best known for his son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel who did much for Great Western Railway, designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the Thames Tunnel (which he worked on alongside Marc) and designed the SS Great Britain. I’d say that this was quite a talented family…. And he made a nice pond.

May 20, 2026
Norwich – Anglia Square Demolition (14 May 2026)

There’s really not much of excitement visible at Anglia Square now, certainly not without me going on the top deck of a bus to see over the top of the hoarding that has now been put up. It’s a shame that they didn’t put some plastic screens up so people could see in, that seems quite common at many sites and would have likely interested a fair number of people here. Anyway, these are the only photos that I could take of the site.

May 14, 2026
Ryanair (London Stansted to Lübeck)

The entrance to the security area at Stansted looked a little more glamorous than when I was last here. It was also a quick process with staff members that looked buoyant and not entirely worn down by life. The security process here means that liquids and laptops don’t need to be removed from bags, so it’s a bit quicker.

There’s currently no lounge available at Stansted Airport, other than for certain flights, as Escape has closed (and I don’t know what is opening in its place). However, my Priority Pass card gives me £18 to spend at Camden Bar & Kitchen, so I popped there.

I’ve never been upstairs in here before and it was much busier than I had expected, although that’s true for the entire airport. The team members here were particularly friendly and engaging, despite how busy they all seemed to be.

This cost just under the £18 that I had, which seemed slightly expensive, but the quality was high. The toast was soft, the tomatoes and avocado had a richness of taste and the eggs were runny when I cut into them. The latte had some flavour and it was an enjoyable breakfast all round.

Back in the busy main terminal and there was a shortage of seating. I think they must be adding more as the overflow seating area downstairs is currently closed, so I’m hoping that they have a plan.

Rather handily all of the screens had this error message on the left hand side, a little sub-optimal for those wanting to see what gate to head to.

Michael O’Leary, the boss of Ryanair, said this week that passengers shouldn’t be allowed to drink alcohol in the morning at airports. I have some sympathy for him on this, there were more drunken passengers than I’ve noted before, some being quite raucous before boarding. Unfortunately, much of this seemed to be facilitated by JD Wetherspoon and they lost a set of Stella glasses from one group who just took their beers to the gate.

Anyway, there was some certainly some vibrant behaviour from a couple of groups which continued all the way to the gate. It was about a ten minute walk and I wondered why they had so many drunken passengers wanting to get to Lübeck. All became clear here though, the left hand gate lane is for Ibiza, the right hand gate lane is for Lübeck. None of the raucous passengers were going to Lübeck and this felt like something of a relief.

I was the first one to the gate, which was more because the flight was quiet than because I had managed to become quite athletic.

There was then just a short walk to the aircraft.

It’s aircraft 9H-QDD which I don’t think that I’ve been on before, but it’s been part of the Ryanair fleet since 2016. The seating Gods had given me a middle seat, but this was ridiculous as the flight was relatively empty so I had all three seats to myself. I assume Ryanair did that in the hope that I paid extra in advance to move to the window or aisle seat. The crew were friendly and the boarding process was efficient and it felt mostly clean, despite the number of empty cans and bits of paper left from the previous flight. With the quick turnaround, there’s only so much that can be done though.

Just after taking off and Liam and I walked the Stansted Stagger a few months ago which went around the airport, so we must have walked somewhere there.

We flew over Groningen.

And safely into Lübeck with the sun still shining so it was still too hot. The flight was only just over an hour and we landed 25 minutes ahead of schedule, although Ryanair do pad their schedules.

The border control process with the new EES was time consuming and took just under 30 minutes and I was towards the front of the queue. The EU passport queue was dealt with quickly, so for those of us without an EU passport it is all a bit sub-optimal.

The flight was £14.99, so more than my usual £8.99 that I pay with Wizz Air, but it’s cheaper for me to get to Stansted than Luton Airport, so it worked out pretty similar. The flight was efficient, the crew were friendly, the pilots were calm, so I thought that I received a bargain flight.

May 9, 2026
Norwich to Stansted Airport Rail Journey

This won’t be the most riveting of posts as there wasn’t really any drama. But, I had the opportunity to pop overseas for the weekend and that’s not something that I was going to deny myself. That meant a train journey from Norwich to Stansted Airport which was a very reasonable £14 booked on a complex ticketing arrangement.

Waiting at the platform on a sunny Friday morning. It was already too hot.

Here comes the train sweeping in and it was clear that there weren’t that many commuters waiting to go to Cambridge, which meant for a quiet journey in.

And there’s my meal deal arrangement from the Co-op, very healthy as I’m sure that everyone would agree. Co-op sandwiches are not of the highest quality, the bacon is usually excessively fatty and the chicken has not been lavished with taste, but the prawn sandwich is agreeable enough.

This was my view for most of the journey. Well, specifically I mean the empty seats, I didn’t have my head on the table.

The waiting room at Cambridge railway station where I had a wait for the next train of around thirty minutes. A quick word on my rail ticket which technically required me to get off at Cambridge North and then get onto another operator’s train to take me the short distance to Cambridge. With the guard’s permission, I just stayed on the same train to avoid that change, but it’s that quirky switch to a Great Northern train which is why the ticket was much cheaper than the usual fare even to Cambridge. To be honest, at times it feels that securing agreement for an international treaty would be easier than getting cheap rail fares, the system really is sub-optimal in many ways.

The view over Cambridge railway station from the bridge over the platforms.

The only photo that I have of the second train and it was also relatively quiet. Fortunately, everything was running on time and there were no delays. As a side issue, I note that my bag looks in excellent condition there.

I got muddled up at Stansted Airport railway station and managed to leave the ticket gates at the lift which I’ve never used before. I didn’t expect it to go straight into the terminal, I usually meander around some ramps to get there, so that was some operational efficiency that I hadn’t expected.

With that, I had arrived on time and I could start to think about my flight….

May 9, 2026
Norwich – Bar Billiards (Game 3 – Artichoke Hearts vs Coach and Horses)

This was our third game of the season in the league, we won against the Serengeti but lost to the Black Stars. This time, we were playing the Coach and Horses.

With two of our regular team unable to make this week, we had a little bit of excitement to get a team together tonight for this third match. However, we were able to get six players together and the rest of the team spent the early evening practising whilst I focused on finding the best pairing of beer and bar snacks. I went for 0% Guinness and Squares, quite a classy little combination.

Look at the contemplation from Cal before the other team arrived…… We were in the zone. Well, I was eating crisps and was pre-stressed, but the others were more positive.

We have some dramatic photos of me in this post thanks to Cal, who was helpfully documenting matters. Here’s myself and my very capable vice-captain Luke as we did the draw. Thanks to Cal for the clipboard and for the printing as the not quite as capable team captain managed to forget to bring a score-sheet.

And here’s the draw.

I thought that I’d referee the first game which was with the first time league player Cal as I try to be helpful.

We had a lot of interesting table layouts during the evening. I didn’t doubt that Cal was good, but he was very calm and collected with an entirely competent performance. It transpired that his score was the highest singles score of the evening, so I’ve decided that we’ll keep him.

I felt that Cal’s victory meant that I should reward myself with more Squares. Leadership takes many forms.

The next game was with Vaughan and once again I was ignored when I said that I didn’t want any games going to the final ball as they’re too stressful for me. He won the game by just ten points on the final ball…..

PJ’s game went the same way, but the final ball result went our way, which meant that we were 3-0 ahead and I could put us 4-0 up if I was any bloody good.

Thanks to Cal, there are the occasional photos of me playing in this post. I don’t wish to talk about my game though. OK, perhaps I should…. It was very close throughout, but my opponent was very strong at the end and I lost by 990 points to 850. My usual strategy is to try and score 1,000 points and that would have been dead handy here. Had I scored another 150 points, the result would have been completely different. I intend to apply this insight to all my future sporting disappointments.

Cal getting ready to serve the meal of snacks. I had ensured that this was served after my game as I wanted something to look forwards to and to settle my nerves.

Hmmmm, Taytos…. Next up was Gabriel, who insisted on getting to the final shot despite it being made very clear by Luke and myself that this is very stressful for us. Gabriel didn’t make this one, but his game was solid and he was very close.

The final player in the singles was Luke and the game was again very close throughout, he lost by just 40 points. This all meant that we had gone from 3-0 ahead to 3-3, so thoughts of the Black Stars last week came to mind…

Gabriel started to teach various players some hand gestures, but I didn’t get involved with that. Whatever he was actually doing remains unclear to me and I doubt whether any of it is recognised by Sport England.

And then there were three games in the doubles. PJ and Cal surged to nearly 900 ahead, but then the brave players on the other team clawed it right back. But, PJ and Cal triumphed meaning that Luke and I could win the whole game if we just won our game. We didn’t, which made it 4-4 and which put all the pressure on Vaughan and Gabriel. Suddenly the room had the atmosphere of a courtroom waiting for a verdict, except with better crisps. But they surprised and delighted the Artichoke Hearts with a win, a punchy performance which once again went down to the final ball.

A very hard won set of games, but full credit to the Coach and Horses team for not only some very close games but also being a marvellous group of people. There is a real pleasure in playing a team who are both good company and good players, even if it does make winning rather harder than I personally prefer. Cal’s first league appearance was alarmingly competent, which is always a little unsettling when given that my strategy is to build a team culture around anxious improvisation.

I have a new rule that every time the team wins, I go to the King’s Head to celebrate. With no Julian sr, as he’s in Liverpool, it was Cal who was called upon to escort me to the pub. A more professional athlete might have gone home, stretched and hydrated, but I went to the pub and declared the evening a success, which is broadly the same thing. We only went for one, although I got muddled up and we stayed until the pub closed. This wasn’t my fault though, these things happen when a strict sporting recovery protocol is not properly supervised.

And I’d like to note that it’s a fine team, a great atmosphere throughout and it’s all very exciting. And stressful when every game goes down to the wire. Next game is in Coltishall in two weeks and I’ll pretend that everything is under control.

I’m enjoying this. Although I won’t show that of course.

May 7, 2026
Chatham – Historic Dockyard Chatham (Banff and Macduff Lifeboat Board)

This board is at the RNLI Historic Lifeboat Collection at Chatham and it records the first lifeboat at the Banff and Macduff station. The lifeboat was presented to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in 1859 by Messrs Macfie & Sons, before being replaced by a new boat in 1870.

In that relatively short service it helped save the crews of the schooner Auchincruive of Grangemouth in 1861 and the brig Regina of Swinemünde (now Świnoujście in Poland) in 1870, rescuing fifteen men in total, as well as being launched on four other occasions to assist vessels in distress.

What rather interested me is why this particular board was at Chatham, but the lifeboat station was closed in 1924 and so this was likely placed in safe storage. There had been problems finding crew during the First World War, so the lifeboat station had been temporarily closed in 1917, but continued crewing difficulties made the closure permanent.

Richard Lewis (1822-1883) was the Secretary of the RNLI between 1850 and 1883, credited with turning around the fortunes of a then depleted and financially deprived organisation into a world class search and rescue service.

I’m pleased that someone with some initiative ensured that this board was kept, so much is just thrown into skips and the heritage lost forever.

May 6, 2026
Norwich – Anglia Square Demolition (6 May 2026)

So, the shopping centre at Anglia Square is pretty much all gone now. There are some walls that are still coming down, but it’s nearly entirely rubble and there’s no evidence at all of the Greggs that once stood here. It’ll now be the turn of the larger buildings to be demolished, they present different challenges and may well require specialist asbestos removing handling as well.

May 6, 2026