Tag: away days

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I probably made a poor choice to make a bumper post covering the entirety of my time off work. I’ll publish the first two weeks now and update the post when I have finally pulled out my finger and finished writing it!

I landed an early summer holiday in the leave rota at work, which also fell between two long weekends. The net result was pretty much a month off work. Armed with a fortnight of unlimited rail usage, some adventures were had.

Spent a few days visiting the parents. I shall spare the main complaints.

First main trip was a run up to Newcastle to catch up with some of the chaps from training school who are based up there. Unfortunately, this visit coincided with Newcastle United winning some football game and having a parade through town. Many busy pubs and pints in plastic cups were enjoyed. The Wetherspoon I was staying at ran out of chips. I also had a ride out on the Metro, before the old trains become baked bean cans.

Next was a bit of a tour of the South East. First stop was Oxford, where I had booked in to see David Starkey talk at the Literary Festival. Very conveniently, a recording of the talk was uploaded whilst I was writing this for posterity1I started writing this on April 28th. I really do put in the effort to press the publish button.. Then onto Reading where I had booked the country’s shitiest Travelodge for digs. I suspect it used to be a 1970s office building that had been converted to a hotel, except no effort was made to modernise any of the original bits. I also paid a visit to the Nags Head, a quality pub that I had last attended over a decade before for a beer launch. Original football stadium signage was, happily, still in situ.

The following day took me to West London, where I took part in a loaded test run of a battery powered train. I was interested in the tech side mainly, considering that most of the rolling stock I work on is currently of the diesel variety, so I’m likely going to be using trains with a similar powertrain in the future. There was also an informative presentation from the engineering team afterwards, along with some freebies that are a part of these corporate events. I am now rocking a fetching lanyard at work. The return to Reading was supplemented by some more Wether-spotting in such exciting locations as Slough and Windsor.

The tour of Berkshire continued into the final day, where I dropped into the delightful concrete jungle of Bracknell. Most of this has been pulled down now, or been hidden behind cladding, so its starting to look a bit more 21st Century now. It’s still ongoing though, with a couple of massive car parks and office buildings all boarded up awaiting demolition. The big hotel in the centre has also shut down.

Next up was a visit to North Wales, primarily for Wether-spotting in Wrexham, Mold, Ruthin and Shotton. I managed to additionally drop into a former Spoons in Holywell, which is now independently operated. Although you’d never notice looking at the menu which provides a like-for-like selection of items to choose from. There was also time for some cultural nonsense, as I had time to pop into St Winefride’s Well. There was also the opportunity to do a devotional dunking but, as this was a spur of the moment visit, I hadn’t come prepared with suitable towels and shorts.

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    I started writing this on April 28th. I really do put in the effort to press the publish button.

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I’d accumulated a fair bit of unused leave from last year, so I was kept being given various odd days off from work. As a result, I managed a few barely planned away days, including:

  • A mistimed visit to Newark: we were intending to go to the Triangle Beer Festival, but got there a week early.
  • Wakefield: where we managed to get into the Red Shed.
  • London: where Verdant were having a tap takeover at the Shirker’s Rest, so of course I got my fill of Putty.
  • Doncaster: where a day of easy drinking began with a 17% abv American stout and an 11% Italian stout.
    • Whilst I successfully made it back and was fairly fine in the morning, Rich was less so given the text I received from him the following morning where he had fallen asleep on the bus and then had to walk across Leeds to get home.
  • Skegness: where I wouldn’t ordinarily choose to go, but needs must for a stag do.
    • There was no cask at Butlin’s, as was to be expected, but they had bottles of Doom Bar available. Some bars also had it on keg – abomination! Needless to say, a lot of lager was consumed.
    • Considering the captive market, the beer pricing was not as excessive as I may have expected

I somehow managed to corrupt the memory card in the camera, so I annoying lost a batch of pictures that I hadn’t got around to copying onto the computer. I don’t think there were any of great importance, so I’ll just carry on as usual.

 

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New year was a bit of a washout then. I was going to go to the pub but it was raining exceedingly heavily, so I resorted to my own supplies.

The Grannywagon was serviced and tested for another year. The rear shock absorbers needed replacing, but overall the cost was not too excessive. I was expecting the shock absorbers to be a big spring, but in reality they look more like the stays on the boot lid. The coil springs are a separate component, apparently.

A couple of trips out. First was a day trip around the Dearne triangle of random small towns. The highlight was the Wath Tap micropub, where I ended up surrounded by a birthday party for one of the regulars there. I was also able to collect a few more Spoons for the tick list.

Next was a couple of days in Blackpool. It snowed and froze over whilst I was there, unusually for the coast, so I slid over a few times and obtained some cuts and bruising. The copious amounts of booze consumed on the Thursday pub crawl probably didn’t help.

My new years splurge was on a Choyong LC90 radio which, probably uniquely, combines both a shortwave tuner and an internet stream and Bluetooth receiver in one unit. It has some quirks and oddities but seems to work fairly competently. I’ll probably write up some more substantial opinions on the thing once I’ve used it for a few weeks.

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This would have been two weekly posts, but as I had difficulty changing the original post setting from ‘draft’ to ‘published’, you can cope with a combined fortnightly post instead.

The presence of a long weekend along with a desire to do something that wasn’t sleeping lead to a hastily arranged trip to that there London. Hastily arranged as in all planned at 2300 the day before whilst at work. A cheapo hotel room was obtained in Kingston-upon-Thames so that became the focus of drinking activities. I managed to collect a few more Spoons for the collection, and also some other pubs for the purists. Highlight location was probably Surbiton, which I had unfortunately left until late on, so didn’t make it around everywhere I had my eye on. A return visit will be in order, along with Tolworth which also had some interesting looking establishments that I saw going past on the bus.

A more local drinking session took place in Wakefield with Rich. As a result, I am now in possession of a deerstalker.

I came across a heavily discounted parka-type coat that I purchased, which came in handy for a period of unusually cold weather. The heating in the flat has now been switched on too. There was also a heavy dumping of snow that made getting home from a late pub shift, that would normally take around 35 minutes, take around three hours instead.

Also picked up on the cheap was a pod coffee machine. Teach me not to proof read, I got this last week. Anyway, the following still stands: Now, I fully appreciate that coffee pods work out more expensive per cup and have a potentially dubious environmental record, however the convenience of not having to grind beans, warm up the espresso machine and then clean it up afterwards when I just want a quick shot to go wins out overall. Fellow pod machine owners have also pointed me towards some alternative avenues to pick up pods at a lower price point that I shall investigate.

The coffee machine at the church kitchen had been playing up for the past couple of weeks. It was ascertained that perhaps reassembling the filter bowl completely – i.e. putting the spring mount back in – after cleaning it would stop it flooding the counter with coffee.

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Wow, a weekly round-up post. Let’s see if I can keep this up to beat the current record run of three weeks1I could technically also argue that the record is 34 weeks, but that was back when I was doing fortnightly posts in 2021..

🎦 The Apprentice: I was expecting this to be a Donald Trump hit-piece, which it was to some extent, but it was more of a Roy Cohn hit-piece.

🎸 Kevin Bloody Wilson/Jenny Talia: Good, clean family fun. I’ve been humming FOCUS for the rest of the week towards dickheads.

I was out in Leeds on Friday for Light Night, although I was more interested in the Indian restaurant that had been booked for tea beforehand. I suppose having lived in Blackpool for a decade makes me less impressed by light shows.

The site is now fully Automattic free, as I’ve replaced Akismet with an alternative anti-spam solution. The themes of the recent messages it has caught have been porn and bitcoins.

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    I could technically also argue that the record is 34 weeks, but that was back when I was doing fortnightly posts in 2021.

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As usual, I’ve been rather slack in keeping up to date with events and happenings. I’ll try and remember what I’ve done since May.

The main change has been a change of employment, having gone from bus to train. Where I used to log various delays and cancellations, I can now be a cause of them. Also: better pay, benefits, conditions and such.

An earlier post was seeking suggestions for areas of outer London for pub based investigations. I managed two of those with calls at Penge and Eltham, plus Bromley and Stoke Newington as well.

This year’s Loony Party conference took place in Wales (specifically, let me check the spelling here, Llanwrtyd Wells). Beer options were a bit suspect and for the first time it rained during the cabinet reshuffle. Hopefully, that isn’t a bad omen. I was also roped in as an election agent in the Tamworth by-election. First count I’ve been to for a few years and completed relatively quickly too, as I was in bed by 3am.

Space idiot decided that not posting on Twitter was spamming, so that account got suspended. I got a Bluesky invite code around the same time though, so I have a new social network account to neglect instead. Mastodon continues to be my preferred waste of time, however a full range of options can be found in link-me-do corner.

That’s about everything of note, unless I remember something else later and add it into the small space above this paragraph. I’m off to the pub to celebrate one crap year ending and another beginning. Cheers/Sláinte/Iechyd da/Prost/As you are!

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I’ve been to London more times than I care to imagine. The problem is I’ve done all the tourist stuff I want to see, so any visits I make have turned into “which suburb have I not been to yet?”. I’ve got a forthcoming visit to go to a gig, so need to kill time in the day. For no particular reasons, I’m considering one of these random locations to drop into:

  • Dagenham
  • Eltham
  • Penge

Other suggestions (to go to or to avoid) would be entertained, comment away!

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“Where’ve you been then?” asks nobody. Well now.

I’m off the booze again. Went out in Sheffield with Rich and overdid it severely. To the extent that I have pains in the side that are still popping up even though I haven’t drank. I should probably arrange to visit a doctor to get checked as I suspect there may be a liver issue, but my legendary slackness continues so haven’t managed it yet (ditto: Contacting the Water Board to sort out why they’re billing me in arrears, which is more expensive, instead of in advance; installing a bike anchor in the outhouse so I can store the bike in there rather than in the kitchen; procuring new bedroom furniture, amongst other activities). I know I have form in stopping drinking then starting again a few weeks later but I really must break the vicious cycle so I’m going all out for broke. I’ve been dry for nearly two months now, have been out several times and kept it dry and even enjoyed being more social rather than chasing the next pint, so I know I can manage it. I want to be known for more than just “he liked a pint”.

Pete was the lucky recipient of the contents of my alcohol cupboard, so at least my supplies got a good home.

There was a trip to London to see the Kunts play a one-off birthday gig at the New Cross. It also tied in nicely with another chart campaign to “celebrate” the coronation. I got some reasonably priced accommodation in Woolwich which, combined with the new Crossrail/Elizabeth Line service, worked out quite well. I’ll probably stop over in Woolwich instead of Croydon in future whenever I need a hotel in South London.

What didn’t work out quite well was transport for above:

  • Original plan: Go to London to gig on Thursday, come back Friday; go to Belfast Sunday to Tuesday.
    • Coach both ways Thurs/Fri, flight both ways Sun/Tues.
  • .Additional item: Lads’ birthday get together in Southport on the Friday night
    • Coach to London Thurs, train to Chesterfield Fri AM, drive to Southport Fri PM then back Sat, flights Sun/Tues.
  • Issue: flights rescheduled so instead of three whole days in Belfast, I essentially have 1.5 days there. No reasonable alternatives found so bin off Belfast and stay longer in Southport.
    • Coach to London Thurs, train to Chesterfield Fri AM, drive to Southport Fri PM then back Tues.
  • More issues: rail strikes on the Friday and Saturday, plus I now have a pub shift on Tuesday evening.
    • Drive to Luton Airport to park up, train to London Thurs, coach back to Luton Fri AM then drive to Southport, drive back to Derby Tues

Fortunately, I only lost £15 on the coach tickets which were non-refundable. I got the money back on the other journeys that I had to cancel, which covered the fuel costs and parking instead.

Speaking of Luton, I got a ride on the new Tonka Toy Train between the airport and railway station. As there were no trains on the Friday, there was a lone staff member at the airport end discouraging use on the basis of a lack of trains at the other end, but that wasn’t an issue really as all I was heading there for was to retrieve the car. Surprisingly, there was a load of around twenty people coming into the airport, but I got a train to myself heading back.

Empty interior of the Luton Airport DART train

I got a head up view of the train in action, but WordPress is complaining when I try to upload it so I’ve put it on Youtube instead.

I continue bollocking about in the Fediverse, but I mainly concentrate on mastodon.beer as it works better on the mobile and is more useful when posting pictures and such. I haven’t deleted the GNUsocial account yet as I am interested in what v3 of the software looks like, but development seems to have stalled somewhat.

Unfortunately, the Twitter account is back. The threatened API cull finally took place and was rather brutal, so all my RSS feed workarounds are now effectively dead. I rarely post there, the account exists purely to log in, catch up on posts, then log out and carry on with my day. I’ll continue to try and fully get rid of it some day.

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Blow me, some happenings rather than some links to amusing stuff. Anyway…

I spent some time in Edinburgh as it was the start of the Fringe Festival. Stuff I saw:

Stand Fringe Showcase: Primarily a press event, I got in on the basis that JC has a press pass. Basically, around 15 acts had three minutes to do their best bits for the journos.

Shannon Matthews: The Musical: From the Kunt and the Gang stable. I’d actually seen this in advance at the preview in Leeds a couple of weeks prior. The usual quick fire pun and catchy tunes that you can expect from Basildon’s finest. The cast work well with the minimalist set.

Four Funny Feckers: Revue featuring four sets from the London club night of the same name. Wes Dalton, acting as MC, was genuinely exuberant and worked the audience well. Other acts were Michael Akadiri (in line for Dave Joke of the Festival), Caroline McEvoy, Luke Chilton and Sergi Polo.

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