Archive for the 'Piers' Category

The Adnams Family

Sunday, September 17th, 2023

We’ve been away to Southwold, home to the Adnams brewing empire, a lovely pier, and a lighthouse.

So, a Friday morning start, East again! M6T, M6, A14, A1120, A12, A1095. A stop for lunch, a slightly tedious drive following a jeep braking at every corner on the A1120- which is an interesting road in itself (and a nice drive through rural Suffolk)

Southwold Pier

Southwold Pier from the seafront.

Southwold, we knew before going, is a bit posh. It’s a “nice” seaside town, with few amusement arcades (one on the pier) or tat shops, and more posh shops, delicatessens, and gastropubs. You won’t find a Wetherspoons, or a fast-food burger chain- you’ll generally find none of the stuff that people over 40 whinge about: there’s no kebab shops, a few fish & chip shops, a Chinese takeaway notably out of town, no Uber, Uber Eats, or Just Eat, no Greek, Thai, Indian, or indeed almost any non-gastropub style restuarants. It’s an interesting few holes in the local economy, compared to what you might expect given this is the south-ish east and very affluent.

There seems to almost be a monoculture: most of the pubs are operated by Adnams, the menus are similar, the beers identical, the atmosphere similar, and while not unpleasant, it makes for limitations: if you want anything spicy, the Red Lion and a Thai green curry is your only offer.

Adnams are interesting, they clearly are not a bad company, they have good environmental credentials, they have established a charity to support local causes and their beer is great, but they have almost a stranglehold on the town, and it makes for a drinking and eating experience that leaves you craving something that isn’t slightly posh pub food. Nearly all the pubs in the town fit the same model; with similar decor, the posh pub food, the same beers.

They also have a cashless policy, which is interesting, and for us, convenient, but it triggers some fucking nutjobs people. It makes a lot of sense: it’s faster and more efficient, but of course, it’s just part of the Great Reset. It’s interesting that the one aspect of tech that really has taken hold is this, to the degree that the businesses that are cash-only put up large signs to warn customers.

Outside of Southwold itself, we managed trips to Aldeburgh and Thorpeness (by car), and Lowestoft and Beccles (by bus). Aldeburgh is, if anything, posher than Southwold, but has decent takeaways, Lowestoft is distinctly less posh (but has great takeaway choice, taxis, etc), Thorpeness is small. Beccles is the sort of town you could live in, comfortable, and “nice” but still operational.

Overall? Southwold is nice. People there are nice. The town is historic, the pier lovely (and the Under The Pier Show is ace, featuring the work of Tim Hunkin), the beach lovely, but it damned well needs a bit of pub diversity, more takeaways, to embrace modern tech. We had a great holiday, but if we’d stayed in Lowestoft, and gone to Southwold for the day, it might have been better, and cheaper: we had the unusual experience of having a holiday property that was considerably smaller than our own house, but it still wasn’t cheap.

Edit: Here’s the pubs over at PubBlog.

No Experience Required

Saturday, June 25th, 2022

I’ve been mulling over how we got into the current shitshow this country finds itself in, and it got me thinking: a political career (more specifically, Member of Parliament) appears to be the only one where lack of qualifications, experience, or talent is no restriction of being paid over £80k per annum.

There seems to be literally no subject that our politicians cannot spout about while knowing literally nothing about the subject: be it Reese-Mogg on phone chargers, Liz Truss on trade deals, Nadine Dorries on the internet, Dominic Raab on the channel tunnel, Priti Patel not knowing the difference between terrorism and counter-terrorism, or that fuckwit Johnson on literally anything; this is barely scratching the surface of the idiocy. They’re collectively denser than a boxing day turd.

Of course there’s much evidence that here in the UK, so long as you’re a “character” and can come out with some over-simplified promises you don’t have to keep, people will vote for you. If you talk a bit posh, all the better. We all love bowing down to a posho.

This isn’t to say that all MPs are thick, talentless morons, it’s just that they seem to outnumber the capable, sane ones by a large margin.

If you want a demonstration of how bad this is, listen to, or read the debates; pick a subject you know about, and see how much sense is spoken, and how much of it is conjecture, inaccurate, or just plain lies.

TV interviews are soundbites full of triggers to appeal to the demographic that relentlessly vote these idiots in. Populist crap about keeping out immigrants, controlling crime, and rewarding hard workers, when in fact they do nothing of the sort. Throw in a bit of jingoistic support for armed forces veterans and you’re there (when actually, government support for veterans is minimal and they rely on charities to take up the slack, essentially abandoning them).

A recent TV interview with Jonathan Gullis and the head of the RMT Mick Lynch just showed the class of recent intake: hopelessly out of his depth and left repeatedly saying “no apology for the veterans” like it’s a magic phrase while the union leader remains calm, and pulls him apart. You can see more of this in this clip where he repeatedly remains calm, states the facts, and makes culture war reporters and Conservative MPs look like fools.

Now, I’m sure that Mick has shortcomings: in fact I know he does: he supported Brexit, for a start, but I think the key here is that he’s confident: he has the support of his members, he knows the subject area he’s talking about, he doesn’t start waffling about stuff he knows nothing about, and isn’t interested in providing a show- and the result is that the interviewers looking to provoke reaction, and the politicians with nothing useful or even truthful to say have nowhere to go and all of a sudden, the leader of a trade union looks like a genius in comparison to our elected servants.

Why can we not have political leaders like this? Seemingly quiet, competent, knowledgable? At what point did the politicians exhibit such a strong Dunning-Kreuger effect?

As someone said on Twitter:

I make no secret of my political leanings: I’m left of centre and I believe that public services should be public, businesses need regulation, people should pay tax, and trade unions are a requirement. I’m predictably targeting the Conservatives here, mostly, but while there’s less of this with the other parties, they’re just not challenging this hard enough: there’s the odd outbreak of challenge from the likes of Ed Milliband (thank the Lord we voted for stability with the Conservatives, rather than chaos with him eh?) but generally, this government of literal fuckwits go along unchallenged and can happily pontificate on how we all have to cut back and the food banks are just fine, while some of literally complain that the over 80k they are paid just isn’t enough. (and let’s not forget, that 80k/year- which puts you in the top 5% of “earners”, comes with an impressive expenses package too.)

As a Twitter follower said, when asked what job he’d like to try out:

MP, talk shite for an hour, jeer someone else talking shite, then off for a massive subsidised dinner followed by loads of cheap booze.

The question is, how do we fix this? How do we make it so that our government (and the opposition) is no longer dominated by people that you wouldn’t allow to run a bath unsupervised, never mind a country? If we accept that leaders should be a bit more Mick Lynch and a lot less Boris Johnson, should it be a requirement that people have to have a real job before entering a political career?

Problem is, some of the ones I’ve mentioned did have actual jobs. Wikipedia will show you that some of these people had jobs outside of politics for several years.

Still, I guess we’ve all known people that are incompetent but succeed anyway.

[edit]
The 2019 intake of MPs seem particularly bad. Take this example, where Mark Jenkinson blames Labour for something happening right now, after a mere 12 years of Conservative control.

One final word from the RMT that illustrates this perfectly: it’s a long Twitter thread, but again, it sets out the problems in plain speech- the issue of putting people in a position of power and control who quite simply lack the experience, skills, honesty or intelligence to fully understand what they’re doing.

Aberystwyth

Tuesday, October 26th, 2021

I’d booked time off, and we’d been hoping I might have been driving again, but no dice (in fact, not a peep out of the DVLA), so the idea of going away, taking family members by car was off. Instead, my better half decided where we went, and convenient and cheap by train pushed Aberystwyth to the front (direct train from Wolverhampton at a decent price, affordable accomodation). Also: there’s a pier we hadn’t been to yet, the last time we managed that was 2019.

So then, a lift to Wolves, and on to a not-too-crowded train, and a surprisingly irritant-free journey later, we step off the train, and into our first pub for lunch.

Aberystwyth is a university town and it shows: many pubs are a bit studenty, and while there’s a few run down bits there’s affluence here too: new-agey lifestyle shops, delicatessens, and a cookware shop selling Le Creuset. There’s good restaurants, but also cheaper-end takeaways. The university obviously brings in money and also provides a decent supply of workers for the bars and restaurants now we’ve told a lot of non-student Europeans to fuck off.

Back to the pier: it’s not pretty, which is a shame as most of the seafront is quite attractive.

Aberystwyth Pier: Clevedon it isn’t.

It took us 3 visits to be allowed out on the “sun deck” at the back, and sun was in short supply. Odd fake trees, too.

The ier from the end of the deck

Aluminium tread plate and fake trees.

A bit of a sad image compared to times gone by, but then I suppose the changes give extra retail space that contribute to the upkeep, and to be fair, The Billiard Bar wasn’t unpleasant.

Other than the pier and all the pubs? Well, nice meals (Greek and Caribbean made a nice change), a nice view, a lovely trip out to Devil’s Bridge by steam train (no sign of the Devil’s doorbell 😉 ), and some well-needed R&R.

The return journey was pretty good too, and even the 529 didn’t completely foul things up…

Llandudno, again

Tuesday, September 15th, 2020

Our first holiday of the year. We’d missed out in May, and this, booked pre-covid, was looking dodgy at one point, but went ahead, so up the A41 it was, this time taking the Ibiza: a shortish jouney, relatively speaking, but the chance of a decent run, seemed like a good choice: we’ve had it a year, and only racked up hundreds of miles, not thousands, so I put some fuel in it for the first time since March!

It’s decent on a run. The 1.2 TSI and 7-speed DSG work well together, whether it’s mixing it with the HGVs on the A41 or blowing past the traffic on the M54, and felt almost as fast (well, actually the first step away of the line seems faster, as the small petrol engine comes on-song with less lag), and was almost as economical (48 MPG or so out, 45 or so back), the boot fits all our stuff. I’d even taken account of the lousy radio with a CD of MP3s. Even better, our parking space wasn’t so big, so a smaller car fitted better. Also, my ABS niggles returned and remained to be fixed at that point.

Driving complete, and a nervous squeeze into the parking space later, the pub is, well, *feet* away, such that we could comfortably see the car, now not moving for a week, from the beer garden.

This was a holiday of some the same, some different. Covid has obviously changed things: track and trace, queuing, reduced capacity in restaurants (and increased demand: a continual annoyance was trying to find a place to eat out- every night). Mostly, we relaxed a bit. 2020 has obviously been a trial for most people, and we’re no exception, even if arguably we’ve had it easier than plenty, so a bit of time out was good.

We returned to Rhyl, and to Colwyn Bay, but left out Conwy this time: it was very busy when we passed through, and we didn’t fancy the crowds. We made it up the Great Orme, sadly by minibus, not tram.

Talking of crowds in the context of Covid, generally, most people were fine and most businesses were fine, but there were the odd exceptions of people that can’t follow a few simple rules for mutual benefit (or at least potential mutual benefit). Still, easily solved.

There were pubs: some old, some new, some revisited. There were restaurants, too: we never managed the Greek we wanted, or Italian, due to closures or demand or both, but we did have great Chinese food, which made a nice change.

One small change was contactless card payments- I’ve never made so many small credit card transactions in a week, or used so little cash on holiday. Something else the libertarians will hate, as it moves us towards cashless- I can kind of see the point that we may not want all of our transactions logged and datamined, but you have to wonder about motives (*cough* avoiding tax).

The overwhelming thing was people. So many people about, but thankfully much of the town copes well; the prom is wide, the pier was organised. Mostyn St suffered a little, and Prince Edward Square could get busy, but it was fairly easy to maintain distancing most of the time.

Bugger Bognor

Friday, May 24th, 2019

we went away, and having not been to that section of coast before (the closest being Worthing one way and Totton the other), and wanting to do some pier-bothering, Bognor, or more precisely Elmer it was.

So,southwards it was: M6T, M42, M40, A34, M3, M27, A27. Not too bad a drive, either, with no significant hold-ups, but Chievely Services was a bit grim- busy, and with a nightmare of a car park that was a tight fit for my not-overly-wide car.

As well as the King George V connection, Bognor Regis is supposedly the sunniest place in Britain, and it certainly seemed like it; we got sunburned and it was bright most of the time.

Elmer was small, but really just a suburb of Middleton-on-Sea, itself now really just a suburb of Bognor, but with a village feel: while the town has expanded and the gaps have closed up, the villages still feel quite villagey. Nearby Felpham was so close to Bognor itself that even I could comfortably walk it with a few rest stops, but it feels like a self-contained place.

Bognor itself is pretty typical British seaside. A few bits a bit run-down, but plenty not. The pier is a bit tired: the boarding notably bouncy in places and generally in need of some TLC (and vastly shorter than it was), but at least it is still there and open. One notable thing was a huge amount of Polish people (and some great shops catering for them): if the Brexit clusterfuck ever happens, I wonder if this will change? I strongly suspect a lot of the local lower-paid jobs might suddenly be harder to fill: this is, after all, the south, so housing isn’t cheap: a house just down form our holiday property (admittedly a large house with direct beach access) was just shy of a million quid.

Notably a bit downmarket compared to Brighton, there was still a good choice of pubs and restaurants, and happily, great public transport from just a few yards from our property. There was a decent museum, and nearby Chichester gave us some sightseeing on the canal and the magnificent cathedral.

Overall, a great place, and not too far either; we drove the entire journey back in one run and 3hr 15 min without taking the piss speed-wise.

….oh yes- the pubs.

Almost Pierless

Thursday, November 9th, 2017

So, our holiday to North Wales in November meant an opportunity to revisit Colwyn Bay Victoria Pier. At my last visit its future was uncertain, and now it’s a done deal: it is being dismantled, with parts being retained for possible re-instatement as a truncated version of the pier at soem time in the future.

I won’t hold my breath. Generally, in this kind of situation, the parts are taken away, then forgotten about until the fuss dies down, then chucked. Call me overly cynical, but I’d be not at all surprised if that happens.

Anyway, I got some more photos to compare to 2014. I tried to get the same viewpoints, but memory and fencing played their parts in preventing this altogether:

Colwyn Bay Pier Entrance from the railway tunnel, 9 November 2017

Colwyn Bay Pier- Walkway now missing the railings- 9 November 2017

Colwyn Bay Pier- (east side) – 9 November 2017

Colwyn bay Pier (east side)- 9 November 2017)

To be honest, it’s now in such a state that the demolition is almost welcome. The beach and promenade have been redeveloped, mostly, and the pier is now just a rotting, dangerous pile of iron and wood in the middle of it. It’s just so sad it was allowed (planned?) to go this way.

Bracing

Saturday, November 4th, 2017

We’ve been away to Llandudno (again). In November. Traditionally, we’ve headed to sunnier climes at this time of year, but with a reluctance to be in a metal cylinder of bastards (run by airlines that may go bust) and an expensive roofing bill, we economised a little.

We might not have had the weather, but the travel is much easier when you’re in control: a leisurely drive up the A41/A55 saw us in Pensarn for lunch at 1:30, then in Llandudno and our rather nice holiday cottage by 3pm, and on the pier with a drink by 4. Given our timing (Saturday November 4), there were fireworks, too- and while the promenade was crowded, the pier was a great place to watch:

Fireworks from Llandudno pier

So what of the rest of the week? Unsurprisingly, pubs were involved. We went and checked out the highlights of Rhyl (nowhere near as bad as memory told me it was- in fact, for a cold day in Novenber not bad at all) and the lowlights of Towyn (seemingly endless caravan parks and “fun” pubs) on the way. We went to Colwyn Bay to see the ongoing dismantling of the pier, and discovered that my memories of the town as being a little grim were unfounded and unreasonable, and that, on foot, the seperation of town from promenade by the A55 isn’t anything like as bad as you’d think. The local bus service made all this easy: I know Arriva come in for stick from Andy, but the service between the North Wales coastal towns was reliable, frequent, and reasonably priced.

We wandered up and down Llandudno’s pier a few times, managed to get on the Orme Tramway for its last day of running (apparently, it is steep. Also apparently, the station labelled “Halfway Station” is approximately half way up. I only know this thanks to fellow passengers remarking upon that several times).

We also had the joy of a Holiday Cat.

Holiday Cat

Strait Up

Monday, July 10th, 2017

You know, I always hated this record:

and I still do.

Anyway, we actually did have a lovely time in Bangor. My dear Stymistress booked us a weekend away, the primary objective being a visit to Bangor Garth Pier, so a trip up the A41 and along the A55 on a Friday morning saw us in Bangor by lunchtime, with lunch in a nearby pub and checked into the hotel overlooking the pier.

The pier, from the car park, a mere few yards from our hotel.

The pier itself is lovely: in generally good order, unlike one just down the coast, and long, poking out long enough into the Menai Strait that Whatpub starts suggesting The Gazelle Inn as nearby:

As to the town, subsequent exploring on Saturday showed that our location by the pier was by far the best for pubs and food: I don’t think the town’s considerable student population does it any favours, so we stayed around Garth mostly, though the fact we both were suffering with a cold probably helped on that one, a pleasant sit in the sun on the pier or a nearby beer garden being better than a sticky-floored, sticky-tabled city pub.

Sunday saw us drive over the lovely Menai Bridge to Menai Bridge, and a pop up the coast for a bonus pier, Beaumaris: less impressive than Bangor, but at least not falling down :-/.

A trip back down the coast, a visit to Plas Newyd, and a drive home. 2 more piers visited!

Amongst Piers

Tuesday, April 7th, 2015

I’ve been away on business in Cardiff; network monkeying and packet pushing. Cardiff is an interesting city- I’ve never been before, and impressioms?

Friendly people, great restaurants, “vibrant” nightlife, good pubs (though the earlyish starts, a couple of late finishes, and alcohol combine to make a tiring experience…). There’s a lot in common with other cities, of course, both good and bad, but overall a nice place, though the traffic was a nightmare, with endless traffic lights- and the roads don’t work well for motorised traffic, cycles, or pedestrians- but more of that in another post.

In between proving that “one code per device” and “you won’t be able to create your own networks” can be defeated with NAT and randomly gaffertaping cables, I managed to get a bit of time out for a visit to nearby Penarth, so a couple of drinks and a pier trip: I picked a good day: it was warm, sometimes sunny, and a Penarth had a happy, relaxed air to it.

Penarth pier is beautiful. A proper pier that actually reaches the sea, with a lovely, recently restored pavillion, it’s owned by the council, and is a public space and cinema. There’s a nice tearoom too, and everything is in good order outside too: all the planking is complete and in good order and the pier was busy with happy crowds on Easter Sunday- this considering the pier is a short way from town. Colwyn Bay take note. I took some cameraphone snaps:

Penarth Pier

Penarth Pier


Penarth Pier's Art Deco Pavillion: that clock....

Penarth Pier’s Art Deco Pavillion: that clock….


but if you want decent pics, Google has loads that are better.

A short walk into town, and Penarth has some great architecture too: it’s fairly affluent now, and has been in the past too, by the looks of it, with some grand Victorian buildings and a couple of Deco gems too- yet not up itself, though the locals in one pub proffered the opinon “try living here”. There’s no pleasing some.

Connection Reset by Pier

Saturday, March 21st, 2015

We decided to have a few days away, and to continue our pier-bothering, we went east again, to within easy distance of Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft, so it was a high six to Norfolk, via that old favourite, the A14.

The Cambridgeshire speed nazis have at least now replaced the Gatsos with average speed cameras, with the result that the speeds are now even, rather that 85-brake-to-60-back-to-85. I’ve often said that if you find dual carriageways or motorways boring, then either you’re going too slow, not paying enough attention, or both, but miles of straight, flat, surprisingly quiet DC at 70 mph on cruise control tests that maxim. Mind, if the truck at the end of the M6, just before the infamous Catthorpe Interchange, had been paying better attention, we’d have had an even quicker journey. Fortunately, no one seemed to be seriously injured, but it won’t buff out.
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