Wild Atlantic Way

White cliffs of Dover. Box ticked. Let's double down on famous cliffs.

The Cliffs of Moher are famous and cliffy. None of that chalk nonsense though, or even the emeraldness of their island, these cliffs are dark and craggy and look like dragon homes. We started at Liscannor, which also sounds like a name from Lord of the Rings, and walked north from Hag's Head until the selfie-ing crowds got unmanageable. They are pretty spectacular, I can see why they are a thing.

Did you know that O'Connell Street in Ennis is one of the World's top 60 public spaces? There are a handful of reasons I found this surprising, the biggest being that I didn't know such a list existed. Anyway, Ennis was as pretty and well presented as you would expect from somewhere in the World's top 60 public spaces.

Galway is one of those cities that you have a vision in your mind of what it's going to be like - colourful pubs and the Irish Rover. No No Never and all that. And it was a bit like that, but in the Latin Quarter - a tiny part of a much bigger city. In retrospect it was naive, like expecting all of Marrakech to be a maze of bustling spice market, erm...

Stuff I've been reading, July

The lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfus
One of Us is Lying - Karen M McManus

You know that thousand-page-book-with-the-elf-on-the-front that I was moaning about last month? Smashed it. Enjoyed it too, not quite as much as it's predecessor but right up there.

I doubled down on my fantasy this month due to recommendations. The Scott Lynch book was good: great characters, great world building, great story - there was just something about it that made it seem harder work than it should have been. Possibly just the fact that it was sandwiched between the two Rothfuses.

And then there was last year's YA smash, which I was sceptical about, but really got into. Talking of YA, the local library has just banned over 19s from the YA (and graphic novel) section. That's a bit weird, right?

Toasted Sandwich

And the Southeast. Yes, I know. But more Southeast. That there Garden of England. And mainly we talked about the weather. Too hot. Too wet. 38 degrees and thunderstorms. Perfect camping weather.

We were camping at a fishing lake. Now fishing isn't really something that's ever been of interest - one of thise things that other people do. But when in Sandwich Lakes... Turns out I quite enjoyed it. But shhh, don't tell anyone.

We saw castles too, the Dover, Deal, Walmer triptych. Plus Richborough. Dover was the biggest. Walmer was the prettiest. Deal was the one with the fox in the moat. Richborough was just wet and miserable.

Plus White Cliffs. I'm not certain that I've ever seen The white cliffs up close and peraonal before. But there they were in all their chalky glory.

Plus Sandwich - Sandwich is nice and quaint right? A bit like Lavenham only with more soul. And a better name and a much better signpost. And a better brewery - the whole trip could have been sponsored by Time and Tide. What with the sign. And the Miner Miracle statue. And it making Deal Carnival in the
Rain fun. Come on people, drink Time and Tide.

For the record:
5. Sqawk
4. Urban Goose
3. All In Jim
2. Manfred
1. Wormburner

Rocks

Stone Henge, hey, that's one of the biggies.

I'd seen it from the 303, when stuck in the circular-rules traffic jam caused by people rubbernecking the Rocks, but not sure that counts. Apparently I went to see it as a pup, but don't remember that. So let's call this my first proper visit. Which is ridiculous, right?

Turns out it's alright. It gets a Pete thumbs up. It seemed grand, more grand than I expected. Even without the history (history schmistory - we've all carried 30 tonne rocks from Wales). I'm not sure if it is genuinely grand or whether the symbolism is so ingrained into popular culture that its very presence is disproportionally grand.

Maybe if I asked someone who hadn't been so cynically exposed to popular culture, they might be able to put me straight. I asked my six year old chum. He told me that the Go Jetters stopped Grand Master Glitch destroying the sunstone. I guess them there Rocks are pretty entrenched...

Brum, Baby, Brum

And another weekend in the second city. I really don't know Birmibgham that well, so it's always like visiting a whole new place for the first time. We stayed in Digberth, which seemed to be mid gentrification. So plastic free shops and broken bin bags made a glamorous backdrop to our adventures.

The market in Birmingham was ace. It was like an abroad market, where you could choose between skin-on and skin-off sheep's heads. You don't get that in Essex.

We had festivals. We stumbled on a food festival, which was a treat - always a pleasure to eat steak with plastic cutlery. They had cocktails which smoked and who doesn't love that. Then Beer Central, which gave us more craft beer than anyone needs, but less DJs. The beer festival introduced us to lemon haloumi curry wrap - which should be more of a thing than it is - and hiphop karaoke, which is about the right size. Best beer Lervig Coconuts.

One last mention - the Indian Brewing Company. Get in my face, chaat.

Stuff I've Been Reading June

Crikey I've been a bore for the last month. I have done pretty much nothing of interest. I've barely even read:

Conversations with Friends - after really enjoying Normal People I jumped on Sally Rooney's debut. I didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much. Oh well.

The Name of the Wind- is one of those books that I've been meaning to read for a while. When the second person told me it was their favourite book ever, I thought I ought to give it a go. And it's good. It's really good. Rattled through it pretty quickly for a book of such girth. But:
1. It's a fantasy. Proper magic and other lands fantasy. And I'm not sure how I feel about that.
2. It's the first part of a trilogy, of which:
2a. Book two is a thousand pages long and has an elf with a magic sword on the front cover; and
2b. The third part hasn't been written.
A resounding hmmmmmm.

Right, I'm off to do something worth writing about.

It's So Bracing

I've been to a fair few places around the world but I have not been to the archetypal British seaside town that is Skegness. Until now.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. We based ourselves in Mablethorpe, which - whilst a hotbed of kiss-me-quick and Carling cliches - proved to be John the Baptist for Skeggy's Jesus.

Skegness. Oh Skegness. With your amusements and your footputt and your family funpubs and your manicured beaches amd your whipping sands. You were more than I could have hoped for.

Aside from that the Lincolnshire coast was ace: enormobeaches, Global Hypercolor sunsets and birds that sound like mid-nineties techno breaks. What more do you need?
__________

Stuff I've been Reading - May

Bit of a poor month for books with only two completions:
California by Edan Lepucki is one of those dystopian books that I was reading heaps of a few years back, but seem to have petered out of late. Have I grown out of them? Hmmmm.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They is a classic that I knew almost nothing about. Turns out it's about a marathon dance competition. I wouldn't have guessed that.