No Leeds

So let's kick 2019 off with a combo of two things I've been meaning to do for a while.

About three years ago I got told by a seven year old that I hadn't travelled much because I'd not been to Leeds Castle. Not that I take teasings from children seriously, but we can't be having that, right? So Leeds Castle. Boom. It's a proper castle with a moat and a whole heap of history. It always worries me in places like that with regard to how little history I know, especially from way back when in 100 year war times.

People have been saying Colchester Zoo is one of the best zoos in the country for a few years now. Back when I was a pup this was a standard day out, but I don't think I've been since I was twelve. It's changed quite a bit and is impressive in both its size and its selection. I'm still just not quite sure what I think about zoos. Still, the otters seemed happy.

The year of growing up

It's New Year's Eve and I'm in a dentist's waiting room. I broke my tooth on a particularly tenacious pork scratching on Christmas Eve. Turns out breaking a tooth on Christmas Eve puts a bit of a spanner in the mixed metaphor of drunken gluttony I had planned for the last week. Ho hum.

So 2018. That was a year. A whole heap of firsts, some of the real biggies: saw my first badger; moved in with a girlfriend for the first time; first dining in the dark; first family holiday as the adult; first Grand National; first mortgage; first jellyfish sting. Boom.

And the way I drink beer has changed. Turns out I'm a beer snob nowadays. The other week I had a Doom Bar which used to be my go to, but it now seems to taste of boring. So beer of the year? Realistically it's Magic Rock's Ba De Mole but that doesn't count as that's a real special occasion beer. Whilst I feel bad not mentioning House Party (or Pogo or Baladin's Open Amber or Inhaler or Dennis Hoppr or Clwb Tropicana or Even Sharks Need Water), the two beers that get a mention are Watson's Amarazaka which was unexpectedly brilliant (as are the whole Watson's range) and Hatherwood's Twisted Knots which is such good value that it just trumps everything else.

Theatre of the year? In a year when I didn't really see any theatre, it turns out I still saw quite a lot. A Very Very Very Dark Matter made a last ditch attempt, but it was always going to be a Hamilton year.

Music of the year? People have been saying how this has been a great year for music, but I've not been certain. The only new album I've really liked is the new Spiritualised, and that's mainly because it sounds like an album I really liked fifteen years ago.

Book of the year? I'd endorse any of the four from a couple of posts ago, but The Power might just take it - how 2017 of me?

Eye watering moment of the year? I think it's s about to begin. Wish me luck...

Winning at Christmas

Ooh, I had a really Christmassy weekend. That's a sentence that you wouldn't have got in this blog three years ago. But I did. I watched The Nutcracker, ate Christmas dinner street food (that's a roast dinner wrapped in Yorkshire pudding - how comes I've not eaten that before?) and dressed as Father Christmas.

And I won a race.

Yes, yes, yes. I know that those Santa Runs aren't supposed to be competitive, they're just a bit of fun. Yes, they're just a festive photo op; a spectacle of Father Christmasses. Yes, it should be all about raising money for charity. But you're just saying that because you didn't win. I did. It was a race and I won. In your face other Santas.

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To end on a less festive note, I'm still feeling sad about Pete Shelley.

Ten Years

Happy birthday blog. Ten today. Cripes. Ten years since I put up an irreverent nite as Traveller Cliche - a joke that only one of my friends would get - which is pretty far reaching given the ten years of posts since.

So ten years. There's been a whole lot of travelling in that time. And a whole lot of mini adventures. The posts have eased off a bit in recent months as I've tried my hand at adulting - guess that's what a decade does to you. I'm a bit rubbish at adulting, turns out I was far better at being a perpetual kid. Who would have thought?

And the adventures are still there. Had an adventure to Hampshire to watch Hellrunner this weekend (I was supposed to do it but had to bail at the nth hour due to falling apart - another down side of being ten years older than I was in 2008) then followed it up with some Sara Pascoe shaped comedy, which made for a mighty pleasant Saturday.

And it seems that I'm still reading enough. The last four books I've read have all been ace in very different ways:

The Survival Game - Nicky Singer. It's been a while since I read any post-apocalyptic YA fiction, this hit the spot.

Children of Blood and Bone - Tomi Adeyemi. Wasn't sure about the fantasy at the start but everyone loves an allegory. 

My Absolute Darling - Gabriel Tallent. A brutal book, wasn't easy going but crikey.

Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie. felt like I was a bit behind the curve with this one, but made me do a whole heap of thinking about things that I've never really thought about.

Southwold

I don't know, no blog action for a month and then a return to the Suffolk Coast. Boring.

Southwold. That's a place. A place I've been before but remember almost nothing about it - just fish and chips on the beach. Turns out it's the Waitrose of seaside resorts. Delis and galleries a-go-go and probably the most avant garde collection of slot machines I've ever seen.

We skittered along the coast doing smash and grabs of Suffolk Towns:

Aldeburgh - again sonewhere I'd been before but had even less memory of. Pebble beach.

Thorpe Ness - somewhere I'd heard of but definitely could not gave pointed to on a map - I would have guessed the South Coast. Shingle beach.

Warbleswick - cute as a button village on sand dunes. Fluffy sand.

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Weirdest food - whelks. Not very Waitrose - I could have stuck with the truffle infused brie or the fennel pork scratchings, but no, I tried whelks. Turns out they aren't my new favourite.

A Bee, Sea

Ten, maybe twelve years ago someone told me how they really liked Felixstowe, ever since then I've kind of wanted to check it out (Obviously, the fact that it's taken a decade does indicate that it was never that high on my list of priorities, but hey ho).

It started well enough, with a port and a fort and a nature reserve - who doesn't love a container ship? They are massive. But by the time you got to the centre it was all a bit underwhelming. Probably my own fault in that I'd built it up to be a quirky, hotchpotch of a town, without anything at all to justify that expectation. But that's what I'd done.

What I basically expected Felixstowe to be was Lewes. And it wasn't. Fortunately the next day I ended up having to kill time in Lewes. And Lewes was exactly like Lewes, which was nice. Somewhere buzzing with character and identity, even at 8am on a Sunday morning - is that an antiestablishment thing? In your face expectation, we're getting up early on Sunday. Fight the Power.

Eels Eels Eels Eels

I've had some unexpected time off. Turns out unexpected time off is weird, you want to make the most of it but there are so many possibilities it is almost daunting. Anyway, I used the time to potter about East Anglia, seeing some of those things that I've taken for granted. And there seems to have been a very eely twist.

Started off in Constable Country: Dedham Vale, Flatford Mill and all. And saw people fishing for eels, I didn't realise that that was still a thing that people did. Turns out it is. Also turns out that that little corner of Essex is more touristy than I'd given it credit for. North Essex is really pretty.

Since then I've cycled to and through a host of pretty Essex vistas and villages: Pattiswick, Wakes Colne, Greenstead Green, Coggeshall, Earls Colne - for my money North Essex is prettier than Constable Country. Constable Country was just full of nettles and straggly thistles. Today's cycle was mainly fuelled by Elvis Waffles from the Little Book Cafe in Halstead.

Sorry I've digressed from the eels. I went to Ely, the City of Eels. I'd not been to Ely before (box ticked) turns out a. it's really pretty and b. It has a marina, which I really wasn't expecting. I should have expected it really. How else are they going to get the eels to market?

Whilst I was in the Ely area I visited Wicken Fen - I didn't really understand what all the fuss is about (probably eels) - give me North Essex any day of the week.