I had to meet Mandy at the Trafford Centre near Manchester at lunchtime to get new suitcases. I have never been there before and hope not to have to repeat the experience , what a dismal place, acres of brightly lit, musically backed, over made up girls, mutton dressed as lamb, etc place which gives me nausea the moment I step foot inside. anyway thankfully what we needed was just inside the door and I escaped with my little bit of remaining sanity.
Intra Express Thomas Fischer of Berlin announced their outline programme for 2009 today on their German version of the website. Tram highlights are Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Poland, no former USSR at all this time around. Ian Longworth of pinnacle had Ukraine and again Spain and Portugal on his agenda. I'm doing China at Easter, thereafter not so sure. Its dark winter days and a bad weekend forecast so not sure if I'll get anything done film wide let alone gardening, there's plenty that needs doing though.
The weeks are going to fly past, Saturday we are at Clonter, really want to get a couple of archive DVDs done for LOTS at London Harrow. Not a lot doing on EBay despite yet another sale, what's happened to the pre Christmas rush, don't leave it all to the last minute, please.
We went to the whipping Stocks last night, a roaring log fire and sat at the General Patton table which still bears flowerers each day just as he's arranged before he left for D Day invasion. It didn't have oodles of atmosphere and a sad mien host experience but really cheap and good Samuel Smith's mild, half the price of our drinks at the three greyhounds.Here are some review from the net, they seem to reflect our feelings and was looked up after I'd just written my own thoughts.
"The Whipping Stocks is one of those unfortunate Sam Smiths pubs that is subject to the new 'Standard Menu' imposed by the brewery.The result ?The food that used to be so enjoyable is now appalling.The beer's still good, but if (like me) you enjoy eating in pubs, you've now got to give this one a miss.And the trouble is, the otherwise-excellent Parkgate round the corner has exactly the same centrally-printed standard menu - so that writes that old favourite off the list, too.Sad. Once-great pubs brought down by unattractive food imposed by an unthinking brewery management. Rating of 2 for the beer, and the landlord.
30 Oct 2008 19:03 A wholly depressing place, from the moment the bar man grudgingly put his book down & stood up to serve us, til when ordering food he admitted the only fresh food available was milk! We didn't order! Dark, but cheap, avoid-
23 Sep 2008 14:58 as you'd expect from Sammy Smiths - cheap ale which I find pretty agreeable.Food is worth a mention - good value and very good quality.
Saturday, 5 May 2007The Whipping Stocks, Over Peover those adverts for Barclays with famous actors like Gary Oldman and Samuel L. Jackson? Well if you were a Barclays customer too you'd be forgiven for thinking "How much of my bloody money have they pissed up the wall to make this?" whilst they paraded around million pound film set backdrops.Well that is as nothing compared to the amount the staff piss up the wall of The Whipping Stocks pub in Over Peover (or Peover Superior as the locals like to call it) It's right next door to Barclay's Radbroke Hall building which means that any lunchtime the place is knee deep in bankers. In fact Radbroke Hall is one of Barclay's main IT centres and is populated 24/7, I suspect their canteen has less people in it than this place. In fact the whole atmosphere is one of being in a "pub themed" corporate canteen.name derives from it having been a courthouse although it was renamed "The Duchie" when shown in Peter Kay's "Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere" TV show. Having asked a local yokel farmer for directions who sings "Pass the Duchie on the the left hand side" a tenuous joke and not as good as the series defining... "Is it dead?" (pointing at a cow they've just hit with their motor-home) "Either that or it's going t'piss it down"Sam Smiths house (more daft novelty lager glasses) which we've already established isn't a winner for me. The pub is divided into several small rooms which usually IS a winner with me but each room combines, austere furnishings with tea stained walls to complete the "Bobby Sand's Solitary Block" effect. Coupled with the dull life sapping conversations of corporate "shills" the overall effect is one of Dantéan purgatory. It doesn't get much better at the bar, staff are surly and miserable, which to be fair is understandable given their clientèle and even if you turn up before the "Barclay's rush" waiting 30 minutes for food is not uncommon... presumably it takes 20 minutes to persuade the chef to put the knife down and chop the veg and not his wrists. Speaking of which the food whilst reasonable tasting, is overpriced, even by Cheshire standards.So bad atmosphere, not great beer, overpriced food and miserable staff; yet busy by default of it's location.So looks like Whipping Stocks gets the thumbs down all round "
I did like the cheap mild though..............
Another off the net on our usual local The three Greyhounds, nice to meet someone more outspoken than myself!
"Saturday, 6 October 2007Three Greyhounds, Allostock Reviewing pubs can quickly deteriorate into analyzing the minutiae of chips or if the person serving you had a bad day. The problem with looking at a group of anything is it tends to fall into a "bell curve" and as such 90% of it is in the middle. Thank god then for the really good pubs. They give you something to cling to, something to enthuse about, something to wax lyrically as to the beauty of the experience.Meanwhile at the other end of said bell-curve are shit-holes like this. Possibly one of the worst experiences I've ever had in a public house. Beer so foul it wasn't like the lines needed cleaning, more like they'd been connected to someone's urinary catheterization. The food is almost indescribable... but I'll try... The roast beef looked and tasted like the dried end of a peat block. Pale, flaccid roast potatoes so filled with stale cooking oil they resisted all attempts to have gravy poured on them. The gravy was the consistency of golden syrup, but with lumps of mysterious brown fecal-like winnets. Grey carrots barely holding their form or colour after a Torquemadian period of inquisitional boiling. Conversely the peas seemed to have been painstakingly extracted one-by-one from antique referee whistles, so dried and devoid of flavour I'd have had a greater culinary experience trying to chew ball-bearings.Could it be any worse? Well actually yes... it's scruffy, dirty and the staff are some of the most miserable surly twats I've ever had the displeasure to meet."
mercifully it has changed a bit since early 2007!
