cheltenham – Page 2 – Steve's Blog

Today is a good day…

To stay at home.

There is an afternoon of racing on at Cheltenham Racecourse – its the first meeting of the National Hunt season. So going anywhere by car than involves going over that side of town is a totally stupid idea.

But what is there on TV – build up to the Rugby World Cup final and coverage of the qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix.

And its not going to be much better this evening either – the Rugby World Cup is on and all the pubs will be full, especially with the Racing finishing a couple of hours before the rugby starts, which could explain why the Royal Oak is tickets only tonight.

So staying in the house and doing odd jobs seems like a sensible thing to do.

I’ve fixed the front door lock (which had managed to get jammed in the deadlocked position) and I’ve fixed the door latch on the inner door in the front lobby which should help keep the draughts out as that front lobby can get remarkably cold at night.

It’s raining cats

Well the week at work seemed extremely long for some reason. Maybe the three day weekend on the boat made it seem that way, or maybe its just work.

Tuesday Night the Out Of Town Pub Night Group went to The Fleet Inn at Twyning which was very pleasant : three Real Ales, and staff who were very friendly (like actually asking before last orders if we wanted to get one last beer in!).

Today we’ve been just working on the house – tidying it up and moving things round. Stuff needs doing outside but, once again, it is raining so its just general pick up and throw away inside. Of course all the cats are helping out – supervising mostly but from time to time deciding that something we are moving is a suitable target for a pouncing attack

Its going to be a short week as we are off on the boat again for the Bank Holiday weekend – the parents are coming down from Wigan and we are going to do the trip south again, primarily because its easy and doesn’t involve doing the 15 locks at Audlem… twice!

Flooding

It wasn’t fun getting home on Friday – although the middle of the trip was OK the start of it (from Hanley Swan to Upton) was pretty bad due to serious flooding on the Hanley Road near Hanley Castle and the end of it (from Pitville Gates to Imjin Road) was extremely nasty. Wyman’s Brook had overflowed and was running down the road:

The back garden was also a river with the grid overwhelmed by the water.

It all died down by about 8pm but I have to admit that I didn’t sleep well. Saturday dawned and apart from some mud everything was fine and we did some tidying up and various things. It was on Sunday that things started going down hill. Severn Trent announcing on the BBC that the water had gone off – and the only way to find out any information was to use their website which promptly died. What ever happened to driving round in a van using a tannoy (apart from the fact that it costs money and that would mean less money in the rather deep pockets of the Board of Directors and the share holders).

BBC news has been covering the ongoing disaster as it unfolds round Tewkesbury and Gloucester but it all seems oddly distant. The water is still on here (for the time being) as is the power and apart from being sensible with our water usage life is pretty much as normal – the ADSL line is behaving itself after being a bit flaky this morning and I’m working from home (which is something I really grateful that the company I work for allows).

Severn Trent have said that it could be 14 days before our water is back on. I cordially invite the Directors to come to my house and live with us for the next couple of weeks – of course they’ve probably all buggered off to the sun and just don’t give a damn about their customers.

Beer and Boats and the BSS, Part Two

Well yesterday was a most excellent and enjoyable day. Met Nick at the bottom of the road and we headed off to the Cheltenham Friends of the Samaritans beer festival at the Old Patesians Rugby Club. They had about 26 beers, mainly from local breweries, and a pig roast for when you got hungry. We got there at about 12:15 and left at about 9:30pm and had worked our way through a significant majority of the beers (half pints only of course).

We stopped for a curry on the way home at the Indus (where NONE of us had the Prawn on Puri ((Many, Many moons ago a group of us went to the Indus for a meal and when we were placing the order for our starters the waiter kept trying to persuade each of us to change our decision and order the Prawn on Puri.. “The Prawn on Puri is very good”, “May I recommend the Prawn on Puri, Sir” and so on. None of us took his suggestion up and its now become a matter of rote that someone has to suggest ordering the Prawn on Puri, knowing that no-one actually will)) ) and it was just after midnight when I got home.

This morning I left the house just after 8:30am and picked up Nick and we headed off to the boat to fix the gas pipe and a couple of other things for the BSS.

Getting to Norbury wharf is quite easy but the last mile or so is down a single track road with only a few passing places. When we got there the car park was full so we ended up parking in the rather large, pub car park.

Mintball was moored right up by Norbury Wharf’s dry dock, which is actually the first lock on the Newport branch of the Shropshire Union which meant it was a bit of a walk with power tools and other bits and bobs.

The original idea we had for fixing down the gas pipe was to slip clips over it and then bolt them down through the wooden trunking that the gas pipe lies in. This turned out to be totally impossible to do for various reasons – so we ended up lifting the pipe out of the tray and fixing it using some 3/8 inch saddle clips (which we found in the Norbury Wharf Chandelery) on the wall right under the tray/lining overhang. So you can’t actually see the pipe unless you are lying in the bunks but at the same time it is not “hidden” and its properly supported. It also allowed us to tidy up the feed line to the fridge so its now neater than its ever been.

We also cleaned the burner in the oven – after 21 years its getting a bit ropey but hopefully it will get us through this BSS and we can then plan replacing it, and the rest of the kitchen, in the next couple of years.

Beer and Boats and the BSS

Well its going to be a bit of a mad weekend.

On Saturday Nick, myself and a few friends are off to the ‘Second’ Cheltenham Beer Festival’ which is run by the Friends of the Samaritans as a way of raising funds. Running from 12 noon on Saturday till 11pm they are promising to have 26 beers, all from local breweries, some perry and cider, and a pig roast. Last year it was a great event – perfect weather and two rugby games to watch too (that’s what happens when you hold your event at a rugby ground) along with a giant Jenga set, Chess and activities like face painting for the kids.

Then on Sunday (assuming we are capable) we are off back to the boat to fix up a few problems that meant it failed it’s BSS check.

For those who don’t know about the BSS (Boat Safety Scheme) it is a set of safety checks invented by a bunch of safety-fascists which if your boat doesn’t pass then its not going to get a certificate and thus can’t get a licence. Unlike the MOT, which has lots of local garages involved, BSS examiners are like hens teeth and have a matching price tag.

I could go on here about the fact that the BSS is a shifting target which retrospectively applies changes, that it is inconsistent, and sometimes flies in the face of logic..a few years ago they decided that rigid push fit plastic spill rails on diesel engines were not safe and they had to be replaced with metal pipes. Bit award as the return fittings on some new Ford engines were for push fit pipes and that there were a lot of cars driving around, apparently perfectly safely, at 70mph with push fit hoses… but NO.. that’s not safe in a boat at 3-4mph

They did eventually back down on that one.. but it’s just one example of how disconnected the BSS can be from reality. In the past couple of years they have slackened off on a lot of things and there is a much more “common sense” style approach to it than there used to be but there are still places that give off that “We are saying you have to do this, not because it sensible, but because we can” and in places you get the feeling that the requirement has been pushed by people who have a vested interest in boats failing.

To be fair the people in the BSS office are excellent and have been really helpful in helping us resolve a couple of problems we have had.

The Day after the

Well it has to be said that yesterday was a good day… Due to a slight miscalculation on timings Nick and I nearly missed the train but after a mad dash we made it to the station… just to find that the train was late. Richard turned up as did Mike and Paul and, after some problems with tickets, got on the train to Gloucester.

We had planned to start at “The Fountain” but we actually decided that as we were walking past the “New Inn” we might as well start there. They had 8 Real Ales on and the Theakstons Mild was extremely quaffable and enjoyable. The “New Inn” of course is a complete misnomer in that it dates from the 15th Century. Unlike a lot of buildings in Gloucester a lot of the structure of the New Inn retains, if not its original form, a close approximation to it.

After that we took a gentle walk down to “The Linden Tree” – a Wadworth Pub that has 4 Wadworth’s Ales and 4 guest Ales. We decided to have lunch here and it was extremely good value. Its a bit of a hike from town but more than worth it.

After lunch we were going to head back into town via “The Nelson”, but it was closed, so we stuck our head in at “The Whitesmiths” which is an Arkells pub and has some very impressive 17th Century wood work visible inside their “new” extension.

After a refreshing pint of Moonlight we continued the walk back into town and called in at Cafe Rene. Sitting outside in the shade in the Marleone the name “Cafe Rene” almost seems to fit as there was a distinctly European feel to the setting, as the following photo hopefully shows:

Outside Cafe Rene

From Cafe Rene it was an easy walk back to the Cross where the four “Gate” streets meet and down Westgate street to “The Pig In The City“. Obviously the PITC was refurbished a few years ago to make it “trendy”. Its now aged and slightly worn which makes it actually feel more pub like and less “showroom”. After a quick pint there it was a short dash across the road to the Dick Whittington,

The Front of The Dick Whittington

which despite its rather Georgian front is, like so many other buildings, a Georgian front on an older Tudor Building. We sat in the beer garden which is tucked away down the side of the pub behind the church. As the sign indicates the pub was serving Hook Norton Ales.

The final call of the day was The Fountain where we had a couple before heading back to the railway station and Cheltenham.

All of these pubs (but especially The Whitesmiths) are within easy reach of Gloucester Docks

Ahhhh – Life Returns to Normal

Well life in Cheltenham returns to normal. All the race goers who piled into town for the Gold Cup have now left, or are in the process of leaving. There were 52,000 for the first 3 days and 65,000 on the last day – still they had good weather for it, and I’m sure they had a good time. But I for one, am glad that they have gone.

The houses behind us are coming on at a speed so it will only be a couple more weeks before the excessive amount of light pushed out by the Sainsbury’s store, which currently lights our bedroom up like there is a full moon outside, is blocked by the new development.