Showing posts with label Cambridge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cambridge. Show all posts
Was searching for a picture of a bar in Glasgow to send to a friend and came across this site... I think that pretty much sums up Cambridge dining and nightlife:
Well that's the one decent shop in Cambridge (well okay, apart from the Apple Store) closing today.
I'll really miss:
- Magazines - easily the best magazine selection in the UK including US magazines (which contrary to popular belief aren't just books full of ad's).
- Opening times - sensible opening times targeting the '50 quid bloke', the ability to actually buy something sensible in Cambridge after 5:30PM.
- Staff - overall really good staff. One of the few places in Cambridge that wouldn't p*** me off within 10 seconds of walking into the place (although the recession has helped in filtering bad attitudes out).
I won't miss the frustrating computer system that all bookshops seem to have, whereby if they need to search for details of a book they seem clueless and you have to pull out the iPhone and go onto Amazon to get details !
I love when it snows. Of course there is the usual inconvenience factor (such as the whole of England shutting down when there is a flurry of snow) which lead to the classic nonsense excuses for not being able to do things. What I like especially is how uniform and clean everything looks (at least in the first few hours).
Last night in the village when I decided to go out and get some supplies (hot drinks and cakes):
Sorry for the lag of blogging recently. I've been so busy with the house move and travel for work (about to go another 3 weeks on the road again). Not helped by still not having Broadband at home (thanks to the mess that is BT). However, the good news is that there's been plenty of blog fodder !
Anyways, our first instalment is something that I just had to take a picture of when I visited the local Cambridge garden centre. I think it summarises the poor taste Cambridge people have:
Yes, forget elves, gnomes, even Chinese statues. Trump your neighbour by having your own Meerkat's in your front garden.Back home in the UK. Arrive Thursay afternoon, off to post office to post some letter and sort out post re-direction. I can't believe it's less than 1 week before the move. The guy at the local post office was really helpful, the lady at the local coffee shop was really helpful, the people at the local butcher were really helpful. I'm really happy to be moving to such a great place.
I visited the site of the new house. Met one of my local neighbours, seems really nice (lady in her 60's). Second time I've chatted to someone a little older- on the flight back from SFO I was sat beside a 60's Welsh lady who was an actress- really interesting conversation about Welsh and Scottish self governance. I stupidly made a reference to England - which irritates me when people call Scotland England.
Today in Cambridge was less irritating than usual. Had a look in Habitat- yes a load of Cambridge-oids but not so annoying as usual. Then dinner at all-bar-one. I love this place in Cambridge, it's one of the few places that has a consistent staff. And... the staff are excellent (beyond recognition)- really efficient and friendly. I assume they are paid/treated well (at least they should be)...
I've blogged about this before, but I really do find local news so amusing. As I walked through Cambridge yesterday I saw the following text at the stall selling newspapers:
"Man found dead in city centre flat"
My immediate thought was running up and writing the following text below:
"hadn't found secret to eternal life"
Why is someone found dead news ? does this not happen very often ? I thought it happened to everyone (at some point) ?
Of course we have the obligatory standard text (I'm sure that's on the clipboard text on the editors computer):
"Guided bus delayed again"
Well that one didn't really come as a surprise to me. I didn't study Civil Engineering at University, but from what I'd seen of the construction site there was absolutely no way it was going to be completed on schedule.
However, what really did annoy me was a comment that locals living close to bus site were disappointed that it wasn't going to be ready on time. What about all the people living in central Cambridge who have been subjected to living on a construction site for the past years so they can have an easier life ?
.. consumed over the weekend.
Met up for breakfast at Automat in Mayfair. 10:30AM perusing the menu and I noted 'Brisket sandwich with fries' - of course anything else on the menu after that point didn't seem at all appealing. Yes, 10:30AM and having a full lunch. I liked Automat, American style diner. Upon first arrival the place was empty, strange since I had asked for a table at 10:00 but told they could do 10:30. Anyways, generally friendly service and nice environment. Recommend (save for the fact that you are likely going to eat more than you planned for).
Drinks at 11:30 near Oxford Street, before lunch at Royal China (yes that's 2 meals in the day so far). Royal China is good, apart from the fact that for some reason lots of western people like to take their kids with them and I always seem to get seated at the front (where they all are). Usually I ask to move (depending on my radar), but this time decided to stay put- thankfully no serious issues.
Got back to Cambridge early so decided to take walk in the Botanic Gardens. Normally I dislike this place, well not actually the place the people who usually go there. However, this time it was actually very nice and allergies haven't been bad this year.
Dinner at Papasha (Indian). I love this place. It's just a shame that the parking is a total pain and it is outside of the city (Newmarket Road). However, the food more than makes up for it- easily the best curry you can get in Cambridge with very good service.
PC 'World'
Simple task - buy a 2.5" SATA hard drive. Now you'd think you'd be able to get one of those from PC World Cambridge ? Wrong ! zero in stock (guess must be the same delivery company that supplies supermarkets). Of course loads of random nonsense hard drives like 80GB PATA ones (that I'm sure a computer in 2004 would have used). I did laugh at the shop assistants suggestion to use a 3.5" one instead - yeh that would really fit into my docking station for my notebook.
Beehive
Does anyone else think the Beehive centre (what a rubbish name for a start) is probably the worst shopping experience in the UK ? I ended up having to go there to Maplin in search of a hard drive. Of course it was late afternoon and the traffic was utter carnage. Well, let's face it, you build a lower end supermarket and various random rubbish shops and have a single lane of traffic in/out- what do you really expect ? I must admit when I first lived in Cambridge I was asking where people bought beds and such like. People told me 'go to the Beehive Centre', the next day I said 'okay, April fools over, where are the decent places ?' - I was told that was one of them.
I've just had a quick internet search - they have a website ! I love the slogan 'Spoilt for Choice'- I think the emphasis is definitely on 'spoilt' rather than 'choice'. Love the shopping plan, now let me see, is 'Vacant' some new department store I just haven't heard of ? Makes me think 'Grand Arcade' - 'Arcade' or 'Grand' ?
In all fairness things are a little better nowadays in Cambridge (though still pretty dire).
Cambridge Eateries
I read in the newspaper today that a company that owned a number of pubs in Cambridge had gone into liquidation. It mentioned the Cow - my heart sank - not another decent place in Cambridge going away !
Thankfully not the case as it has been spared closure. It got me thinking about pubs etc. around Cambridge. I guess owning a pub must be a difficult time right now given:
- Smoking ban - I'm sure it has an impact on trade (and also profit on vending machines). However it has a very positive impact on health.
- Cheap booze from supermarkets. Yes, not content with the UK having a problem with binge drinking supermarkets are aiding this by having lots of special offers on packs of beer and other drinks (12/24 bottles typical pack size). I guess people are drinking more.
- Recession - people not having enough money to spend going out (coupled with cheap booze from supermarkets).
Still, some places don't seem to do much to help themselves. It's almost as if there is a convenant on Cambridge Pubs that says they can only be good for a period of time, then they have to fall back to the standard position of being lousy. Take a Pub in Fulbourn that has a very up and down reputation over the years. Until recently it had management that did a great job on the food (steak/chips/onion rings some of the best I have tasted). However, recently it's changed hands again and reverted back to being bland. I guess the net curtains on the windows says it all !
Thursday Night Dinner
Alimentum on Hills Road last night. I've had drinks in there quite a few times en route to the Peking. However, last night decided to take the plunge and have dinner. Good service, food and wine nice. Quite pricey - £91 for 2 people.
Friday Lunch
Decided to head through to Bury St Edmunds for lunch. Maison Bleue is a place I've heard lots about, but never been. Absolutely fantastic. French food, with French staff and good service. Shame about the cheese board being within smell (ironic since I was at a table nearest to the loo). Steak with Red Wine and Shallot sauce was absolutely fantastic (I think the staff did look their nose down at me mopping up the sauce with bread as it was so so good). Petit fours with coffee afterwards were amazing. Overall a great lunch. Trouble is that I don't do lunchtime drinks well (so the Red Wine made me sleepy).
Saturday Night Dinner
Dinner with friends from University Saturday night. Ended up in d'Arrys (sp ?). Absolutely fantastic as usual. Great service (I think the girl serving us used to work in All-Bar-On) and excellent value for money. My only gripe was that the steak was very large and so (unusually) I had to leave some of it. I'll never ever be a member of the vegetarian clan. However, I do have a certain amount of guilt when leaving meat as I know an animal has died for it and it just seems a terrible waste when you have to throw part of it away
Saturday Night Drinks
By the time dinner ended it was a little late and Cambridge was heaving with people. It's one of the few times recently I've had to interact with normal locals - as usual I found them to be difficult and up themselves (like not standing aside at the bar when it's clear you are trying to grab drinks).
Dinner at Vietnamese restaurant in Cambridge. I like the food in this place, although the noodles/soup isn't quite as appealing since I started to make it at home myself (of course my own home recipe has the magic ingredient of blood from cut fingers trying to chop beef into fine slices).
The only trouble is that the atmosphere is absolutely awful. I can't quite put my finger (excuse pun) on it. The best description I can come up with is that during your visit as you eat you feel you are a British tourist (from some lousy village in the North with 95% unemployment) in solitary confinement in a Hanoi prison being held on remand for drug offences.
This reminds me of another restaurant (Spanish) in Cambridge that I've visited (for work dinners) several times. I didn't like the place very much, then realised why: no air-con, dark, red-lights - yes it was hell in disguise !
So, that begs the question "Is there the equivalent of Dante's Inferno, but a dining experience in Cambridge ?". Forget the Kings Street Run, I'm heading for the "Dante's Inferno Dining Experience" - the last circle being a city centre kebab shop ! (or is that a nightclub ?).
Every morning on my way to work I pass this scene. I've tried to capture it with the iPhone - but the quality isn't that good. Anyways, this pic is courtesy of my pocket Leica - this won't win any photography competitions, but if you click on the pic you can see the large number of rabbits if you look close enough.
Actually, I tried to take some pictures earlier enroute in the grounds of the local hospital. However, I decided that might not be too sensible an idea given it was 7AM and I was in the grounds of a mental hospital !!
Continuing with the theme of Easter weekend being the worst holiday weekend, today was as uneventful as the whole of the weekend thus far. This post comes courtesy of MarsEdit (finally managed to sort out an offline blog tool).
I just created my to-do / project list and as usual there is far too much to get done in the following week and things to chase so I'm expecting it to be a hellish week full of late nights.
Broadband Blues
Arrived back home at noon to be met by the guy who arrived to 'fix' (term used loosely) my broadband. I'd had a number of conversations over the weekend with Virgin concerning problems I've been having with my broadband connection. I ended up calling to cancel the service (so irritated), but ended up giving them another chance (quote 'put me through to someone who knows what they are talking about, not a retard reading from a script). Eventually got put through to someone in Wales.
Having been told they'd send someone who could do a full analysis of my connection (not simply stick a signal strength meter into the cable on my wall) I had my usual skepticism - but decided to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Well, as usual I was disappointed. The guy arrived with said signal meter, plugged it into the wall and replied "good connection", to which I replied "I could have told you that". Complete and utter waste of by Monday afternoon :(. After he left, I stewed for a few minutes and decided to 'phone and have a moan. We left that call with the technician indicating to me that unless someone could see a fault on my line, there was nothing I could do.
I could have moved to a 50MB service with Virgin, likely I will have to downgrade to something like a 1MB service with BT. There's progress.
Scottish Clans
I'm watching a television show that is about Scottish Clans. Why do they always have people in Scotland in the shows who speak with an English Upper-class accent ?!
Nigella
The show about Scottish clans has finished and I'm watching every mans favourite cooking show 'Nigella Express'. As usual dominated by great looking food and lots of takes of Nigella's real life. She's just dropped her daughter at school. I wonder what it's like to be at school with Nigella's daughter ? - packed lunches must be interesting..
What do you have ? Cheese Sandwich... Me ? Thai Yellow Pumpkin and Seafood Curry, followed by Chocohotopots...
Weekend Food
Probably the highlight of the weekend was lunch as Asadal in Holborn. I love Korean food and as usual they didn't disappoint. It does worry me how well they are doing though as we were the only people in the place the whole of lunchtime.
The world has officially decided to go crazy. I recall speaking to someone who I had studied with a few years ago who told me that the last time she was up in Glasgow they had security tags on bottles of whisky. When she told me the area of Glasgow, I wasn't too surprised. Also given the high value of bottles of Scotch, coupled by the fact that I'd be willing to bet that your average common thief likes a tipple, it didn't surprise me.
However, it's clear that not only does your average store thief like a glass (bottle?) of whisky, they also have a penchant for steak ! I was at a supermarket in Cambridge yesterday (not one I usually go to) and picked up the above package. The large pink sticker didn't really register, until this morning when I opened the package (to cook Thai beef salad) only to realise that on the back of the sticker there was a large RF security tag ! A sad fact of society today - they have to put security tags on £2.13 packs of steak !
Reminds me of a funny scene I observed at a hotel reception in Israel. This German guy had come down with a pair of trousers and asked for assistance. He had one of the security tags you get on clothing (the huge 30cm wide things). He obviously had bought a new pair of trousers for his business trip, thrown them in the suitcase, only to discover on arrival in Tel Aviv that the security tag was still on ! I saw the smirk on the lady at reception's face !!
I've never been a fan of smoking (save from when I'm very drunk where for some reason cigarettes and Gin & Tonic - two things I hate - seem to be a good idea to try). Therefore I am highly supportive of the ban on smoking in public places. Actually, being very against a devolved Scotland I am highly sceptical of anything the Scottish Executive does. However I give them full credit for what is easily the health initiative of this century - banning smoking in public places. It really boils down to consideration for other people - something few people actually have.
So, this morning I was waiting for the bus into work (being good and using public transport) and this guy was smoking at the (enclosed) bus stop. Even though it was outside he was puffing away- creating a horrible environment for all of us. It was Monday morning so I wasn't in the mood to give him a hard time (besides, he looked mentally ill given his dress sense and what he was carrying). Do people actually need a 'No Smoking' sign in order to apply common sense.
Of course I'm now frustrated with myself for not saying anything (hence why I have wasted peoples' time by writing this !).
I've never had an addiction so I can't really imagine the craving you have for cigarettes. However, it really can't be that bad can it ? I've been on trains before that have been halted due to someone smoking in the toilets and that really irritated me. Makes me think of the most bizarre times I've had on public transport:
- Train stuck due to cow on the line
- (Several times) delayed train due to someone threatening to throw themselves under it. Always makes for interesting times on a train in South East, where if you listen to the comments people make on their cellphones (frustrated calls to family), the conversation usually goes something like "Why can't they just get on and do it, inconveniencing all these people is terribly rude !"
- Had a large stone smash through the glass as I was sitting at the table.
- Delayed trains due to points being cold (note to train operators: temperatures do reach freezing in the UK)
- Delayed trains due to leaves on the line
- Going to loo on a train, only to find two people already there - shooting drugs
The above lists sounds awful. However, I've also had some pleasant experiences on trains (albeit not in the UK). For example, packed Japan Shinkansen one Fridat night, bad mood, only to be greeted by young lady carrying a bucket of beers on ice bowing down....
Customer Service (or lack of it)
Yesterday morning I decided to take the bus into work, got to the bus-stop and realised I only had a £10 note (not an issue when you live in a big city, but hey we're talking Cambridge here and to people here £10 seems to be a lot of money- strange given that it will buy you next to nothing). Got to board the bus and handed the driver the note, the look on his face said it all, followed by the words "got anything smaller". Now of course if that had come from some people I'd have taken it as a form of flattery - but in this case I assumed he was referring to the fact that he'd have to give me £9 in change. Of course if Cambridge had a similar transport system to any other modern city in the world then I'd simply swipe a pre-loaded card. But alas no - we still have to deal with cash. My reply was "really sorry, no".
Well, no surprise that the textbook Cambridge model of customer service kicked in. The fact that I wasn't presenting exactly what was needed was my fault (not the fact that the bus driver had inadequate change). Quote I had was "If I give you change then I wouldn't have any other change left, you'll need to wait for the next bus". To which my reply was "not my problem". I presented him with several options to move forward:
- I have just under £1 in change, you can have that
- Keep the £10 note - I'll claim the change back from the company at a later date
- Let me ride for free
Of course these options weren't suitable as it didn't fit the model perfectly (and of course thinking out the box wasn't an option)- my comment "what a joke" I'm sure didn't help. Asked other passengers if they had change- one guy replied "sorry mate I don't get paid until later today" (found that funny). Eventually we agreed that the best course of action was indeed for him to give me change.. Here you go - first picture posting::
On The Train
Writing this on the train where (of course) I've been displaced by the typical self-centred Cambridge family (2+ children) who take over the carriage and everyone has to move around for them to ensure that they get to all sit together in the optimal configuration. I'm surprised - the kids are eating 'normal' British food - not the usual fair for Cambridge children (breadsticks and hummus all round). The mother has just asked the child 'have you ever been to London before'- he's about 8 and hasn't. Unbelievable (I'd been to London when I was a kid several times at the age of 8 and I lived at the other end of the country). Obviously all of the food is strewn over the carriage now. It's times like this I think there is a market for T-Shirts with some anti-child phrase on it (but in the interests of this being a clean blog I'll omit the exact wording I've conjured up - if you know me drop me a mail and I'll let you know).
Dry Cleaning
Dry cleaning for people who stay in Cambridge during the week is only for the unemployed. I figure this by the fact that the opening hours are solely constructed in a way that anyone who works a 9-5 (ha!) job would have no way of actually conveniently being able to drop off or collect their dry cleaning. There are 2 main branches of a popular dry cleaning service that have their own advantages in terms of opening hours (but distinct opening days and opening times). Oh, and of course it isn't like China where you can drop it off in the morning and have it ready later that day.
