Archive for January, 1999
January 27, 1999 at 9:23 am · Filed under General
This week has consisted of a brief and joyous trip to the travel agent to collect my plane tickets (another fun filled fortnight with Jen in Canada!), the arrival of electricians to tear my house apart, and lots of work.
Oh, and I went walking again at the weekend. I bought a book a few days ago called ‘Pub Walks in Shropshire’, which sounded like my kind of walking. One of the walks followed the river around Shrewsbury, stopping at the Boathouse Inn, which seemed like a good one to start with.
I parked up at the station at around lunchtime on Sunday, and headed past the imposing prison gates. The small door in the gate was open, and my morbid curiosity got the better of me. I stood and gawked through the door, hoping to see some hardened crims engaged in yard brawls, but nothing seemed to be happening so I continued.
Following some steps down through a slightly wild garden, which unfortunately seemed to be the local dumping ground for beer cans and pizza boxes, I arrived at the river. The water was lapping at the edge of the tow path, and I worried slightly that the path may be flooded further on.
According to my guide, if I looked behind me as I walked under the railway bridge, I should see Laura’s Tower, the romantic gazebo added to Shrewsbury Castle by Thomas Telford. I walked backwards, trying to see through the trees on the embankment, and eventually saw the tower. Lucky really, as my steps had been taking me closer to the edge of the towpath.
As I strolled on along the river, my book pointed out to me a 13th century arch called Water Gate which was once part of the town wall. On the opposite bank I could see the floodlights of Gay Meadow, the Shrewsbury football ground.
As I approached English Bridge, I could see The Wakeman School, Wilfred Owen’s former school, on the opposite bank, along with truncated tower of the Abbey Church, founded by the Benedictines in 1038 (can you tell I had a guide book?).
After English bridge is the old village of Coleham, which had an iron foundry and tannery. The old workers’ cottages which look out on the river have been converted into attractive, and probably expensive, town houses.
Continuing under Greyfriars Bridge, the towpath widens, and is lined on both sides with majestic limes. On the right, through the trees, I could see the remains of the town walls, built by Henry III (well, he probably had some help) in 1226.
At Kingsland Bridge, I left the river, and walked up a narrow lane, to the top of the bridge. I emerged facing a magnificent terracotta coloured building, complete with flying buttresses and griffins. Apparently this used to be the Shrewsbury Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital, built in 1879, but dissapointingly it is now closed. The building is in a bad state of repair, and had a large for sale sign outside. I felt like rushing to the auction house and putting in a bid, but I later found out that it would cost an estimated one million pounds just to make the building safe. What a shame.
I crossed the bridge, and strolled along the other side of the river, past the Shrewsbury School boat house and boating club, and into a tranquil, but highly manicured section of the river. Apparently the parkland there is host to the annual flower show by the Horticultural Society, who also built the nearby Porthill suspension bridge.
I reached my halfway point, the Boathouse Inn, and dashed inside for some much needed refreshment. I was expecting the Inn to be a cosy old pub, with a roaring log fire. I was dissapointed. It is more like a family restaurant, with a bar. I bought myself a pint and sat at a table looking out over the river. I spent about an hour there, sipping my pint and reading my book, before setting off again.
The rest of the walk took me through Shrewsbury town centre, starting with Mardol, the small road up from the river. This is an attractive street, with overhanging gables, and half timbered buildings. Unfortunately it also seems to be the cheapest, filled with shops whose owners can’t afford anywhere else. Stores such as haberdashers, hearing aid specialists, second hand electrical appliances, and the odd charity shop. I also noticed a large number of for sale, and to let signs. I can only assume this decay is due to the frequent flooding of the river.
After walking through the pedestrian section of town, and deciding that doing this walk on a Sunday had been a really good idea, I arrived at Castle Street, which surprisingly enough leads down to Shrewsbury Castle. Here I go into guide book mode again: The castle was built by Roger de Montgomery between 1067 and 1083, on the high mound at the neck of the river. Apart from the Norman entrance, the rest was rebuilt by Edward I in the late 1200s.
Anyway, it was closed, so I wandered across the road to the library, which was also closed, but which has an impressive statue of Charles Darwin outside.
I crossed the railway bridge, and found myself back at the car. I headed home for a cup of tea and a cream cake, happy to have learnt a bit more about my home town.
January 20, 1999 at 9:21 am · Filed under General
I awoke on Saturday morning to a bright, sunny day, with a wintery blue sky. The perfect day, I decided, to go out for a drive, and maybe do some walking. I washed, dressed, and fixed some breakfast, then sat down with my OS map. A nature reserve called Earl’s Hill a few miles South-West of me seemed like a good spot.
I threw a few things in the car (jumper, wooly hat, book, map), put the roof down, and set off. Almost immediately the clouds started rolling in, which wasn’t a good sign. After driving around Bayston Hill several times, and hitting nothing but dead ends, I decided I wasn’t going to find the small lane shown on my map, and headed out onto the A5 for a more circuitous, but better defined route.
I eventually found the road I wanted, which turned out to be good fun. It was quite twisty, but still straight enough to get up some good speed. Suddenly, I found myself in Pulverbatch, and figured I should probably check the map. I had been enjoying myself so much that I had overshot by a few miles, and was just about to head off the bottom of the map.
As I turned around and headed back, it started to hail, but most of it was missing my head, so I continued until Oaks, where I parked up. As I was putting the roof up, the hail stopped, so I grabbed my bag and headed out on what I assumed was the footpath I needed. Twenty minutes later, the hail come down again, and in quite a serious manner. I hid behind a tree for shelter from the icy blast, and pondered whether to go back and hide in the car, or continue bravely onward. As I pondered, I had a pee.
After deciding to continue, and walking into a blast of icy pin pricks for several minutes, the weather improved, along with my mood. I strolled along quite happily, admiring the scenery and enjoying the tranquility, until my foot landed in mud up to my boot top. The next hundred yards or so were spent trying to find dry land, or rocks to hop onto, and trying to wrench my feet out of mud without losing my boots.
After crossing a busy brook (via a conveniently located wooden bridge), I staggered up a deceptively steep hill, and stood at the top, gasping for breath, admiring the view. Off to my right was a barn, which seemed to be derelict, so I headed for that. Two walls of the barn were gone completely, leaving the inside partially exposed to the surrounding hillside. Some kind soul had installed a table/bench, so I took a seat, pulled out my Bill Bryson, and enjoyed a chapter. While I was reading, it started to rain.
Once the rain stopped, I ventured out of the barn, and decided it was time to head back to the car. I leapt down the hill, back over the bridge, and through the mud. Suddenly I arrived at a fork in the path. A fork I didn’t remember at all. I stood there for some minutes, pondering the situation, and trying to spot a recognisable landmark. Finally I headed down the right hand fork. After struggling through more mud, it soon became clear that this was the wrong way. As I turned around to head back, it started to snow.
By the time I got back to the car, I was in the middle of a veritable blizzard. I was covered in snow, as was the car. After a vague attempt to clear the snow from my windows, I got in and headed home. Five minutes down the road the snow stopped and the sun came out, so I had the roof down for the rest of the journey.
January 14, 1999 at 9:20 am · Filed under General
This week has been a little dull. I got my lights fixed at last, and I’ve had a quote for a complete rewire of my house (scary!). My car was serviced, and had a new gear linkage fitted. Other than that I’ve just been slowly coming down from the Xmas high.
I went for a drive on Saturday. It was a lovely sunny day, so I had the roof down on the car. It was cold, but the heater works well. Coming out of Shrewsbury after a quick bit of shopping, I saw a sign for Welshpool, and decided to go that way. Upon arrival in Welshpool, I looked at the map, and realised I wasn’t all that far from the coast of Cardigan Bay, so I carried on.
Eventually I arrived at Barmouth, a slightly dingy seaside town, in an absolutely gorgeous setting. The town is set against a backdrop of rocky Welsh hills to the east, with more hills to the south, and a huge sandy beach to the west and north.
The tide was out, so I went strolling on the beach, and watched the sun setting over the sea. As the sun went down past the horizon, I headed back up to explore some of the hills, and spent a very enjoyable hour or so clambering about on rocky terrain, until I realised it was getting quite dark, and I should probably go back to town before things got tricky.
I hunted around the small town for somewhere to get something to eat, but everywhere seemed to be closed, apart from a small amusement arcade on the promenade, and a National Milk Bar. For some reason I’ve never trusted National Milk Bars, so I avoided it, and instead jumped into my car and headed back east. I ended up stopping at a Little Chef, and the National Milk Bar probably would’ve been better.
January 5, 1999 at 9:13 am · Filed under General
Apologies for the gap in my diary schedule, but I was having too much fun over Xmas to worry about writing diaries! Now I just have to remember everything that happened…
After a sober, but still reasonably fun, office Xmas lunch on the 18th December, I drove down to Essex to enjoy an early Xmas dinner with my Dad’s family, picking up Philippa on the way. We ate a very nice duckling, wore silly hats, opened some presents (disappointing Tristan slightly as his present was in Canada), and played silly games. I got a very cute brass F1 car clock, a coffee grinder, some mugs and some books.
On the 20th, Dad drove me to the airport for my 1PM plane to Montreal. After walking halfway around terminal 3, we found the end of the check-in queue and joined it. An hour later I was handing my documents to a stern Air Canada rep, who refused to even entertain the idea of an upgrade. Resigned to economy travel, I headed for my plane.
Six hours, some nasty food, and two crap films (Armageddon and Wrongfully Accused) later, we descended on Montreal. It had snowed the night before, so fresh snow still carpeted much of the city, giving a Xmas postcard view from my window.
Those areas in airports where everybody congregates to meet new arrivals is one of the few times in life when an non-celeb like me gets to know what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Struggling down the people-walled corridor with a trolley, every eye is on you, and it’s very bewildering. Eventually I found Jen, yacking with an old school friend she’d stumbled across, and who she promptly abandoned when I arrived.
The next couple of days were spent relaxing, and not really doing much at all. We went shopping for last minute gifts (and gloves and boots for me!), visited Lisa and Kevin for a pre-christmas gift exchange, ate junk food, and generally made slobs of ourselves. I drank too much tea, Jen drank too much coffee; felt like I’d never left! It rained and the snow melted, which wasn’t very nice.
On Xmas Eve we headed up to Jen’s parents’, picking up her Aunt and Grandmother on the way. As we were driving up, it started snowing again, and we started seeing snow on the ground. By the time we arrived, it was a real white Xmas again, and the farm looked like a winter wonderland. We were joined later by two of Jen’s cousins, and were all set for Xmas.
Christmas Day dawned with Jen running up and down the stairs squeaking ‘Santa came! Santa came!’. We had pancakes and maple syrup, and rummaged through stockings, followed by opening the tree presents. I got a cool aquarium which will soon be featured on the Lambicam, and an excellent knife made by Richard, as well as lots of other fun bits and pieces.
A quick afternoon walk in the snow gave us an appetite for a gorgeous turkey dinner, with turnip and apple, cabbage and bacon, carrots, and mashed potato. We rounded off the day with a game of Dictionary and some drinks.
We headed back to the city on Boxing Day, but returned to the country two days later for Jen’s Mum’s birthday, and enjoyed more excellent food, and great company. The weather had turned cold, down in the minus twenties, so we didn’t go out for very long walks!
On New Years Eve, we joined Lisa and Kevin for a Chinese meal, played more silly games (Planet Hollywood), and saw in the New Year with David Letterman and Prince. There should be some fun photos coming out of that evening!
The next day we spent ages looking for a decent restaurant that was open, failed miserably and ended up in a bar. A satisfactory, and very filling roast beef sandwich later and I was looking at the prospect of heading home. Slightly depressed, we headed for the airport, where we joined another massive check-in queue. An hour later, I was waving goodbye to Jen and boarding my plane.
Back in England, I was met by Dad and driven to his house. From there I went to my Mum’s for another round of gift giving (I got a microwave!). After a pleasant day and evening there, it was back to Dad’s again to give Dad and Tristan their gifts (boots for Dad, a GPS scanner for Tristan), before heading home. I was most pleased to find I hadn’t been robbed, the house hadn’t burned down and everything seemed to be in order. Except, that is, for a pint of milk in the fridge which appeared to have undergone a slow motion explosion.
Life is back to normal now, so don’t expect more than a three line entry next week!
