The Pryordurkins

Posts Tagged ‘winter’

It has been a couple of months since I last used this East Coast Main line to get from York to London, via Doncaster, Grantham and Peterborough. This morning however has me travelling from York on the National Express service that leaves at 8.36am.

There was an air of excitement around York station as I waited for the train. I couldn’t put my finger on what was creating this atmosphere until I noticed quite a few Events Co-ordinators (evidenced by the big bright yellow jackets which said Events Co-ordinator!). They were putting up posters that would direct people who were clearly expected to visit the station and view the new Tornado Steam Engine which was due to pass through. Watching the preparations kept me amused for a while as I waited for my service to arrive into platform 3.

I boarded the National Express East Coast train and we left York bang on 8.36am. The outside of the train looked a bit grim, with old style doors and a lot of winter dirt. However inside was very pleasant indeed. I’d decided to upgrade myself and was happy to find a double seat with a table all to myself. Who says I’m miserable?

A few improvements seem to have been made since I last travelled. The at-seat menu has been revamped and you can now enjoy full dining at any seat in first class. The prices are quite high but I suppose they do have a captive audience and when you think about the space they have to work within to prepare food, it is quite a feat that they can produce so much for so many when they are so full.

In the interest of research I tried the freshly cooked bacon and tomato toasted sandwich (£3.75) and it was nicely prepared and tasty. Another change they have introduced is that you now find sparkling and still bottled water all ready placed on your table which is a nice touch in my view. Along with complimentary biscuits (which I avoided in the interest of my waistline) they served up fresh coffee which was passable and hot. I do wish they would invest in better beans though.

The staff were a little grumpy and barked requests to each passenger …… Coffee?……Milk?……Tickets?……. I just felt they could have been a little happier in their work.

Finally, I should mention the ticket prices. Since I last travelled the open return ticket to London seems to have gone up by £36 since early December. By my reckoning that is the equivalent to a 15% increase. This is on top of the price rises they introduced earlier in 2008. However I do recall a news story which explained National Express pay the government billions of pounds for the privilege of running this service and have to sell several thousand tickets each day before they earn a penny to cover their own running costs. Tax by another name me thinks?

Anyway we continued our journey and arrived into London Kings Cross bang on time.

Pryordurkin rating 3 stars.

With two previous pantomime visits behind us where we have gone along to see the annual Berwick Kaler production at York Theatre Royal, we are delighted to have discovered the date when the tickets go on sale for Humpty Dumpty, the 2009/10 pantomime.

Extract from their press release

Humpty sat on a wall then had a fall.   Not much of a plot even by Kaler’s standards – or is it?

Let the team that brought you the acclaimed Dick Turpin stretch your imagination to Herculean proportions with a brand new hilarious version of this classic nursery rhyme.

Will the orphaned Humpty find a mother?   Can he protect the tiny Kingdom of Pantoloon from the evil Eggula? What happens when our Panto Heroes are forced to venture into the real world?

Booking for the panto event The Sunday Times consistently rates one of the top five attractions to see anywhere in the UK during the winter season.

Having had such good times previously, we will hopefully be at the front of the queue for the upcoming tickets!

Oh yea….sorry…..was wanting to hold back…..but the date the tickets go on sale is…….

From March 2nd in person at the box office or from March 3rd online or by phone.

Having finished work on Wednesday with two colleagues I set off for a spot of dinner at a restaurant in Reading.  On our way we stopped for a pint at the Allied Arms on St Marys Butts in Reading.  A strange name I thought for a location, but as I learnt more about Reading from the locals inside discovered it has quite a history when it comes to monks, nuns and religion in general.  The outside of the pub would normally have resulted in me walking on by, but my colleagues seemed confident that what lay inside would be good.  Stepping through the door and having ordered up our drinks we took a table near the window.  One colleague then wandered back outside to make a phone call, the t’other went off to the loo and I was left at the mercy of a very small man with a limp, a scar and a broken arm who seemed to think we were long lost buddies and that we needed to get reacquainted.  He proceeded to ask lots of questions but those who know me, will realise the futility of that particular tactic.  Nonetheless he chatted away for the next twenty minutes without stop.  My colleagues had returned by this point but it made little difference and one colleague who professed to be good at empathy kept acknowledging the conversation and egging this bloke on.  However after a while, my miserable non responsive, emotionless face must have eventually worn him down as he finished off his drink and left the pub completely.

The pub itself serves up real ale which for people who understand these things is apparently very good and I could see and hear from the other punters that this place has a real following.  Cosy traditional and probably a great place to spend a few hours on a cold winters evening.  However it isn’t quite my cup of tea as there were no flashy lights, no house music and no eye candy to speak of.

Pryordurkin 3 stars.  (it might not have been my thing, but this is clearly a well liked traditional pub serving real ale, hence the three stars)

After a weekend that took an unexpected and unfortunate turn for our friends who had originally planned to spend it with us, we woke this morning to find a very nice covering of Snow over much of the UK.  Listening to the excited BBC News presenters (makes a change from the credit crunch I suppose) you would think this was a completely new phenomenon.  However I can remember having to dig my car out of several feet of snow when I was a lad, not so many years ago.

With Priscilla taking ownership of the garage Paul was not best pleased at having to scrape down his car from the snow and ice that had covered it overnight, before taking her off to the garage for some minor repairs.  However the scenes in and around our home in York more than made up for the mild inconvenience.   The picture to the right was taken ‘out back of house’.

We did momentarily think while enjoying what is turning out to be a fantastic British winter, about Marg in Australia and the recent reports over here that they are enduring their hottest summer for many years.  So we thought we’d share a few winter pictures as a little light relief to all those down under.

As the evening sets in, we hear on the news that tonight we can expect another 20cm of snow, so while Paul prepares the evening meal, having taken a few pictures, I’ll now be busy closing all the curtains, turning up the heating and lighting a few candles for an evening in front of the box.

Of course, tommorow is where all the fun starts because I need to get to Reading by 2pm and Paul has ‘volunteered’ to take me to the train station for just after 8am.

We’ll see….

We were joined by Christine, Graham, Jessica and Marissa for the weekend and as well as visiting the panto, we found ourselves going off to Bridlington late Saturday morning.  To say it was cold is an understatemnt. As we travelled across East Yorkshire passing through Wetwang, the temperatures dropped to minus three and the trees that lined the road were thick with white ice and putting on the most fantastic show of winter scenery.

We parked up at the harbour and walked up to the recently refurbished Spa ordering up hot chocolate drinks and sitting in the cafe that has views across the North Sea.  A little wandering about Bridlington followed before the obligtory fish and chip meal, after which we could take the cold no more and started the journey home.  Saturday was panto time and you can read our review here.

Sunday morning called for my preparing a traditional Sunday Lunch.  Before that though we all went for a walk into Dunnington and the kids had a great time playing in park.  Even Jessica and Marissa enjoyed themselves!

All in all we had a very nice weekend playing host to Christine, Graham, Jessica and Marissa.

We’re both thankfully back to normal now following our experience of the Norovirus over the last week.  Paul returned to work this morning having dropped his car off for the annual service and MOT and I take up another assignment later this week having finished my last one early December.

So with a reasonable holiday (especially for me and barring the bug!) we are both now firing on all cylinders again and looking forward to 2009.  So much so, we started to browse the holiday websites last night and are considering a long haul holiday around April/May time.  We’ll have to check the loose change bottle down the back of the sofa to see if it stretches as far as our likeness for five star treatment goes but will probably firm things up over the next week.

My new assignment is likely to have me spending time in London a few nights a week again, at least for the early part of the year, so expect the usual London restaurant reviews to start up once more!    In the mean time while catching up with emails etc I am going through the house top to bottom, with disinfectant, bleaching every surface and washing all our clothes and bedding with added Dettol to ensure no return of the so called winter vomiting bug.  Having checked the latest advice (read some here), we’re assurred we’ve now past the point of being infectious to others and look forward to welcoming Christine, Graham and the kids this weekend, where we are taking them to the local panto.

After walking around Pickering, we wanted a spot of lunch.  The nice people in the Art Shop we had just visited recommended Mulberries on Bridget Street.  Entering at around 2pm, the lights were out, but we were greeted by a friendly looking chap who said they were still serving food in response to our question.  We sat at a table near the small window and next to a glowing electric fire.  The friendly chap then turned the lights on for us and an assistant took our order.  We both went for the Carrot and Ginger Soup at £3.50.  To follow, I chose the Home Made Cottage pie with vegetables from the specials menu and Paul opted for a Roast Port with Apple Bap.

This is a small restaurant / coffee shop.  It had a look of a mediterranean cafe about it with white washed walls and bare brickwork showing in places.  It was very nice and clean but I got the feeling that it hadn’t quite decided whether it wanted to be a restaurant or an upmarket coffee shop.

Anyway, after a short while, the soup arrived.   It was excellent.  No other way to describe it.  Piping hot, perfectly seasoned and clearly home cooked.  Served up with warm crusty bread it was just what was needed to counteract the winter weather outside.  The mains quickly followed.  Pauls Roast Pork Bap was again excellent.  Moist, tender and accompanied by warm freshly cooked apple slice.  I took a bite myself to check and it was worth every penny of the £3.50 cost!  A bargain for that price, given in most places you pay that for a limp takeaway sandwhich.

My cottage pie (£5.95) however was a little bit of a disappointment.  It was tasty enough but the minced beef used looked as though it had come out of a can.  This was a major surprise given my starter was so excellent.  Accompanied by roasted parsnips I was just left a little unhappy.

As we left, a young boy was closing up the restaurant for the afternoon at around 3pm.   Our total bill came to £18 which for lunch was fantastic value indeed.  I think this place could be onto a real winner.  The setting was certainly perfect for a cosy meal with other quiet respectful diners.   We’ll pop back some time to see how they are getting on.

Pryordurkin rating 3 Stars.  01751 472337

We found ourselves stopping for Sunday Lunch today at Guy Fawkes Inn on Petergate in York.  The place has a warm welcoming atmosphere as you enter this very old building which as the name implies was home to Guy Fawkes himself.  After you spend a little while in here though you get a sense of something else.  It seemed Ghostly and I’m not sure I’d want to find myself left alone in the place at night!   Anyway, it is very darkly decorated and still boasts the use of original gas lighting which only adds to the general aura of the place.  With a roaring fire as you enter the bar, it is definitely worth a stop on a cold wet winters day.  We sat down at a large old wooden table and ordered up a Roast Beef lunch for myself and a Slow Roast Belly Pork for Paul.  While waiting we had a drop of the old amber nectar to keep us going.

This is clearly a popular place because while we sat waiting our meals to arrive, we noticed by now all the tables were full and because you can’t book, many a person kept popping their head around the doors to see if tables were free.  The Guy Fawkes Inn as the name suggests also has a number of rooms to let and we could see a few people having finished their meals return to their rooms.  Perfect location if your visiting York and don’t mind the ghostly feel about the place.

Our food arrived and we tucked in.  While the food was better than your usual pub lunch, it was nothing particularly special, which was a bit of a disappointment.  My Roast Beef was tasty, but the vegetables were plain.  Paul didn’t seem to enjoy his Roast Belly Pork and seemed to making a job of it trying to slice it up with his knife.

All in all though, well worth a visit if only for the ambiance of the place and a decent pint.  We’ll certainly go back.

Pryordurkin rating 3 stars. Tel: +44 (0) 845 4 60 90 20

After having spent a couple of hours with Christine, Graham, Jessica and Marissa exploring the old Roman Baths, we stopped at the Pump Room Restaurant for afternoon tea.  The place was busy with tourists taking advantage of this splendid setting to rest their weary feet.  We ordered up afternoon tea of scones, jam, clotted cream and tea all of which was freshly served up by friendly attentive staff in crisp old fashioned waiting uniforms.  A very enjoyable hour quickly passed as we tucked into the extra (free) tea and scones they provided because we had a small wait at the beginning, while listening to the live orchestral music playing in the background. 

Score: 4 Stars. Visited May 2008

Telephone Number +44 (0) 1225 444477
Opening
Open 7 days a week: Winter (Oct 1st – March 31st) 09.30 – 16.30 Summer (April 1st – September 30th) 09.30 – 17.30 Times may vary

The hotel is in a great location near East Croydon railway station and over the last few months I found myself staying a couple of nights every week. I recently won the wine draw and was upgraded to their Executive suite which was a welcome treat, but the trouble with the hotel if you stay there for any length of time is, it is just so boring. The restaurant serves the same buffet style food every night and while you can get bar meals or room service, the quality is variable.

The rooms are quite dated and for the business traveller who needs to charge laptops or telephones up, there is a distinct lack of power points. Those that do exist are positioned just under a very large metal bar, which actually prevents you getting anything in. Despite booking a King Size bed every time, I regularly get a room with two twins beds pushed together. This is quite annoying after a while especially when it comes with two single duvets. Not enough to wrap around you on a cold winters eve I find.

In essence though, because there are very few hotels in Croydon, your choice is limited and out of those that do exist, Croydon Park is one of the better options. However as mentioned, don’t expect an exciting time or interesting food.

Score: 2 Stars. Last visited February 08.