Random Musings

ekz You're the one I always hold responsible, what with you being in charge of the bears. 

I see AI is still having trouble with hands

The Err bears! There's one behind you!

Remember Harry Enfield's Men of Kent sketch? That.

Happy St George's Day you commie bastards!

I spent the morning eating baked beans from a microwave pot (yuck I'll stick to tins) and watching snooker.

And although the CCP's Ding was off to a flyer with a century break I know our British lad will rise to the challenge.

Now, to answer a few work emails, get coal in our engines of productivity and make Britain Great Again!

About 20 odd years ago we used to go on the odd work night out in Oxford and wind up in a night club called Park End. It was utterly terrible in so many ways, but might still be an option.

I would struggle to call many pubs "excellent" but sure there are lots of historic pubs in Oxford, sure. But that's pretty much anywhere in the Oxfordshire, or even Thames Valley, area. I live in the arse end of nowhere and have plenty of interesting old pubs, including one within a mile that's so old nobody knows exactly when it dates from.

Most in Oxford itself are, ime, rammed with tourists with piss taking prices (6 or 7 quid for a draft beer not that unlikely), with staff who look miserable. Many of local breweries have started merging a while back, and there little character to any of them. Like Bongo says a few have shut (including the one that was famous for Tolkein going there, the eagle and whatever it was).

There's the odd place here and there which is quite nice (depending what you're looking for) but it's mostly not worth the effort of going out there imo. London's about an hour by train.

Yeah, maybe. I've had nicer times in other places like York or Cambdrige or even Cardiff. Maybe it's familiarity breeding contempt, but Oxford feels like a typical "shit town" to me. Like Slough or Basignstoke. It just happens to have a world leading and architecturally beautiful university slap bang in the middle of it that leads an entirely parrallel and seperate existance. The town and gown division is *immense*, with very stark class divide (once maintained by a literal spiked wall in Cutteslowe).

Take out the fancy building you can look at but not touch, and Reading is "nicer".

(No offense to Reading, Slough or Basingstoke. By the North Oxford lot really think they're better than you, and everybody else)

I can't think of many cities or towns that I actually like, they all seem pretty interchangeable to me and homogeneous to the point of boredom.

The layout might change, some are bigger than others, and there might be an attraction or two but they all "feel" the same to me.

It’s another place that’s been gutted by greedy landlords. A lot of the places closed because they got fucked on rent rather than being unviable.

The Jam Factory was a really nice Indy pub/cafe/art space for like 20 years and closed pretty much immediately after the landlords gave them the new bill (and, obviously, it’s still sat derelict)

Okay, let me be more specific, UK towns.

It's like complaining about there's no meal deals in Waitrose. Oh golly gosh. Where does one go to eat now? Oh crumbs I've got ketchup on my mustard M&S chinos.

Stag do options notwithstanding, I really like Oxford, it's probably my favouritest city that I've lived in and I've lived in some nice cities.

Most cities have -

Some nice old architecture thing somewhere. A totally faceless high street. Potholes. Some vibrant area where it's kind of fun but also kind of edgy with junkies milking around. These sometimes evolve (Pokémon style) into gentrified areas where middle class hippies buy sourdough bread and craft beer. An increasing number of homeless thanks to austerity. A park that's nice but dodgy as fuck after dark.

Or maybe it's just cities of a certain size, but having been out in Bristol, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, London, Chester, Bath, Gloucester, Ross.

I can't really say they felt substantially different.

To be fair, seaside towns do feel different, mainly because they're usually incredibly sad feeling places, with a greater than usual sense of depression hanging in the air.

Karl Pilkington has the "meh" holiday travel shows covered.