Tag Archives: Wilford

Harvester – Review

19 Replies

Here it is, my first food review of the year. The target is to visit 100 tearooms in 365 days, but I’ve decided to review all the places I eat out to ensure we hit target. I’m hoping that it will also prevent me eating out too much, but I fear this may be a doomed hope.

We had to take Number One Son to the airport and Julia suggested eating on the way. Harvester in Wilford was conveniently placed so we tried there. It’s usually passable and often quite good. It provides free salad, fresh bread rolls and last time we went they had a special lunchtime offer.

Well, the offer is over, the bread roll baskets were empty and the salad looked like it had passed peak freshness several days previously.

Very disappointing.

The worst bit was when I ordered cod and chips.

“We don’t have any batter, but we can do you plain grilled cod.”said the server.

Because, of course, beautifully battered, golden, gleaming cod is very much the same as dull, dry, boring, grilled fish. (Please note that I’m being sarcastic here.) Frankly, I’d rather have a slice of grilled carpet.

Hake and Chips in Cromer

These are the fish and chips from Fish and Chips at Cromer. Just reminding you, and any passing Harvester employees, what they should be serving. Unsurprisingly, I have no pictures of plain grilled fish. There will be plenty of time for grilled fish when I’m in a care home and can’t find my teeth.

Did you know you can have your false teeth made with your name on so that you don’t lose them in homes or hospitals? One of our customers told me this as he makes them. You machine a recess in the plate, put in the name tag and then finish off with clear acrylic. Cunning, or what?

So I had a burger. No 1 Son (as I think of him in our less formal moments) had a chicken burger. Julia had gammon with egg. She was offered pineapple too but turned it down. I may have some reservations about aspects of the meal, but they can be quite generous at times. Even if they don’t have fresh salad, warm rolls or batter.

I was mildly sarcastic about the chef not being able to mix flour and water, but it seems the batter comes in bags of batter mix.

Without being too detailed or sarcastic, it wasn’t Harvester’s finest moment. They did replace the salad and refill the rolls before we left, but the moment had passed by then.

The food was good, even if the lack of salad, bread and batter was disappointing. Wasn’t keen on paying full price either, though it isn’t actually expensive by modern standards.

 

 

Mornings, Magpies and Medals

14 Replies

Today I took some brighter pictures of the garden, including one of a Great Tit eating what appeared to be a caterpillar. You’ll have to take my word for that as it spent most of its time refusing to face me.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Great Tit at Mencap Gardens

When the Great Tits eat caterpillars. I feel that Spring is not far behind. Julia later saw a group of Long Tailed Tits on the feeders, though they flew away as she turned the camera on. They do that. Several Magpies took it in turns to contort their way into the fat ball feeder, but they also declined to pose for photographs.

Birds can be very annoying at times.

It was brighter today than it had been yesterday.

Trees at Wilford, Notts
The Embankment, Nottingham
Morning sky
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

No light, no water, but we do have a heater in the cabin

The work routine is beginning to develop nicely – taking Julia to work and the driving back round the ring road to idle away my days. I went through the medal stock today, including medal-mounting accessories, foreign medals and ribbons. That took me all morning, as there was a lot of chaos to tame, and a lot of bits and pieces.

Fortunately, nothing is beyond the capabilities of a man with time on his hands and a selection of plastic bags.

 

 

 

Bridges, Locks and Hearts

26 Replies

As I recall, we were at Wilford Suspension Bridge when we left the Embankment. It is not to be confused with Wilford Toll Bridge. I’ll  cover the Toll Bridge later.

The suspension bridge was built by the Nottingham Corporation Water Department in 1906 to carry a pipeline that delivered water to Wilford Hill Resevoir. It also carries two gas mains across the river.

The most interesting feature these days are the padlocks. They have become popular over the last few years and are used to represent undying love. They are more likely to appear in romantic locations such as Paris, Venice and Cologne. I didn’t know Cologne was a romantic destination, but it days so in the Nottingham Post so it must be true.

The Pont des Arts in Paris lost several metres of parapet in 2014, ripped of by the weight of locks. They are trying to discourage the practice but by the end of 2015 there were an estimated million locks on the bridge – thought to weight 45 tonnes. With scrap brass at just over £2,000 a tonne, and allowing for 50% of the weight being steel that’s £45,000. That sound you hear is me thinking…

 

Lovelocks – Wilford
Lovelocks – Wilford
Lovelocks – Wilford

They used to have locks on the bridge at Bakewell too, but they were going to remove some. I’ll have to pop up and see if there are any left.

Love locks, despite seeming quite recent to us, actually date back to the Great War in Serbia. They are generally seen as messy and dangerous by all but the people placing them. As the current divorce rate in the UK is 47% local authorities are probably safe asuming most of the couples aren’t still on speaking terms.

I won’t carry on in this cynical vein, though it is tempting to compare the locks, the price of weddings and public displays of emotion with the divorce rate.

When I just asked Julia what she thought was the secret of a lasting marriage. She replied: “I must have been very bad in a previous life.”

That wasn’t really the answer I’d been hoping for.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA