David's Daily Diversions

We’ve now had a link

We’ve now had a link to the hot cross bun controversy from David Kenner at An Age Like This. If you have linked to this story on your website or blog, please let me know.

As I mentioned yesterday, the Holford family took a day trip to Gloucester, about 40 miles from Hereford. Warm sunny days with temperature at or near 80 degrees are not common in this country. In mid-April they are even rarer.

If in choosing a destination you are looking for a locality that is easy to navigate, then Gloucester is not for you. The city has many charms, but ease of access is not one of them. Getting to the city centre required a certain amount of fortitude, as it is a risky business rapidly crossing multiple lanes of traffic to get to the correct successive forks in the road.

The city centre parking is all owned by NCP, a large national car park company. Unless you are a cripple, you are out of luck. NCP does not operate any sort of concessionary scheme (as local government car parks do), but with my trusty blue badge, I found street parking. Free parking is not worth losing a leg, but it is one of the small advantages I have.

Those of you who know me know that I find it easier to make life changing decisions than to pick a restaurant or a subsequent menu item. We ended up at the Fountain Inn for lunch, more than anything because it was at the end of the street. The pub dates from sometime around the 14th or 15th century. I read it on the board outside and assumed they would say something about the history on the website so I wouldn’t have to remember. They don’t.

Eating in a traditional English pub, you’d expect we’d have traditional English fare. Mrs Holford had the chicken fajitas. I had the beef. Fajitas, of course. They didn’t do a bad job for Brits, except that they forgot to cook some of the beef. I distinctly heard a mooing sound when I stabbed it with my fork, so I sent it back. The portions were large though.

As Mrs Holford is quite the fan of Beatrix Potter, she wanted to visit the House of the Tailor of Gloucester. Just before we reached it down the narrow College Court, we stopped at a fudge shop. It’s not the sort of place easily passed. We managed to get out with just a piece of banoffee and a piece of lemon cheesecake. Fudge, of course. Very good fudge.

The House of the Tailor of Gloucester is the actual shop originally sketched by Beatrix Potter and used as the setting for the eponymous story published in 1903. The downstairs is a shop and for the modest sum of £1, the upstairs is a little museum with displays based around the tale. It’s all quite well done, really. Though Mrs Holford has purchased all manner of Beatrix Potter books and related merchandise for Aidan, he didn’t seem particularly impressed with the museum. That’s okay, though. Children under 12 can be bored for free.

College Court is right next to the Cathedral, so we thought we would drop in there for a moment, for me to see all the important dead people and for the Mrs to use the loo. We were stopped at the front door by an imposing nice man who informed us that the cathedral was closed in preparation for the arrival of the Queen for the Maundy Thursday service. Oh well…

After Kelly less sanctified facilities, we stopped by a used bookstore. The last time we spent the day in the Gloucester city centre, back in the summer of 1998, I bought a book (John Davies’ History of Wales), so I thought I should keep the tradition alive. I picked up a large collection of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, translated and edited by S.A.J. Bradley, and The Middle East: 2000 Years of History from the Rise of Christianity to the Present Day by Bernard Lewis. Not bad for £8.

I hope you found this a refreshing break from the political controversies of late. But don’t worry, I’ll be back with more stories of government insanity tomorrow.