Faggots and Smash

I decided to have some cheap and quick food for Sunday dinner this week (by "quick" I mean food that didn't involve standing over a pan for ages - something which could just go in the oven while I got on with other things).

I had thought that faggots with creamy mash and gravy sounded quite nice. I think the choice of name is quite gross, as "faggot" sounds so unappetising! I bought a pack of two "Mr Brain's" faggots which only cost £1 and chose "Smash" instant mash which was also cheap, so this was the cheapest Sunday dinner I have had in ages!

The faggots took 35 minutes at 210 Centigrade, which ruled out having any other oven-cooked food with them, so I just left them to cook - the mash was ready in seconds, better than peeling, boiling and mashing a tiny amount of potato and just as tasty once I'd got the butter in. This was the first time in years that I'd had Smash, but it was as creamy as I remember it, only now it is made from powder and not chunks.

The faggots were soft and meaty and the sauce with them made a very good gravy to go with the mash and peas. Definitely something I will have again.

The legendary "Smash" advert with the Martians can be seen below:

Appalling hotel in Oostende

It was nice to actually have a holiday this year, and fly rather than trying to rely on the unreliable, appalling Eurostar train.

We stayed in Oostende, in a different hotel to our usual one, our favourite was booked on the dates we wanted and so we opted for a "four star" hotel, believing that it would be a good alternative.

We couldn't have been more wrong. Here is the review I posted about the dump on Trip Advisor (with no apologies to Hotel Europe in Oostende!)

Four star hotel? No star hotel more like!

When we selected this hotel, we believed that, as it was advertised as being 4 star, it would be a very good choice. How wrong we were.

We were in a "standard" room, which should still be a very good, above-average standard in a four star hotel. What we actually got was a room smelling of stale cigarette smoke, with cracked plaster around the door, dingy decor (including chairs with stains on and holes from cigarette burns), a shower fixed to the wall approximately two feet above the very narrow bath, so taking a shower was impossible, a bath which took around an hour to empty owing to the fact that the plug hole was clogged up with hairs (how often is this actually checked and cleaned?)

On the bathroom wall was a notice about re-using the towels to save energy, all very well except there was no heating and so once a towel had been used it was very wet and had to be replaced with a clean one every day - not very environment friendly but essential in a hotel with no heating on!

The bar was the most poorly stocked of any hotel I have been to in Belgium (I have been to Belgium many times) and the furniture is a real danger - the floor in the bar is polished wood, which causes the chairs to slide alarmingly and in some instances almost crash into other guests as soon as you sat down.

There was no evening meal available unless you were part of a pre-booked group, this is contrary to the Channel 1 on the hotel's T Vs which states that the restaurant had a choice of four menus including one vegetarian!!

The hotel lobby has two lifts - one going to the badly-kept section we were unlucky enough to be staying in, and another to the section which is obviously much better cared for. If this was a genuine four star hotel ALL the rooms and corridors would be in good order and quite plush.

If you are considering a holiday in Oostende, don't make the same mistake as we did and think that, by booking into this "four star" hotel you will be getting something special - you might get something special, but it will be especially awful!

We won't be going back there again.

Update

Apologies for the lack of posts. This is for several reasons - problems with my internet connection (now resolved), getting a full time job (which will end soon) and being away on holiday.

It was good to get a holiday this year after losing our Christmas holiday last year, and this time there were no unreliable French trains to spoil things. This year we flew from Leeds Bradford to Brussels on BMI.

It was nice to see Oostende again, but the hotel was not as good as our usual one (which was fully booked) but we hope to get the usual one next year. We had a trip to Aachen (on the bus from Eupen) and also climbed the 210 steps up Zeebrugge water tower on Open Monuments Day.

Durham

A few weeks ago it was time to renew my passport, and, after being given the option of Liverpool or Durham, I chose Durham. I had heard it was worth a visit, and I just hoped that, by then, we would finally have seen the last of the bloody snow.

We had a cold, sunny day, and spent it (between going to the passport office) looking round the excellent market, the shops and walking along the riverside.


A view of Durham Cathedral and the River Wear.

Durham has one of the UK's most picturesque cathedrals, and next time we plan to see more of the Cathedral and Castle area, and also to visit in the summer when the days are longer.

Illiteracy is alive and well in Scarborough

This is not the first time I’ve written about the appalling literacy standards among the employed (as opposed to the unemployed, who are often automatically regarded as illiterate) and it’s not the first time I’ve had a laugh at the apparent thickness of a particular travel agency’s staff.

Last week I just happened to be looking in the window of a high street travel agent in Scarborough (there isn’t any other kind in this useless dump) and could not believe just how thick their staff must be. The place was closed over dinner, with an apology for the “iconvenience caused”. In the window there was an advert for “painballing” alongside adverts for holidays with “dayitme” flights and some advising that people had to make their own “tarvel” arrangements.

The sad thing is that all we ever hear is that school leavers are getting so much more brainy with all the A* GCSEs they are suddenly achieving (if these “intelligent” individuals had to sit the old O level exam that would show them just how bright – or not – they really are!)

I can just imagine that those responsible for such open displays of illiteracy are those who are shown on TV each year jumping up and down and shrieking about how intelligent they are because they’ve passed a few exams which my cat would probably find easy.

RIP Casper the Bus Cat

I know this post is a bit late, I have had loads of problems with my
internet connection, but I felt I had to mention this sad story.

A while ago, I wrote a piece about Casper the Bus Cat, who used to
travel regularly on the number 3 bus in Plymouth. Casper caught the
imagination of people across the world who were charmed by his antics.

Sadly, this amazing cat died recently after being hit by a car. He
obviously gave alot of pleasure to other passengers as he waited in the
bus queue and then boarded the bus and chose his seat.

Farewell and RIP Casper.

Story here

When on Scarborough sea front, heed the warnings!

The weather has been quite poor in Scarborough over the past few days, with snow and ice making it quite unpleasant to walk about.

So imagine my surprise at seeing this article about some stupid holidaymakers who took their child (in a pushchair) for a walk along the sea front in the bad weather.

There are signs along the front warning about the danger from heavy seas, so it takes a particularly stupid, dense kind of person to take a walk along here when the weather is bad.

Take a look at the first photo in the newspaper report. The caption "calm before the storm" is not really appropriate, as that is anything but a calm sea! If the sea looks like that, then it is idiotic to walk right next to the sea wall!

The family should be ashamed for putting their young child in such danger. Those warning signs are there for a reason, and to ignore them is stupid. What is also maddening is that then people have to risk their safety to rescue these imbeciles.

When in Scarborough, heed the warnings, and if you don't have the brains to do that then stay away.