h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Mainly fabulus places too, but one ghastly place.

The ghastly place in question is the awful, horrible, wildly generic shopping precint which we walked through, just as a short cut to the other side... really... an entire precinct of shops... and at the most one remotely real shop...

William came round early afternoon, just after 12, I'd already showered and stuff but not got round to doing any food....

Anyhow, we went out, up to the pub near me and sat in the beer garden
I had a couple pints of a mild they had on, and in order to be able to say I had it, I drank their 2000th pint of beer... well it wasn't like the 2000th beer in total, but the 2000th differnt real ale they've had on since taking over the pub... and rather nice it was too, I think they got it specially brewed for them as a beer specifically for it, by a local brewery...

After that we decided to go for a wonder, and wondered vaguely towards town, hence through the precinct

And then to the backs and by the river and along behind the colleges... damn hot today, and plenty of tourists out to stand in the middle of the road not noticing the cars trying to get past and, of course, blocking the pavements...

We sat by the river a while, but there wasn't anywhere really suitable to sit so we gave up on that, and then gave into temptation and got some chips from a small stall thing...

The chips smelt really good as we'd walked by earlier, but I think we both didn't expect much of them; Its a place just seling stuff to tourists, probably doesn't open out of the summer months, and well, useually such places don't have to worry about prodicing edible food as they don't really sell stuff based on word of mouth or repeat custom..
Damn gorgeous... some of the best chips I've yet found in this otherwise void of decent chip retailers, town... err OK city if you insist...

They were actually cookign the chips to order, so as we ordered them the girl behind the kios put them into the fryer... fresh... and so tasty... not that its hard to make decent chips, just seems no where any longer, hardly, is capible of doing so

Felt somewhat sorry for the poor girl, she must have been boiling to death in the little kios with the deep fat fryers, and the heat of the day..

After we'd ate them we wondered back in the direction of mine, noticing how empty the streets suddenly were of people... it was getting very hot though William left a little before 5 to get the bus

Oh, and he bought round the red chilli peppers, and soya sauce for me...

I couldn't be bothered to do much for dinner tonight, so I boiled a couple of duck eggs and had them on half a baguette, and a roll, sliced and buttered.. really wish I'd discovered duck eggs years ago... they're so much tastier, and can get them for £1.50 a box of 6 from the veg stall on the market May have to go to bed soon, so tired, been trying to keep up with all the new hootoo stuff during the day and the various discussion on here itself and on the offsite forums

I had a longer reply..but it just disappeared. It was to do with agreeing with you about shopping centres..they can make you ill or laugh in a weird way..that's for me.

Chips are great when cooked fresh.

But I'm not keen on duck eggs..I find them too rich. It's hen eggs for me. I've not been eating properly for a bit..but scrambled eggs is something I managed.

Yes its meant to be getting very hot today. I heard this stupid thing on the radio about them putting out a grade 2 warning for health effects.

Yep... its warming up here as the days gone on luckly not too* bad at the moment so far though ...

Oo its the more richer flavour I like on the duck eggs... that and one is pretty much enough for most purposes because they're larger

Oh... it really is so gastly... in this hsopping centre/precinct, the only real shop, is a fountain pen shop, but quite how that has remained in it, when all the other real shops have vanished...

Its full up with Women's clothes shops, which seem to have more staff in them than customers an occasional mobile phone shop (which I guess to some extent is useful soemtimes), the awful generic vastly overpriced coffee shops, which produce, and sell at overinflated prices, undrinkable coffee, actually I just don't get that... I can make better coffee than any of these places with my dirt cheap (bought from a closing down sale for less than a tenner), coffee machine, just using fairly inexpensive coffee beans, or ready-ground coffee from the supermarket.... yet, these ultra expensive, supposidly 'trendy' coffee shop places, with all there fabulusly expensive and complicated coffee making apparatus, can't produce a coffee as drinkable

As we were wondering through, William and I were discussing shops... there isn't, any longer, in the whole town/city, a single, cheese shop!; seriously... not one... no cheese shop... for... Bobs... sake... no bleeding cheese shop, how sick is that?

And, in the town centre itself, there isn't a butchers, there isn't a proper* men's outfitters (clothing), there is no fruit N veg shop (though luckily we've got the fabulus stall on the market), and, in the entire city, there is no fish mongers...

So, if you want fresh fish, meat, or some cheese, the only option in the centre, and for fish anywhere in the city, is to go to a tesco's, sainsburrys or the like... Its just such a soul-less place in the city centre, and, I'm guessing, at one time, years ago, it'd have been full of proper shops you might actually want to go in and buy stuff from...

Oh, and the chips were fab... I still keep thinking about getting myself a small deep fat fryer, as it really is the only way to get really decent ones, I'd hand cut the chips of course from the potatos, and use a nice oil, either sunflower or perhaps peanut oil... : I also want one for doing things like onion rings, Onion bhajiis, prawn crackers and such like

talking of food, its nearly lunchtime!

That is truly ghastly We also have those generic clothing, phone and shops in the town centre. Luckily we have a small arcade with a real butchers, fishmonger and greengrocers

We even have a delicatessan which does good and quite a few 'local' as well as vintage/ arty shops around the area. But no fountain pens

I was spoilet here, really, for a few years: My street is pretty much in the center, but sort of just*on the edge of the real*centre; luckly its where all the really*really*decent proper*pubs are (BoBs sake, the ones in the centre proper*are just awful!; including all the really really old ancient pubs where watson and crick, and famous people several hundreds years before them would go; now all*plastic crap... really, horrible generic interiors and awful... distroyed).

Anyhow, as I was goign to say before Igot distracted by the pub situation, (which is very good right where Ilive!), the shop opposite me on this street; oo maybe 1 minute 40 seconds walk from my front room to get to it; was for a few years a farm shop, called the urban farm shop as it was in an urban setting; all organic locally produced cheeses, fresh meats, cooked hams and suchlike, and of course vegetables and fruit, plus a few things from futher afield; including some fabulus hand made organic filled pasta from Whales, and of course a seleection of various tinned things, some of which were from furhter afield just such a pity that shop changed... well, look, Ieven lost the bluddy bakery up the road!; hardly any of them left anymore round here either... people are happier, apparently buying inedible crap from Greg's or the supermarket, rather than edible, tastier, better for you, properly digestible stuff from a local bakery... there is or it seems often, no hope left... and I really must do an online grocery shop today; I'm just about out of flour! so no bread unless I buy the ingrediants into make it