Monday 28 April 2014

Scarthin Books Cromford


It's impossible for me to head north up this side of the country without planning a stop at Scarthin Books in Cromford. So a stopover was arranged at Stone Lodge Bed and breakfast in Matlock.
From wandering up the slope to see the quirky exterior of Scarthins the adventures begin.
A quick check to see that the restaurant is open for the book browse/buy interval and we're off.
First stop a look in the children's section, stuffed to the brim and I didn't bring my extremely tall Dad with me to get the voucher. Do they move the bar up an inch every time someone claims it?

Then a wander up the stairs past the house on the window to have a search around the new age section. Apparently that's where a book on town regeneration would be found. Who knew?
No luck finding the book so it's downstairs for very healthy lunch...
In a fantastic cafe
Before finishing up with book purchases. If you're going here don't worry too much  about planning to 'nip in' it's the nipping out again that presents a problem!



Stone lodge bed and breakfast Matlock Bath

A stopover on our way up to Hull.
Another adventure with bed and breakfast thanks to too much watching Four in a bed!
Having booked online hours before we were due to stay it took half an hour ish for me to receive a jolly phone call from Roger, the owner, confirming my booking and giving checking in advice. Very reassuring.
On arrival it's a sit down in his neighbouring b&b, The Cables, to get the breakfast order timings and requirements taken and then a wander through to our room for the night.
A double bed and a single in a pristine room with ensuite bathroom including a bidet. Shower gel etc is provided.
The tea tray included a jar of coffee, lots of tea bags and milk, hot chocolate and good biscuits. Wifi access code provided.

Breakfast
Beautifully presented wih fresh fruit salad, orange juice on crystal jugs, yogurts, cornflakes an muesli for starters followed by your selection from the previous night of cooked breakfast. Bacon that doesn't make you feel you have to drink water for the rest of the day and wonderful golden eggs. Mushrooms, tomatoes, fried bread are other options alongside more I can't remember! Toast, brown or white, with refill options and a cafetiere of fresh coffee or teapot or herbal tea.
Marmalade that's thick wih orange, jam, peanut butter and.....galaxy hazelnut spread!

Top place to stay, both Roger and Margaret make you very welcome.

If you choose to stay in Matlock Bath the bed and breakfast is on the main road but away from most of the noisy people. Matlock Bath is a very popular place for bikers to congregate and can be lively but not troublesome. It's also minutes from Cromford, home of Scarthin Books.
Stone Lodge is owned alongside Cables next door so there's a hot tub to be rented on an hourly basis if you so wish.
It's also licensed so a glass or bottle of wine is available.
Parking is off road which is quite valuable in this spot.
Breakfast
The downside......
If you can't sleep through traffic noise, ask for a room at the back, this is one of the main thoroughfares.

Matlock Bath has been a tourist destination since Victorian times and has a lively community with a central theatre with an extensive programme. It also has Matlock lights with decorated, illuminated boats travelling up and down the river in September. Having seen this show I can't help feeling the Victorians probably did it better with their ingenuity. Nowadays it's reliant on electricity. It still brings in the tourists in large numbers though.
Whilst I will visit again I would urge the council to spend some money. Especially on the loos which are foul! The town gives the impression that the vibrancy is generated by the community alone. While this is impressive infrastructure needs to be in place as well  and this should be funded by central finance. 

Sunday 27 April 2014

Ashleigh Guest House Coventry

As a recommendation from Coventry Cathedral's tourist information centre Ashleigh Guest House was our first bed and breakfast stop for years.
A Saturday night at 2 hour notice was a straight £17 cheaper than the local purple branded chain hotel. That's for a room that would happily sleep three, with 1 double and a single bed, and breakfast.




Spotlessly clean, free car parking and near enough to the beautiful city centre to make it a reasonable walk Ashleigh Guest House is an excellent place to stay. 

Breakfast
A welcome with orange juice followed by cereal or muesli if you wanted it and them onto full English. Sausage, two bacon, fried egg and baked beans. Toast alongside with butter and marmalade. All washed down with copious amounts of fresh coffee or tea.


The downside......

Tiny bathroom but fully functional and a copy of the purple one with two tea bags, two coffee sachets.
Only one bedside lamp.
Not much of a downside really.

Coventry has to be one of my favourite UK cities. It has a friendly vibe, great architecture, both old and new, and, for me, is almost a visual definition of regeneration. The new architecture and sculptures are inclusive, featuring happy skateboarders directly outside the cathedral in the new water and boulder designs, alongside highly effective iron marker points for Bayley Lane. Teenagers, tourists and pensioners intermingle contentedly.
That may be a visitor's view. But it's a money spinning view for Coventry. This is my third visit in the last 2 years. It won't be my last and despite the fact that the purple hotel is in a stunning revamped Art Deco theatre I will be staying at Ashleigh Guest House.
Good call Coventry Tourist Information.

Thursday 24 April 2014

Influence Robert Caldini and camper vans

Ok. An odd title but bear with me the two are connected.
A while ago there was a radio 4 programme which featured a book called Influence by Robert Caldini. An example given was an increase in Big Issue sales by the very act of the vendor 'giving something' to his potential buyer thus creating a sense of obligation.
In this case the gift was simply opening the door of the shop the buyer was trying to enter. This made it much more difficult to ignore the vendor on the way out gain. Increased sales.
So off to buy the book. 
That month purchases included this book and the other was supposed to be a campervan.
Reading through and there's a chapter covering desirability of a product and how to make it more desirable. Here the example is of a student who paid his way though college by buying cars and reselling them. Rather than arrange individual appointments for viewing everyone got given the same time. So the first person looked it over, considered their offer but then person two arrived. At this point the vehicle became desirable. After all, someone else wanted it. And the second person on seeing the first also decided it was desirable so the mental fight for ownership began. And the student realised his asking price every time!
Since we were looking for a campervan and there was one in Norwich (not this one) we went in eyes wide open even when we were told Sunday was 'open day' for buyers.
We got there second after a two hour drive. The vendor knew how far we were coming and had promised to let us know if it got sold on our way there. Having shaken our hands (also in Influence as a ploy to make buyers feel connected to vendors and more likely to agree to a purchase) and checked that we had had a good journey he stood back to allow us to view.
Number one buyers were a young couple with a nine? year old child. They were carefully  looking the van over when we arrived and started looking around and inside. We'd decided there was no way we were going to fall for the desirability ploy (thank you Mr Caldini) but were interested to see it in action.
Sure enough within 10 minutes the couple had gone into the house with the vendor leaving us and group number three to look around. By now we were
bemused and prepared to sit it out. Within minutes the vendor came out and said it was sold.
Number three group were not happy in the way only the British can be and bemoaned their early exit from their bed on a Sunday morning.
We ambled away happy not to have paid over money to a person capable of the trick and hoping for group one that they hadn't been psychologically conned into a bad buy.
Ultimately we knew what was likely to happen. We thought we were mentally prepared.
We weren't.
We came away with that feeling of almost being conned by a person with a dishonourable way of treating others.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with the sale method. 
It just didn't taste nice :(
Thank you Mr Caldini for the warning.
Buy the book, there is going to be something in it somewhere that relates to  your life or that can be applied in your work.


Tuesday 22 April 2014

Express cafe Tiptree

Independent living

Express cafe/restaurant Tiptree

This weekend's escapades took me into Feering for the phine box library and then a trip to Tiptree for a visit to the ingeniously named Cheap Shop.
Despite not being as cheap as a pound shop and stocking haberdashery and craft things the shop was stuffed with customers and I was advised 'This isn't busy'
Good to see in the days of supermarkets and thank you Great British Sewing Bee for reviving existing outlets and encouraging many more new ones to open.
Minimal purchases later and it was time in this very small village to find a lunch spot open on a bank holiday weekend.
Choice was limited to one newly opened deli like cafe touting for business outside and Express Cafe with a reasonable amount of people inside.
The Express is an apparently unambitious cafe with the most adventurous main meal being lasagne and on the dessert side some imaginatively named ice cream concoctions.
We sat down and waited for a menu to arrive next to an uncleared table and another table with a couple deciding from their menu.
A waitress arrived to take the couple's menu and then disappeared. Another waitress cleared the table next to usand disappeared. After a ten minute wait a menu was delivered and we were asked if we would like to order drinks before the waitress returned to take our order. Tea and coffee rapidly appeared and our (boring) order for two traditional breakfasts was taken at 12.20 having checked it was still available at this time.
By now the restaurant was busier but still a fair few tables remained empty.
As time passed and tea and coffee disappeared we began to be a bit agitated. On the next table the lady had waited around half an hour for a jacket potato, which was delivered with an apology for tardiness.
Coffee now cold we discussed the possibility of obtaining a top up rather than paying an additional £2 for coffee to go with the food when it did eventually arrive.
12.45 and 2 standard breakfasts arrived with no explanation as to the delay. So we asked if the coffee cup could simply be topped up?
A flummoxed waitress went away to ask her boss. We could have a new coffee at £2 because the one on the table was nearly finished. But we've waited all that time so it has now gone cold and isn't great to go with the breakfast. Away she went again only to return and advise us that if we wanted the drinks to go with the food we should have said so in the first place.
Ultimately the food was fine, the waitress was just doing her job with no prior experience of people asking for top ups. The management did not come over to explain or determine our issues.
It wouldn't have been an issue if there was a note to say there was a delay, a jote to say order your drinks with your food or a friendly 'oops we're slow, we'll top up the cup'
Would we visit again?
No, we're off to the new deli restaurant next time.
Anybody else had similar experiences? Timing with drinks and food seems to be an issue in several places, is it just to get the additional couple of pounds? 

Saturday 12 April 2014

Jacqueline's Tea Rooms Colchester

Beautifully set out 30s 40s tea rooms

newly opened in the town centre. So why visit?
Well,
There's a great atmosphere here even though it's new. It's like sitting in your oldest female relatives living room. There's tartan carpet, Bakelite radio, the correct music discreetly playing and a few tastefully arranged knock knacks. As an added bonus the staff are all in period costume.
But none of us go to tea rooms to look around.
The food has to match the ambience. 
It's called tea rooms and lives up to it's name.
There are 20 varieties of tea and flowering tea alongside it. (other drinks are available). 
While it's relatively basic food it is also extremely good quality and they don't stint on portions. Also lots of the food is labelled 'available as gluten free'
The menu consists of sandwiches and cakes in the main with a few specials.
Salmon and cream cheese highly recommended and the ham is top notch.
 

Afternoon and high tea are available at £9.95 per person.
A place I would return to.
In fact I did-later on the same day to sample the continental chocolate cake and passion fruit cupcake together with flowering tea.
This is one tea rooms that I don't think will need a loyalty card.


Thursday 10 April 2014

The collected works of A J Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin






Ooooohhhh.....!
A fun book!



The last one I read was Mr Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore and that was last year.
Not because I deliberately avoid them but because they lurk in plain clothes on bookshelves.
As an avid reader and nerdy booklover I enjoy books about books so The collected works of A J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin was going to end up in my sticky mitts at some point.
The snag being that when I went to Red Lion Books I could only remember from the blurb that "it's about a bookseller who has a baby dropped on his doorstep with a funny name, possibly Filkry" "author?" "no, sorry, I don't know that either"
Due credit to them, an excited young bookseller exclaimed "I know that one" and almost leaped across the shop to get it from the shelf it had sat on for a whole day.
Fikry it is then.
That's why I love bookshops.
Home with the purchase and it's a book that grabs you immediately and lets go around 4 hours later. So not a long book, not a complicated read, but fun.
Widower A J Fikry owns a bookstore on Alice Island USA.
The shop is open but he's lost enthusiasm.
He's got family support and local support but not his important person anymore.
Great characters surround him, a local divorced police officer, a sister in law married to a man who has trouble with zips, particularly those of the trouser variety and one day a baby is added to his circle. The baby has a letter attached asking him to care for it. Shortly afterwards the mother is found drowned.
He has no idea what to do with one of those but Google has its uses.
When he finds that the baby is due to be farmed out to any foster family he decides that a specific request from the mother gives him a certain obligation.
Life gradually changes.
So far so women's lit with a pink cover.
But that is underselling this one.
It has excerts from great books, it has a sub-story, mystery, a bit of crime, some romance, teenage angst, bookselling trials and tribulations.
Excellent, great one for a book club as well because nobody won't have time to read it.

Wednesday 9 April 2014

What makes you buy a book?

It could be a respected clipping on the cover.


It could be another author's blurb on the cover.


It could be twitter.
It could be the author.
It could be the cover picture.
The collected works of A J Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin http://www.hive.co.uk/book/the-collected-works-of-a-j-fikry/18118844/
For me:
The respected review is not likely to work. Especially if it's Booker.
The author's name may well work but clearly not on a debut.
The alternative author blurb is either
A. Taken with a pinch of salt if I like the author or
B. stops me buying a book if it's an author I don't like.
Either way I'm under the impression it's a paid for opinion. Let me know if I'm wrong.
The cover picture may work but some books simply have the wrong cover on. IMHO.
Twitter usually works. If enough bloggers love it and tweet about it. Even the pr people on twitter may work.
Unless it's self published.
More recently there have been gimmicks included in books. I'm a sucker for these. So "S" nearly got me with it's PR and games but the content didn't appeal.
The 15 lives of Harry August has a gimmick. Postcards. And, yes, it got me. The book is good as well though:)
What works for you?

Tuesday 8 April 2014

Volunteering

Volunteering

Please do comment and let me know what I have missed on the lists in this post. I'd be very interested to get other takes on the area.

It's a great way to improve your CV and sometimes leads to a job offer. So lots of people are doing it. It's no longer the domain of blue rinse ladies who've retired.

I volunteer because I have a lucky life and am able to. I can get involved in a completely different role from my day job, maybe one I might have chosen if I'd been more knowledgeable at 16.

Volunteers nowadays could be anyone, students partway through degrees looking to improve their language skills, unemployed professionals who really don't want to watch Jeremy Kyle, community service people, life skills students and still the older ladies.
In amongst that mix is a high level of intelligence on occasion.
So why is it that volunteering doesn't seem to be respected?
I've volunteered and turned up on my given day having paid my car park fees to be told I wasn't needed that day.
Someone else I know was issued with a name badge only to have it taken away and then replaced with a badge reading 'volunteer' presumably at some stage this would save them around 50p.
Neither of these examples are things that you would expect to happen to you as a paid employee.
I'd like to see volunteers treated as employees whose pay is £0.
IE given the same respect as paid employees.

After all:
A volunteer 
Is there  (usually) because that's the organisation they've decided to donate their skills to and they have an emotional connection
They work because it's a choice
Their mortgage payment at the end of the month is not dependent on it
If they go off sick it makes no difference financially
Often they have high level skills
They save an organisation money purely by being there

An employee
Can take time off and still get paid
Has no emotional connection
They are there (often) for the mortgage money
If a higher paid job was on offer they would move
It takes a lot to remove an employee from post so they needn't be hugely productive

If a volunteer was treated as an equal member of a team the value of the whole team would increase.

Nb the examples used are from a shop and a homelessness charity. In the first case the salary saved was around £40 a week and in the second case £80 a week (1 day worked in each case)
First case volunteer qualified accountancy technician with web and pr skills. Second case IT ubernerd.


I can't imagine that Medicins sans Frontiers volunteers have the same issues. I hope not.






Monday 7 April 2014

Waste recycling Colchester style

Colchester thoughts

In Colchester, UK we have the luxury of having waste collected from our doorsteps.
Not the end of the road and, no, we don't have to take it to the tip.
We have a selection of collections:
Non-recyclable, every week
Paper, every two weeks
Glass, every two weeks
Tin, every two weeks
Food waste, I'll be honest I don't know how often it's collected, I have a composter and I eat what I buy, but there is a special bin provided
Plastic, every two weeks
Garden waste, every two weeks in a heavy duty reusable bag
Paper, glass and plastic goes in bags supplied by the council.
They're plastic bags.
Glass and tins go in a plastic, reusable crate supplied by the council.
So far, so good, so lucky.
The food containers are supposed to be used with biodegradable bags which residents have to buy at a cost of about £1.
The bags, crate, garden bags and food container are all delivered free.
The recyclable items bags and non-recyclable are delivered into our front gardens regularly.
Whether we need them or not.
Now it's time for councils to cut back on costs and waste is one of the areas they're looking at.

I emailed a suggestion that the clear printed bags used for paper and plastics could have the last but one bag printed in red so that the binmen were aware that a new roll of bags was needed. To me this would indicate a need and reduce the amount delivered simply by the calendar.
The simple fact is that people don't use them for recycling. So they're giving bags to houses where there are already three rolls.
Apparently a feasibility study decided that this would encourage people to waste more.
I don't know how.
Maybe someone who reads this could let me know what I'm missing here - please :)

Today's newspaper shows a local Councillor bemoaning the introduction of a charge for replacing garden bags when they're worn out.
Mr Will Quince says that charging for them at £3.64 will affect recycling rates.
He states that the fact that they are free at the moment means that those without gardens are subsidising those without.
I agree but frankly am surprised that they are only delivered to those with gardens. Quite insightful of our council.
He does let us know what happens to the waste, sort of. Apparently Colchester Council gets "compost credits" for every tonne recycled. I don't know about you but I have no idea what I could do with a "compost credit"? Would it be anything useful or would I need 10? 100? 1000?
He suggests that the bags are worn out by being dragged to the dustcart by the workers. Maybe, maybe not.

Surely the bags that are worn out are simply those that are being used. Correctly or incorrectly.

So the people who are recycling are effectively being penalised for doing so.
How about having a garden bag amnesty.
Not the most sexy of ideas but there must be loads of them lying around not being used.
Hey Colchester Council- recycle them!
Whatever is done I know I'm not the only one looking forward to the discount on my council tax bill caused by the savings.