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Still too close to Reading for my liking.
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Good kebabs here though, aren't there WdB?
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Do be careful that you don't choke on the next one.
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>> Perhaps you've already seen this......
Nope; thanks. Although I think 'beautiful' might be pushing it a bit... :)
Was in the Oracle Saturday evening with Mrs F and we were commenting on how it had rejuvenated the town centre, although obviously not to everyone's tastes. Went into Jamie's Italian for the first time (round building at 0:52), which was quite fun. IT'S VERY LOUD due to the complete lack of soft furnishings, so not somewhere you'd go for a romantic night out, but the food is definitely worth the small premium over the Bella Italia on the other side of the Kennet.
Actually we tried to get into B. Italia first but couldn't without a reservation, whereas Jamie's had spare tables. Perhaps people think it's more expensive than it is. Or perhaps they just don't like Jamie Oliver :)
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I've never been to Reading, but knew it was somewhere Westish of London. Nor did I know the Thames went anywhere near.
Nice that they've named a building, the Oracle, after Johnny Vegas.
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Then you have missed out on the pie shop,Sweeney and Todd.
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I 'cruised' through reading via the Thames during the heat wave of 1976 in a 27" Freeman cruiser.
I'd clean forgot all it actually, until seeing that excellent drone footage. Reading has changed a bit since then!
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>> Reading has changed
>> a bit since then!
We have to keep rebuilding after all the tornadoes.
www.altreading.com/reading-located-in-uks-tornado-alley/
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The land area being so flat possibly doesn't help it. I've never heard of a tornado occurring in Cornwall.
Unless it was from RAF St Mawgan.
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>> Then you have missed out on the pie shop,Sweeney and Todd.
>>
Still going but sadly not what it was. Too much use of the microwave these days. Your best bet is to buy for takeaway and prepare properly at home. The laundry facilities they have installed in the back dining room (yes, washing machines) somehow detract from the ambiance when dining.
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>> Went into Jamie's
>> Italian
Try Dolce Vita, other end of the Oracle, opposite the back entrance to Debenhams on the first floor of the Kings Walk arcade.
Possibly the best restaurant (and service) in Reading, of any type/cuisine. Wondrous place, highly recommended.
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My Mother & Sister lunch at Dolce Vita regularly and also say its great.
I remember when Sweeney & Todd started, must have been around 84, I reckon. The pies were outstanding and loads of unusual fillings were available.
Shame to think its lost its former glory.
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Don't get me wrong, the pies are still great, loads of varieties of fillings, but microwaved veg and mash? No thanks. And the service is usually rude and abrupt.
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. And the service is usually rude and abrupt.
>>
But it does set out to be a typical English eatery. That's part of the ambience.
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The service used to be great. In fact getting plastered with the staff after hours was a fairly regular occurrence.
I don't remember the veg, but the mash used to come with some very fine gravy.
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>>And the service is usually rude and abrupt.
It is, but its not surprising really.
Take Brazil for example;
Service in Restaurants is outstanding, you could not ask for better even in quite ordinary places. You may get a meal you don't like (feijoada), but you won't get a bad meal.
But the staff know that bad service may mean the bill won't be paid, adequate service might get them a tip of 7 - 10% but great service could get them up to 30%.
So the staff and the customers both get the principle.
Whereas in an English restaurant bad service will get you 10%, and really good service will get you 10%.
Some incentive there.
Equally people seem to look down upon service staff in the UK, whereas in South America to be a good waiter is a good thing.
As an aside I must mention my pet hate which is a group at an English restaurant;
The Bill Splitting;
"well, I had 1 orange juice and an egg salad so I'm paying £7.53"
"I had 1/2 lager and a steak, but I didn't order to vegetables so I should pay £9.37"
...etc. etc.
Dear God. I've only *ever* encountered that in England and its awful. If I was the waiter I would consider punching them.
Mind you, then there's the a*** who downs 10 whiskeys and then blithely says "Lets just split the bill....."
I'd punch him as well.
Now I think about it, "punching", that's the answer to customer behaviour in England.
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Mark, is your middle name Clarkson by any chance?
:-)
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I wouldn't mind his money.
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>> Try Dolce Vita
Thanks. I think Mrs F has been there - she's tried most of them with female friends - but not with me. The other night we'd got (cheap) tickets for a film at Vue so we only looked at places in the immediate vicinity.
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For future reference, DV has a rear entrance/exit which makes it equidistant to the cinema when compared to Jamie's joint.
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Right - I'll bare that in mind.
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You miss the ol' dump, donthca NF? Go on, admit it.
;-)
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>> You miss the ol' dump, donthca NF? Go on, admit it.
Done this before; kebabs, beer, bacon, sausages, bread, milk, pubs, etc. etc. etc.
Reading itself, no. I never really liked Reading, even when I lived there. But live there I did and so often feel nostalgic for the place; although if it was not my sort of place 30 years ago, it is even less so now.
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That drone video is all very nice, but there are supposed to be restrictions on flying within 50m of property without consent. Obviously doesn't apply to journalists!
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It does say "Thanks to The Oracle and Reading Borough Council for permission to use take off and landing sites" - perhaps that permission included the consent you mention?
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>>You miss the ol' dump, donthca NF?
Actually, I do miss the walk along the Thames from Caversham to Sonning. And now I've thought about it, I really miss the whole river / canal part of Reading, Prospect Park, Palmer Park, Kings Meadow, Red Cow, Prince of Wales, The Star......etc. etc.
So, I guess I do miss it.
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Have you ever lived abroad, Focusless? Especially in a foreign language place.
Don't get me wrong, I've done it for years and in a variety of places and I'm usually very happy with it.
But an awful lot of people struggle with it. The amount of people who return home, even from Spain, after a year is quite surprising. Often these seem quite normal, sensible people who did not make the decision to go lightly. But having done it, they found they couldn't settle.
Of course, some people get their expectations all wrong; like the person who went to the Costa del Sol for his holiday, met a couple of expats probably running a bar or a chip shop and thought they fancied the idea too.
I understand exactly that thought process, but living somewhere is quite different from holidaying there.
But some other people make a sensible decision a sensible way with careful thought and just don't like living abroad.
But if you consider it the other way, what would I miss about "abroad" if I was back at home?
Primarily the predictability of the weather.
Its a huge thing. And I don't mean because its hot, although that's fine. I mean because its predictable. Weeks ahead. Barbecues don't get rained off here, because we know when its going to rain. Although given that we've had 2mm of rain so far this year, it isn't often!
How many times my day has been spoiled or badly affected by the weather unexpectedly changing in the UK.
When I first moved to the States, to California, an expat Brit at the time said to me, "your life will never again be affected by the weather". And its true.
Being a foreigner is calming.
Lots of things that are generally annoying in life are less annoying as a foreigner. A trivial example; football supporters in crowds are annoying. Pretty much always. When they are annoying here I rise above it, because they're not my idiots, they're Chile's idiot (like last night for example).
And when I see British football supporters being idiots, it doesn't annoy me because even though they are my idiots, they're a long, long way away.
And so it is with politics, drivers, politicians, reality TV etc. etc.
Now there's lots of other stuff, but those two are the biggest for me.
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He does live abroad. He's in Woodley.
;-)
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Woodley! Great memories.
Woodley Aerodrome, Just Tiles roundabout (the scene of my most embarrassing motoring moment ever), Elaine, The George and soo much more.
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BTW, The Star's gone, it's a Co-op shop now. Best pubs in and around Cavs these days are The Fox and Hounds and The Moderation.
Woodley has Lidl AND Waitrose, within 100 yards of each other. Confuses the wannabe class no end.
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>>BTW, The Star's gone, it's a Co-op shop now.
Noooooo. No more Dominoes on a Sunday? As for the Moderation, that's the other side of the bridge! Used to be a place "do what you likeys" that.
The Fox & Hounds, is that the one by Caversham Rec? I used to work at Elliots just behind it, if so. Chroming bits for a living - now *that* was a naff job.
What about The Prince at the top of Prospect Street?
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>> As for the Moderation, that's the other side
>> of the bridge! Used to be a place "do what you likeys" that.
Yes, very nice now and popular with the middle classes. I remember going in there once to watch some football and it was full of Irish travellers. Didn't hang around.
>> The Fox & Hounds, is that the one by Caversham Rec?
Yep. Again used to be a right den of ne'erdowells, now a proper ale pub and very pleasant.
>> What about The Prince at the top of Prospect Street?
Still going strong, don't look in much mind. There's a Wetherspoons in Prospect St now, not too bad really. Apart from on dole day.
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>> There's a Wetherspoons in Prospect St now, not too bad really.
Had my first Wetherspoons breakfast the other day, albeit in Devizes rather than Reading.
Fantastic!
Big plate of food, including 2 bacon rashers, proper fried egg (unlike the 'shaped' Asda ones), nice sausage, 2 hash brows, beans, *and* toast; 900+ calories according to the menu. All for £2.99, along with a refillable filter coffee for 99p.
Made the minimal but more expensive Asda 'flying start' breakfast look like a rip-off.
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>> Woodley has Lidl AND Waitrose, within 100 yards of each other.
And not forgetting Iceland between the 2 - good for £1 frozen cheesecakes etc.
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>> Woodley has Lidl AND Waitrose, within 100 yards of each other. Confuses the wannabe class
>> no end.
Daventry has Aldi and Waitrose within walking distance. Briliant for the pragmatic shopper who gets the essentials at Aldi and the luxuries at Waitrose.
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>> Have you ever lived abroad, Focusless? Especially in a foreign language place.
God no! I appreciate your concern, but no, I was just making a flippant remark, although of course it was prompted by how nice you make it sound over there. And I'm sure it is.
I am extremely unadventurous, but admire people like yourself who can up-sticks and settle in foreign places. Alanovic's post some while back of his unplanned jaunts to Eastern Europe in an old banger as a young man amazed me; the thought of doing that sort of thing would never have crossed my mind.
However I do like being sent abroad for work - someone else does the organising (and paying), so it's relatively stress free. Not that I've done much of that either, although I did get a couple of trips to Beijing a few years ago.
And Reading/Woodley's ok really (although all the new housing is a bit of a worry); just suffering from a bit of 'grass is greener' syndrome. We've got plans to downsize in the not too distant future to lose the mortgage, and there are plenty of places between Reading and Bath (=work) that appeal where the language problem shouldn't be too much of an issue. Not Swindon though :)
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>>although all the new housing is a bit of a worry
I lived in the area before Lower Earley was built. I think it began in 1978 or thereabouts. In fact, even Caversham Park Village was still in Oxfordshire. so clearly much nicer.
The last time I was in Reading area, I used to have family around the area but most of it has died or moved, was about 10 years ago, I was absolutely gobsmacked by the amount of housing everywhere.
And as for Winnersh Triangle, when did that happen!?! It used to be a diddly place with an HP Site.
And I thought I'd go for a drink in Reading itself. Friar Street, Broad Street and the Butts late on a Friday night? Its a b***** warzone.
p.s. thought the Oxford Road had improved and was loads better though, I used to live in a bedsit at 222, almost under the railway bridge. Lovely place!! Shared bathroom / toilet and an electric meter! Still, there was a great burger/kebab van in the DIY carpark opposite.
p.p.s. and that was when I was working at Gascoignes. Wonderful commute that was. Is the traffic still *that* bad?
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 25 Jun 15 at 18:57
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>> Is the traffic still *that* bad?
I'm not really the person to ask - I don't drive in the rush hour. But from what I do see of it, it ain't getting any better.
I can see how the arrival of Lower Earley would have been a bit of a shock to the natives. But wasn't that built sort of on the edge of existing developments?
The problem as I see it with the 300-odd home development on the old Reading uni site at Bulmershe (Woodlands Avenue) is that it's in the middle of an established area. The traffic along Church Road to the 3 Tuns traffic lights is terrible, not just in rush hour, and I don't see how they can improve it to cope.
EDIT: new homes: goo.gl/maps/X7iaT (google maps)
Last edited by: Focusless on Thu 25 Jun 15 at 19:10
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>> But wasn't that built sort of on the edge of existing developments?
If I scrape my memory, I think the Asda was built up by the edge. I vaguely remember that I used to drive up from the Three Tuns (or down from the Sportsman) turn left at a mini roundabout and then reached another mini-roundabout by Asda where the new housing started.
But I'm old, I may be completely mis-remembering.
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>> But I'm old, I may be completely mis-remembering.
That sounds about right. But I mean it sort of filled the corner between the A327 and A329, bordered by (new) Lower Earley Way:
goo.gl/maps/wgwUA
There wasn't anything there before; it was an expansion rather than a filling in.
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>> >> But I'm old, I may be completely mis-remembering.
>>
>> That sounds about right.
...I mean That What you remember sounds about right :)
Last edited by: Focusless on Thu 25 Jun 15 at 19:44
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I did read it twice and wonder.
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*OLD* Reading Uni site? Where's the Uni gone then?
And that's a shame, it was lovely around there.
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>> *OLD* Reading Uni site? Where's the Uni gone then?
The main bit is still around Whiteknights; don't know what they did at the Bulmershe site but it wasn't very big.
>> And that's a shame, it was lovely around there.
Yep.
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>> And as for Winnersh Triangle, when did that happen!?! It used to be a diddly
>> place with an HP Site.
Bracknell has all but expanded to wokingham to the west, and is now filling the gaps to the the M4, Wokingham is filling the gaps to the M4, Winersh triangle is filing the last gaps to the M4.
So before long, it will be concrete from Bracknell to Reading, they might as well put a lid on the M4 and build on that as well.
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>>they might as well put a lid on the M4 and build on that as well.
Didn't Tesco try that with the railway over Beaconsfield way? It didn't go all that well as I recall.
Bracknell must have got huge then. Which I suspect is a shame, because it was never a pretty place.
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>> >>they might as well put a lid on the M4 and build on that as
>> well.
>>
>> Didn't Tesco try that with the railway over Beaconsfield way?
they did
>>It didn't go all that
>> well as I recall.
very badly indeed.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrards_Cross_Tunnel
Cant find the final report now, but i think it stated that they started backfilling the top, rather than the sides - sides moved out top moved down.
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Did they ever finish it?
edit: sorry, just read the link. Yes they did.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 25 Jun 15 at 19:38
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Bracknell is in the midst of a very significant makeover ("regeneration")
regeneration.bracknell.com/navigate-bracknell.html
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>> Bracknell is in the midst of a very significant makeover ("regeneration")
>>
>> regeneration.bracknell.com/navigate-bracknell.html
Basically that means knocking down the 3m building.
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>> So before long, it will be concrete from Bracknell to Reading,
>> they might as well put a lid on the M4 and build on that as well.
Indeed. But looking out from the train between Didcot and Chippenham (ignoring Swindon) it just looks like loads of fields and open space; very tempting.
Last edited by: Focusless on Thu 25 Jun 15 at 19:26
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here is an interesting link and web site.
pathetic.org.uk/unbuilt/m31/
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Its enough to make you weep.
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>> p.s. thought the Oxford Road had improved and was loads better though, I used to
>> live in a bedsit at 222, almost under the railway bridge. Lovely place!! Shared bathroom
>> / toilet and an electric meter! Still, there was a great burger/kebab van in the
>> DIY carpark opposite.
>>
Only just seen this, prompted by the thread being 'bumped' by Focusless's post earlier.
Somewhat spookily I also briefly lived in a flat above a shop on the Oxford Road, in what sounds like almost exactly the same area. I'd been relocated to Reading as a graduate,and was quite comfortable in the Calcot hotel on the Bath Road. But they got tired of how long it was taking me to find somewhere to live, and after about 6 weeks made it clear I really ought to find somewhere... So it came down to what was immediately available...Can't remember the number, but it was just after the railway bridge on the right, if heading out of town. On the corner of what I want to say was Salisbury Road. 1995ish, and I think the DiY store (Focus?) became an Aldi or Lidl shortly after...
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So, you lived next door but one from me!! (I was two doors closer to the town centre)
Fortunately for both our sanity, you were 15 years or so later.
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For Al and others from the Reading area.... - Alanovich
