For 10 years, York has been my home. Give it another year, and I’m hoping I’ll be gone. (Don’t get me wrong now. I love the place. However….rest of the world, and all that). Yet there’s much to see in York…
Posts Tagged ‘england’
Thanks for Failing, Doctor Beeching
The bend widens out, and before me lies a toy train platform, built lifesized. I crunch up, moving from a path of gravel ballast onto sloping wooden planking. Before and behind me, the rails curve lazily away through the narrow valley, high escarpments on either side pressing inwards and making a sweaty day even closer. [...]
Soft and Prickly: Our Fickle Love Of The Countryside
When it comes to the British countryside, we don’t know which way to turn. In the 17th Century it was something we feared – a chaotic, violent place where Nature, red in tooth & claw, vied for a taste of your blood with bandits, highwaymen, smugglers, murderers and the clinically befuddled. Mention the countryside to [...]
Go Home Again: 4 Ways To Love Where You Are
One of the best points of any journey? The second day back home. It’s like this. Being wise, you’ve taken an extra three or four days off work for a post-holiday holiday, just enough time to battle jet-lag and sort through the mail. The first day is all about sleeping – and on the second [...]
Green Meant Busy: Amber Means Clever
Autumn is the most complicated season, the most detailed. There’s simply too much for the eye to see. That’s why walking turns to strolling, strolling turns to sauntering. We want to slow down and look closer. Except that doesn’t simplify things at all. (Here’s the root of all the trouble).
What Is A Staycation?
As the leaves turn golden and Christmas approaches, our thoughts naturally turn to what truly sucked about 2009. Top of my list? “Staycations”. Oh, you horrible, horrible word – a wretched portmanteau of “stay” and “vacation” (and perhaps a silent “bullshit”). British media coverage has been intense. Every newspaper, every radio presenter – such as [...]
Nithering
Hornsea – the Bahamas of England’s east coast. Some folk say Hornsea can be gloomy, dank and bitterly cold. They’re fools. Growing up as a child, I used to look out of my window and watch the sun come out in all its radiant rosy-fingered beauty. What fascinated me was that it always came out [...]
Train Travel In The New World Order
For some time now, I’ve been working diligently behind the scenes to secretly bring about a brave new global order. (I haven’t talked about it before now for hopefully obvious reasons). There will be many sweeping changes, and I look forward to discussing them with you – or, to be more specific, telling you about [...]
Foundations
There’s one rule you should always follow when dining out in York, and it’s this: look up. My home city is head-scratchingly complicated. Thinking of opening a restaurant within the walls of York? Welcome to a heritage minefield, where you can’t unlatch a window without applying for planning permission first. Everything around you is deeply [...]
