Diary 19th To 24th June 2019

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A busy time looming, which explains why I have posted so little this last week or so. Wednesday 19th June 2019 saw my routine doctor’s visit, to check my blood pressure which is coming under control nicely. The rest of the day centred on final packing for my epic long weekend away. Thursday 20th June – I traveled to Derby, in Derbyshire, as the nearest cheap hotel I could stay in for my trip was there, about ten miles from Burton-On-Trent where I needed to be on Saturday. Derby is a major British city, its most famous citizen being the Crimean War Lady Of The Lamp, Florence Nightingale. I took the bare minimum of luggage I could, and especially my camera. My journey, by bus and two trains, went smoothly enough, and the weather stayed dry until I was just yards from my hotel, about half an hour’s walk from Derby Station. Checking in went well and the staff were very nice, but the hotel was a mess. Decorators, painted walls, open paint pots, ladders, and paint fumes were everywhere. There was the rickiest lift I have ever been in to take guests o the first two floors but unfortunately I was on the third floor which can only be reached by the stairs. No staff offered to help carry my luggage up. My room was fine, and after unpacking, and a short rest I headed out to explore Derby. To my delight the Sun had returned and it would stay hot all weekend. Derby is mostly a fairly typical city but the Cathedral district looks beautiful and there were nearly a hundred pubs to see and get photos off. I got to visit about eight of them on my very tight budget over the weekend. Friday was a full day of exploring more of Derby . For my evening meal I called in a take away fish and chip shop, ordering a discounted meal of pie, chips and baked beans. It was presented to me in a box in a bag. When I opened it the bag was soaked in beans and bean sauce as the box was perforated with lots of holes. I was glad I never ordered the gravy that was also a choice. It was very nice food but so messy I had to throw some of it away. Saturday 22nd June was the day of the Inn Sign Society AGM, an annual gathering of pub sign enthusiasts and the main reason for my journey. As I was going home later in the day I had to check out of the hotel and take my luggage with me to Burton-On-Trent in the neighbouring county of Staffordshire, a forty minute bus ride away. To my joy, the bus actually came right past my hotel so catching it at 7am was easy. I arrived in Burton a few hours early and got some photos there too, but the heat was blistering and my legs ached from two days of intense walking around. I sat on a bench outside a closed branch of KFC near the Brewery Museum we were using for the AGM until it was time to go in. The meeting went well and I met some lovely people and got some books on pubs there and lot of printed out photos were presented for us to take any we wished too. I got some for pubs I know of and in keeping with some of my writing projects. We were also presented with a fabulous buffet lunch. I had to return to Derby to catch a train home, but on route I stopped off to explore the village of Willington, and a pub called The Green Man, as I have read a novel called The Green Man about a fictional haunted pub of the same name by Kingsley Amis. Back in Derby I got a few last pub signs there before getting my first of two trains home, having a set time for my journey. I got the train to Tamworth, in Staffordshire, but I now had three hours to go before my train to Preston. Catching any other service would have cost me an extra £38.00. I made use of the time to explore Tamworth, one of the friendliest towns I have ever been in. I asked a local where the nearest pubs were. He saw I was a real ale fan (probably from my tee-shirt) and recommended going left to the ‘Spoons or to the right to The Pale. I realized the ‘Spoons was actually be a chain bar reference to Wetherspoons, who have 1,000 pub in the UK. The Pale struck me as being likely to be a pub with a bucket on its sign. When I saw The Sir Robert Peel pub I knew Pale was just a dialect-slang word for Peel. The pub was a real rockers bar, with Motorhead & Iron Maiden music playing. One customer brought two lovely Scottish Terriers in, which seemed to like me a lot, returning to me even with a girl offering them Pork scratchings to try to get them to let her make a fuss of them. I went back to the station, caught my train, and as it was just too late for the last bus home I got a taxi home. Sunday 23rd was the day of a friend’s wedding, (I had originally planned to stay in Derby until Sunday but came home early for the wedding). I was among friends only invited to the reception (only immediate family went to the ceremony itself). This reception was at a posh hotel in Garstang, about ten miles from home, but the bride and groom laid on taxis at their expensive to get guests to and from the reception. It was a great night, and as expected, the bride looked stunning. There was a very good singer and a DJ too, and a very nice beef stroganoff meal for everyone as well. The taxi driver dropped me and other guests off right to our houses, which was great as the rain was making a comeback as I got home. Monday 24th, today, I had nearly 700 photos to edit and file, plus catching up on e-mails, mail, job searching, and generally getting back to routine. Massive thank you’s to everyone I met and interacted with all through this week. Photo taken by me – The Derby Ram, symbol of the city of Derby Arthur Chappell