Author Topic: Exploring The Area  (Read 193375 times)

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Offline hollins

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #375 on: June 02, 2015, 06:16:01 pm »
I have been enjoying my latest fix of Manchester and decided to choose somewhere new for my lunch this time. I think I remember DaveR expressing an interest in the Midland and I hadn't been there for years so I looked up a few reviews of Mr Cooper's restaurant on TripAdvisor. They were a bit mixed but I thought I would go for it anyway and booked online.
Shortly after booking I read this article written by the Guardian reviewer two days ago.
Aaargh! I nearly cancelled it was so bad.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/31/mr-coopers-house-and-garden-restaurant-review

I am happy to say that it was delicious and the surroundings were nothing like a "garden centre in Droitwich."
The three courses I chose were blinis with marinated salmon and beetroot, hake with blue cheese risotto and pine nuts and rhubarb panna cotta. All for £20.

It just goes to show you have to go on your own experience and not be put off too quickly by others, especially opinionated Guardian writers!

Offline SteveH

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #376 on: June 02, 2015, 06:48:16 pm »
Hi Hollins, Glad you enjoyed your fix, looks good.....you might be interested in a new "fly on the wall" series on channel 5   started last night on the Midland Hotel.     


Offline hollins

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #377 on: June 02, 2015, 07:33:33 pm »
Yes, thanks SteveH. I did watch it. I find it remarkable that hotels let the cameras in like that. They must consider it worth the risk for the publicity I suppose.
I enjoyed the one that was done about Claridges a while ago.

Offline Ian

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #378 on: June 02, 2015, 07:48:46 pm »
Quote
Shortly after booking I read this article written by the Guardian reviewer two days ago.
Aaargh! I nearly cancelled it was so bad.

Food critics are interesting creatures. They don't so much...play with language as pillage it. Sentences often seem curiously cryptic, not to say unintelligible.

But his food, drawn from the Cumbrian landscape, has its own compelling internal logic.

He talks about its failure to provide a "cohesive experience", whatever that means. Me - I just like my food to taste really nice. If I'm looking for a "cohesive experience" I'll go to Disneyland.

Always wondered about critics - food, literature, drama;  they all seem to have the same failure to provide their readers with coherent accounts written in English.   I suppose if you can't do it, you can always make a living criticising it.

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline Merddin Emrys

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #379 on: June 02, 2015, 09:45:20 pm »
I take little notice of these critics, mainly because I have no idea what they are going on about!
A pigeon is for life not just Christmas

Offline DaveR

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #380 on: June 03, 2015, 08:51:47 am »
I have been enjoying my latest fix of Manchester and decided to choose somewhere new for my lunch this time. I think I remember DaveR expressing an interest in the Midland and I hadn't been there for years so I looked up a few reviews of Mr Cooper's restaurant on TripAdvisor. They were a bit mixed but I thought I would go for it anyway and booked online.
Looks fantastic!  $good$

Offline DaveR

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #381 on: June 11, 2015, 10:19:13 am »
Interesting little localish blog:
http://robinsonmaps.blogspot.co.uk/

Offline SteveH

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #382 on: June 11, 2015, 12:07:44 pm »
Interesting little localish blog:
http://robinsonmaps.blogspot.co.uk/

Good find Dave...Very interesting, Hugo will love it.... $good$

Offline Hugo

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #383 on: June 11, 2015, 03:56:20 pm »
I did enjoy reading that article and one or two of those are on our "to do list"      Dave found that suspended rail track that we missed so I'm sure that we'll be back there at Dinorwic soon.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #384 on: June 16, 2015, 04:08:45 pm »
I had a walk over the Great Orme today and took the photos of the flowers above Hornby Cove,  the two Donkeys were in a field by the Copper Mine

Offline Ian

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #385 on: October 25, 2015, 07:36:06 am »
"A frustrated farmer is demanding a booking system to curb the growing number of visitors trampling across his land when heading up Wales’ highest mountain.

Dafydd Morris is also insisting on a complete ban on dogs to ease the problem of sheep worrying at Cefn Coch, his 1,200-acre farm on the slopes of Snowdon.

As well as livestock worrying, Mr Morris is concerned at potential liability issues: he was forced to sell a cow after it attacked a dog that had been allowed to run amongst his herd.

He added: “Dogs excrement is a health hazard to adults, children and animals. With so much emphasis on animal health and food hygiene, dogs must be banned completely from the mountain immediately.”

Earlier this month SNPA held a series of drop-in sessions to discuss people’s views on Snowdon and on November 9 it is hosting a conference at the Royal Victoria Hotel, Llanberis, to discuss access and conservation on the mountain."

Full story here:

 http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/farmer-calls-snowdon-booking-system-10320512
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline hollins

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #386 on: November 09, 2015, 08:54:12 pm »
The poppy display in Liverpool.

Offline Ian

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #387 on: November 09, 2015, 10:04:08 pm »
Impressive.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #388 on: December 11, 2015, 10:29:42 am »
We drove along the A470 to Betws Y Coed yesterday and stopped at Llanrwst when we saw the floods there.    The bridge was closed to traffic but somehow a person in a white van got over the bridge but then became stuck in the flood water on the Trefriw road.
Ty Hwnt i'r Bont must have been flooded at some time recently but the flood water had abated since then.

Offline Hugo

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Re: Exploring The Area
« Reply #389 on: December 27, 2015, 05:01:33 pm »

'Tidal wave' devastates Plas Cadnant Hidden Gardens

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-35186881