Note this is an archived version of this page. The current blog is now here
I'm quite impressed by this - I contacted Cambs CC on Wednesday to report that there was a big dip in the road near where I live. I used their online fault reporting service.
Thursday lunchtime they phoned me at work to report that they'd filled in the dip and passed the problem onto Anglian Water to check out the sewers beneath the road there. They weren't bluffing either - I checked on the way home and the road has been patched.
I went to my first gig for many years last night - saw The Morning People supporting Cath Coombs and the Awesome Soul Collective at the Portland Arms. The gig was the first night of The Big Gig for Amnesty, which was one reason I thought I'd go along. I liked The Morning People - guitar pop with keyboards. I won't embarrass myself trying to say who they sound like. Cath Coombs was impressive - I'm not a big fan of soul, but they played really well, and her rendition of I Put a Spell on You was awesome.
Lots more to come in The Big Gig - check out The Big Busk in the marketplace on Saturday.
While I'm talking about music, let me do a bit of pimping by mentioning my friend from work, Tim, whose new band is playing the LEL in St Ives on May 26th. They're called The Wayback Band and they play a range of Soul, Funk and Pop tunes from the 60's to the 90's. If you're in St Ives, check it out.
Cambridge Amnesty International is organising The Big Gig for Amnesty in venues across Cambridge between May 10th and May 30th. Come along and help raise funds for Amnesty and celebrate the Cambridge music scene!
The programme is below, or you can get a nice PDF (about 83K)
| Wed May 10 | Cath Coombs | Portland Arms | Cath Coombs and the Awesome Soul Collective + The Morning People. £5 |
| Fri May 12 | PeaceJazzLove | CB2 | The Hot Club of Cambridge + Jazz Wave. £5 |
| Sat May 13 | BIG BUSK for AMNESTY | Market Square | More performers wanted! Get in touch! (outdoor no amplification) |
| Mon May 15 | R*E*P*E*A*T | Man on Moon | Gouge, Jet Set Willy, The Perfect Crime, Light. Colour. Sound. £3 |
| Mon May 15 | Acoustic Routes | CB2 | Bernard Hoskins, Roland Chadwick and folk duo Megson. Free |
| Tue May 16 | KAMI's Open Mike | Kami's, Hills Road | Jade + Clifford Ward + Ronan Boyle |
| Wed May 17 | Elm Tree Jazz | Elm Tree | Pamela Givens and Friends |
| Thu May 18 | PeaceJazzLove | Sino Tap | Redhouse + The Ouse Brothers |
| Fri May 19 | Teenage Riot Night | Romsey Labour Club | TBA |
| Wed May 24 | Godfather | Portland Arms | Godfather + Fargas |
| Thu May 25 | The Furious Sleep | Man on the Moon | PiNATA!, There Was an Accident Here |
| Sat May 27 | BIG GIG CARNIVAL | Romsey Labour Club | Collective, Senzala Capoeira, the Calabocas, the Afro Cuban Hair Styles, DJ Kid Klave. |
| Tue May 30 | The BIG GIG Junction Fiver | Junction | Emily Maguire, The Rude Mechanicals, Arco Iris Samba Band, HoraceX |
I have an occasional problem where the left side of my neck stiffens up and makes it painful to turn to that side. I've found osteopathy very effective in fixing this (turns out the problem is related to posture and I've had a lot less trouble since I stopped sticking my head forward all the time).
Anyway, normally I go to the Gilbert Road osteopathic clinic and see Clare (46 Gilbert Rd, Cambridge. Tel: 01223 563704). They were all booked up though, so I saw went to John Lant and saw Francesca. They were efficient and friendly - a bit more expensive than Clare, but if you need an osteo either of these places seems pretty good.
There's a gig at the Portland Arms (near Mitchams Corner) on Friday 10th June at 7.30 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. The money is going to Comic Relief.
Tickets are £3. Confirmed bands: (don't ask me who any of these people are)
More details from liveaid20 at gmail dot com
After a little work, I have a list of about 50 blogs that have been updated within the last year at least. You can see my list here:
del.icio.us/crocomancer/cambridge+blog
or if you look in the left column of the main page of this blog you'll see all the feeds I could find in the blogroll. If you want to use them yourself, I have exported them to OPML here
If you have a blog you think I've missed, then by all means post a comment, drop me a mail, or just add an entry to delicious with the tags cambridge and blog - I have a feed for that page so I'll see it sooner or later.
My plan now is to just sit on the links in bloglines for a couple of weeks or so and see what gets updated regularly, occasionally and not at all. I'll probably add some more tags to the delicious list after that.
I've been doing a quick (hah - it's taken much longer than I thought) survey of Cambridge (UK) blogs. By a blog here, I basically mean something with an RSS or Atom feed. I've also restricted myself to individual or small group blogs.
So far I've found about 35 active sites using a mixture of Google, Technorati, and following other peoples blogrolls. I'm in two minds whether to list the sites here directly or just keep them on delicious. So far I've not really added any description for the sites, but I'll go through the list now and have a go at that as I get some time. I'll also try to add the rest of the feeds to my Blogroll.
I estimated there to be somewhere between 100 and 200 blogs in Cambridge before I started (guessing 1 in a 1000 are bloggers in the city basically). I haven't really searched everything yet, so there could easily be as many again that I haven't found, which would give 70 or so, which is not far off.
Anyway, if you are blogging in Cambridge (UK) and you see this, post a comment and I'll add you to the delicious list (or just post there with the tags Cambridge and blog and I'll see it when I next check that feed).
Update: I've now got about 45 sites, and I'm starting to see links back to sites I've seen already. There seem to be a lot of LiveJournalists in Cambridge. I've turned trackback on for this post (it's going off again if I get a lot of spam) so you can use that too now.
Update 06.06.01: I've updated the del.icio.us list of Cambridge blogs as of earlier this year - there's 60 odd blogs in there, but it's in no way comprehensive. There's also Geoff Jones's list of Cambridge blogs. I've closed comments, if you want me to add you to the list, then mail me, or just tag yourself with "cambridge" and "blog" in del.icio.us and I'll see it eventually.
We went to Wimpole Hall yesterday. Didn't see the Hall itself, but we saw some of the grounds, which are beautiful, and we visited Wimpole Hall Farm which was a big hit with eldest daughter (3). They have lots of animals to pet, and it was a really nice day out. It's about £15 for 2 adults + 1 child 3 or over to do the farm. You have to pay separately for the Hall itself, or I think you can get an inclusive ticket.
My only gripe: if the weather's nice, bring your own food - the restaurant was very overpriced and not much good at all. Apart from that, we'll definitely be coming back to do some of the walks, and probably see the farm again.
While I'm in catch-up mode, I went to both of these places recently. The visit to Hotel Felix was for a work Christmas do. I thought the food was good - and there were good alternatives to the standard turkey. While I wouldn't say there was not enough food, you also couldn't accuse them of being over-generous. I think this was mainly about style rather than stinginess, but it depends on your taste I guess. The hotel itself is nice, although the modern extension looks a bit jarring to my eye. A good place for a special occasion, although I'd take the Crown and Punchbowl over this any day.
Loch Fyne is a nice relaxed place to go - we went as two couples with two small children + another grown-up and nobody felt at all out of place. I've always had good food there - this time I had kippers followed by bream, all of which was delicious. The service was very friendly and overall it was a lovely occasion. Be prepared to pay accordingly though - not much change out of 200 pounds for 5 adults and 2 children once you include the tip.
So, no post for a while - been busy with work and other stuff. Anyway, today we had a drive up to St Ives, which I've not seen before. To be honest, it's not that exciting, plus the weather was absolutely freezing. We had lunch at the Golden Lion in the High Street - kind of generic chain pub food, but it was cosy, and the food was fine.
Then we walked up to the Ouse and I saw the Dolphin Hotel (may be called something else now) and I realised I had been to St Ives before. When I was a student and secretary of the CU Humanist Workshop, I had lunch there with Gerd Sommerhoff. I remember the food being good (although since I was a student, I was hardly accustomed to eating in hotel restaurants) but I'd totally forgotten about the meal until I saw the hotel again. Quite a strange deja vu experience really - uncovering a little bit of lost past.
Just a quick one. Mrs Freestone and I went to the Crown and Punchbowl at Horningsea last week. I'd been once before - it was the only time I went out for lunch at my last company and I heard so many bad things in an hour that it was one of the things that clinched my decision to leave. Anyway, the food was very good and the staff seemed pretty knowledgeable, and also willing to work with my wife's dairy intolerance to produce something interesting. Wine list was also good - I had a glass of 3 different wines and they were all very good selections (and this was from the cheaper end of the list).
Anyway, nice place. Nice evening out. Bring a full wallet though. We spend 60 pounds without really pushing the boat out. I could see a blow out costing 80 to 100 without too much trouble.
Just a quick plug for the local Tumbletots which my daughter has been going to for a few weeks now. It's very professionally run and she has a great time. It's really helped her develop her co-ordination too. Bit pricey, but I recommend it if you want something physical for your 2-3 year old.
For grown-ups, I just saw Cambridge pubs guide - they have a kind of tube map of the city, with the pubs along different routes. Quite up to date, and amazingly comprehensive - I'm sure I wouldn't dare go in some of the places at all. Naming no names.
Oh, totally unrelated, but I got a big nostalgia hit from Ultimate Wurlde and which led me to Sabre Wulf PC - ah, many hours I spent, mapping that damn thing as a kid.
I got a letter from the County Council containing various bumf and responding to my objections to the Guided Bus scheme proposals. I suppose it's good that they're responding to us, but I think it's a bit cheeky to ask me to withdraw my objection now: I don't think the documents answer my objections anyway, but it seems like just a cheap trick to make some of the objections go away now the public enquiry has started.
I shall be reading the stuff they've sent (some of which I already know anyway) and responding in kind - maybe I can offer them "sufficient comfort" to withdraw their scheme by writing to the Secretary of State. Unlikely you say? Then what on earth would make them think I'm going to withdraw my objection?
Bit late as I actually did it last Monday, but it was quite a good circuit, apart from the intermittent rain. Anyway, I headed out south down Perne Road, as far as Addenbrookes, left at the roundabout there, and then right onto one of the roads that takes you over the ridge and down to the Shelfords. I thought there might be a good vantage point on the hill, but I couldn't find a good place to stop there.
Anyway, through Great Shelford - couple of nice looking pubs, but it was kind of soon to stop. Through Little Shelford and then out to Hauxton. From Hauxton I took a bridleway west to Haslingford. No problem even with my street bike. Haslingford north to Barton. Stopped at a pub there - can't remember the name though - it was on a main road. Not bad if you could sit outside - inside didn't look too terrific though. Cut back on a path from just north of there towards Grantchester - over the M11.
Rain came down a bit strong at this point, and I realised I should probably have skipped the Haslingford pub and gone to one in Grantchester - they looked nicer. Anyway, missed my turn in Grantchester and ended up following the road back to Trumpington. Passed the Unicorn, which looked quite good. Then back from there along Long Road to Perne Road and home.
A couple of useful things found on cam.misc over the last day or two:
A couple of useful things found on cam.misc over the last day or two:
A couple of interesting things I saw recently:
There seems to be a lot of interesting development going on in Cambridge at the moment.
In transport, apart from the nonsense of the Guided Bus, there's the new pedestrian/cycle bridge over the A14, linking Milton to the Park and Ride. And the new cycle bridge over the railway on Coldham's Lane. There's also the planned new bridge over the Cam somewhere near Riverside. It also looks like the Council will get round to re-opening the Cutter Ferry bridge.
Lots of ongoing or proposed building projects too:
Very useful cam.misc thread about pubs doing good food near Cambridge.
The main recommendations are for the King William IV at Heydon, the Pheasant at Great Chishill, the Cabinet at Reed, the Anchor at Sutton Gault, and the Crown and Punchbowl at Horningsea.
A great post from cam.misc on why the Guided Bus is idiotic. This is probably the most unbiased and comprehensive summary of the issues that I've seen.
I've been meaning to post about this for ages - Cambridge County Council has decided it wants to build a guided bus system to provide transport into Cambridge from St Ives and ultimately Huntingdon. However the scheme seems to be completely farcical as the buses will have to run on the roads when they get into the city. Not only that but the scheme will destroy a viable rail trackbed to provide the guided route for the buses thus removing the possibility of building a rail system that could be far faster and cheaper.
There is a proposal to build such a scheme - it's called cast.iron, but of course it's very hard to judge whether it really is viable. The council are spinning their mad scheme for all it's worth, and the only other people who've gone into the matter in depth are cast.iron themselves. I've tried to follow the discussions on cam.misc and cam.transport, but there's really only so much time I can devote to trying to work out where the truth lies on the enormous number of areas the schemes have an impact on.
All I can say is that I can't believe the Guided Bus scheme is sensible - it seems to be a combination of a vanity project for the council, and the fact that central Government will put money up for this, but nothing else. I'm going to write to object to the scheme - not because I'm necessarily in favour of cast.iron but simply so the matter can be debated more fully at a public enquiry.
A few impressions of places I've been to recently:
I'll try to do a few more of these as I go to places. I may try to write a bit more about Cambridge in general, and give some pointers to other local bloggers (there must be lots I would guess).