In keeping with my promise to
Mandi about keeping Saturday as a day off from my workaholic tendencies, and to
make amends for recording the show and going out last night when we had a
guest, we had a festive day out in town today and showed Heather around the
fine city of Nottingham.
There’s a Christmas seasonal
event called Hockley Rocks happening every Saturday this month, so we took our
seats outside Hartley’s with some coffees to watch the first singer. Our main
reason for coming into town was for that lovely tradition of outdoor
ice-skating during the Christmas period. After getting it wrong for a couple of
years, Nottingham Council has amazed everybody by doing something right and
bringing back the ice-rink. It was also nice to see some of the stall holders
in Victorian dress; something I said was missing a few years ago. Unfortunately
though, the people running the ice-rink have got everything all kinds of wrong.
Not only do they allow too many people on the ice at the same time, they also
don’t smooth out the ice in between sessions in order to let people off and on
the ice in quick time to make more money.
I had been teasing Mandi all
morning in response to her making light of my lack of skating ability, pointing
out that for all she knew I might have been taking secret lessons. She doesn’t
probe too deeply when I say that I have been at the recording studio or the
radio station, so I could surprise her on the ice with my dazzling moves. As
soon as I hit the ice it was obvious that this was untrue, although I only fell
over once (the fault of a child who got in my way) I managed to skate my way
around the rink, even if I didn’t look totally comfortable.
The best bit of going
ice-skating though is the pub afterwards. We made our way to Malt Cross for a
few winter warmers; Mandi and Heather had mulled wine and my dad and I had the
pub’s signature ale Music Hall. We stayed in the pub for a while, Malt Cross is
an ideal winter warmer of a place, although I do go in there throughout the
year. I’d love to put on some sort of music hall show at the venue, mixing standup
comedy and music but with a modern twist; I didn’t mean I wanted the comedians
to do the “I say I say I say” business and sing supposedly innocent songs with
hidden rudeness. I’ve said on radio about how Malt Cross have the best sound
quality regarding live music as the Victorian music halls were built specially
to carry sound all around the audience in the days before microphones. It’s the
only place where you can enjoy a band without being inconvenienced by those
selfish bastards who sit there talking.
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