From inside Canterbury Cathedral:

Whilst serving in Affghanistan, (sic) between the years of 1838 and 1842, either from the fatigues of service or in action with the enemy, there preished of the 13th Prince Albert’s Light Infantry, Lieut. Colnel Wm H Dennie, C.B Brevet-Major James Kershaw, Captains Geo. Fothergill and Wm Sutherland, Lieutenants Edward King, Richard Edward Frere, John Byron Hobhouse, & J F P C Scott, Serjeant Major William Airey, 12 Serjeants, 11 Corporals, 3 Buglers. Also shortly after their return from that country Major F G D Taylor, Captain William A Sinclair, and assistant-surgeon G W Barnes. To the memory of the above, their surviving brothers in arms of the same regiment have caused this tablet to be erected.

Made me think. For anyone that’s interested, here are some links.

I’ve only just found out about the simultaneous lone demonstration from Rachel North London’s website which is a shame, because I would have wanted to take part.Instead, your intrepid pig will be watching the ……detectives. Report will be here and on London Daily Photo. Yes!

Looking on Expedia for a late booking for a hotel in Canterbury, I turned up the County Hotel, Canterbury, aka Abode Hotel Canterbury. Overall, this turned out to be a mixed bag, but the good bits are worth talking about.

Turns out that the hotel is in the middle of a major refurbishment. Yes, middle. I’d guess the builders are on penalty clauses, which is why they are on twelve hour days, from 7am to pm. The noise is being contained, so full marks to them, but the hotel itself is still in Beta test state. Rather like Microsoft, they are using real paying customers to test. Any hotel aspiring to four stars should not be using its guests to complete its snagging list.

In the amusing category, things like an automatic “put your hand here” loo flush that you set off each time you reach for paper. In the nuisance category, towels that hadn’t been washed (so don’t dry you). In the aggravating category, a fire alarm system that has an elusive fault that meant it went off (a few times) at 1:00 in the morning. Bloomin’ loud that was. This is a very short extract of a long list. So why am I bothering to blog about it, and not just voting with my feet?

Reason is, I got a distinct feeling that there was something interesting going on here; the staff geniunely seemed to care and as far as they could tried to help. Also, the restaurant food is fantastic - they are clearly aiming for stars and being in at the early days of places like that can be fun. On the Saturday night we ate there, they were clearly overstretched and would have failed any inspection on account of the impact on service (if anyone is sufficiently interested, I’ll do a full review).

This is a small independent chain of hotels that - if they get their stated objectives into action - will be worth taking note of. So, I’ll be writing to them, and I’ll see what they have to say. I’ll update this post with their response.

This little piggy spent a very pleasant weekend in Canterbury with the old sow, more about the hotel and restaurant to follow shortly as that was quite interesting.
It would appear that the building issues experienced by a certain Blue Witch are not new, as this picture shows. (clickie for biggie)

It’s not often I make companion posts to my London Daily Photo Blog, but how could I not today?

There’s this great line in a Terry Pratchett book where insurance is being explained for the first time to the denziens of a dog eat dog city “…now hang on - YOU want to bet ME that MY house won’t burn down ?????”
It so happens that Ms Witch and I are both going through insurance renewals. I left a comment there saying that Hastings was the cheapest for me for motor insurance. Turns out that needs a little more explanantion. Let us say I am looking at a GBP475 renewal from my present insurers.

Me: Hmmmm might as well try the AA, they like pigs.
Mr AA: Sure we can insure you, that’ll be GBP550
Me: Thanks, but no thanks.
Mr AA: Well can I put you through to our partner Hastings ?
Me: Sure, why not? it’s your 0800
Mrs Hastings: How about GBP400 ?
Me: Sure, thanks, I’ll have some of that.

(Later) Me, suspicious, online to Hastings: Best quote? GBP550

Well, well, well. Way to go.

The countryside in the ardeche is superb. If the Alps is the country of the gods, with scale and magnificence beyond compare, then this is the country of man; made in our proportion. So, although cycling up to here wasn’t easy, it was possible and sure was worth doing. (clickie for biggie).

Here’s a useful garlic tip, if you are in France. The picture is of the pretty garlic, which is what most people go for. But, if you keep an eye out for a stall selling “Longue Conservation” you will see bunches untrimmed and intact from being pulled. These are not so pretty, but will keep fresh and useable in a cool dark place for up to about nine months, ending the vampire problem once and for all. They are also particularly juicy and flavoursome in my experience.

So here’s the recipe for one of my favourite meals, which I shall title “Winning Friends and Influencing People, the Gub Gub Way”. Boil up a portion of pasta al dente, annoint with good olive oil, four big cloves of chopped fresh garlic, good parmesan and lashings of black pepper. Serve with a glasss or so of good red wine. Yummmmmm.

(clickie for biggie)

As part of the public service broadcast that is this blog, here is the bridge at Avignon. The good news is that you don’t have to go there now, because it is really as boring as this. Basically, the medieval version of a cowboy builder. Half a bridge, and if you pay quite a lot of money you can go and stand on it.

However, Avignon itself is quite a pleasant town, with most of the interesting stuff inside a walled section, where a lot of the streets are pedestrianised by a system that allows vehicles with a pass access.

Two travelers tips for you. first, parking is free in the big parks outside the walls, but still fairly cheap inside the walls if you can find a parking space. As in the most of France, they don’t include lunchtime in the parking charges, so don’t worry about paying for your ticket half an hour before lunch - you only pay for what you need. In fact, most places also “wrap round” time till the next morning.

Second, the main street of Avignon bisects the town North/South. If you follow the tourist route, mainly at the northern end, and towards the west, you will enjoy yourself but if you are looking for a meal I’d urge you to avoid the serried ranks of bistrots that you’ll find (that still look appealing) and head to the eastern section, which appears to be the commercial sector. Prices go down and quality goes up. Have fun wandering.

This pig has finally gone and got himself a road bike, and discovered that pigs can fly. Fifty mile run over the weekend, covered at an average speed of about 17 mph (or about 15% faster than I would have expected on my MTB). Toot toot!

Well, let’s start getting the holiday reports online. The Ardeche is a great region for holidays: we were there with around six other families. This meant that when everyone else was either lazing by the river or pool, or in this case canoeing, I could take to my bike and enjoy some great riding country.
The food and wine of the region is also worth a mention, I’ll move onto that next. In the meantime, this is a picture of hundreds of canoeists struggling to get down a river with relatively few inches of water. In the spring and early summer, these rivers have some of hte most difficult white water going, don’t be fooled. (clickie for biggie)

I am really sorry about the american reporting style, but stick with it.

As you can see, I have managed to achieve fame if not fortune on my travels. Had I acquired that fortune, then I could happily blog instead of wading through a pigswill of emails. Stories of travels, therefore, in due course.