IN PRAISE OF NOTTINGHAM BUSES

October 2024. Sherwood. Nottingham.

I mentioned last time how the new GBG entries seem chosen to cause maximum irritation to the noble band of Guide tickers without the luxury of a chauffeur like BRAPA has. I guess the suburbs are more likely to have cheap units that can easily be converted to a Spoons or micro than the town centre.

And so the two new pubs in Nottingham are nowhere near the railway station, or even the tram network,

and require either a two hour slog in the drizzle, or a bus.

Reader, I chose the bus.

Welcome aboard the 88 !” booms a kindly (automated) man’s voice.

Our next stop is Top Valley. Press the red button if you want to get off. Have a nice day !“.

You know my views on buses, but in Notts they’re comfortable, modern and quick. And £2 a single while stocks last.

First stop, 2 miles up Mansfield’s Road with its increasingly large but traffic-scarred houses, is Sherwood.

The Samuel Hall is carved from the old bus depot, and like most Spoons on Sunday smells of cabbage.

So many great ethnic dining options in Nottingham, and I stick to the Katsu chicken. So sue me.

My notes says the included pint of Nottingham Supreme is the very definition of NBSS 3, all the staff members look like Gillan, and the glass/plate/condiment collection is the most efficient/zealous I’ve yet encountered in a JDW. I say “Thank you” to the same lad 4 times in half an hour as he swoops to clear my table. Take notes, Costa and Starbucks.

With two strong pints in the bag I’ve long given up on getting additional ticks in Mansfield; perhaps Mansfield deserves its first overnight stop in 30 years ?

Instead I walk to the unknown suburbs of Mapperley and Woodthorpe while drizzle abates,

prepared to be amazed by its hidden beauty.

I’m to be disappointed…

8 thoughts on “IN PRAISE OF NOTTINGHAM BUSES

  1. “All the staff members look like Gillan”
    Would that be the actress Karen Gillan or the singer Ian Gillan?
    Most of your readership probably more familiar with the latter

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        I think that the first one’s Karen, but I’m not sure.

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  2. I am genuinely curious about what you meant

    If the staff looked like Karen Gillan presumably students if Ian pensioners supplementing their pension?
    However I don`t think Weatherspoons is one of those companies that makes a point of employing older people like B and Q or John Lewis

    Re this have you noticed how many men who can grow their hair after retirement? these days
    Its especially noticeable in my neck of the woods in East Kent but I imagine it happens a lot in the traditional heavy rock heartlands in the Midlands also

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    1. Alan, I’m retired, and indeed able to grow my hair.

      However, I’d maybe look a bit silly if I did, given that the active follicles are perhaps too few for there to be much about which to boast if I did.

      Not that it stops some people…

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  3. “and like most Spoons on Sunday smells of cabbage”. It can be worse in Chesterfield.
    Tuesday morning was my first use of the Captain Flinders – the most distressing of distress purchases, both food and beer, and the stickiest of sticky tables.

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