The Duck

Back to work following a stay at the Drunken Duck, near Ambleside (Grasmere pictured, above). I love this place, particularly the Sunday night deals which leave you with the best of the Lakes, with no crowds, on quiet Mondays. Great food, rooms, toiletries, tea & scones, real fires and unobtrusive service.

One example: if they know you’ve paid for the room-and-evening meal rate, you’re given menus with no prices. When you can order what you like, why do you need to see the price? Another: DD has its own water supply, straight off the mountain. It’s pure, but a little brown. Some softarses might have a problem with this; good, I hope they stay away.

Clog & Billycock

Lunch on Friday, ahead of registering Rae’s birth, at the excellent Clog & Billycock, Pleasington. Fish & chips on that side of the table, slow roast belly of pork on this, with one of us eating while the other one fed/changed. This may become a habit.

Painless at Heron House, Manchester for the registration (although initial confusion at the help desk: ‘We’re here for the 3.50pm appointment.’ ‘Ah, yes. Mr Abdullah?’ ‘Er, no.’). In and out in 15 minutes. The council bloke who signed us off does births, deaths and marriages. “I hatch ’em, match ’em and dispatch ’em,” he laughs. Rae is now a Manc.

Cojones on Barlow

Inflation’s up, jobless figures are up, interest rates are soon to go up, and consumer confidence is low low low. And still people throw themselves into new business ventures.

The parade on Barlow Moor Road, opposite Chorlton bus station, is to get another new restaurant, a Spanish place, opening ‘2011’ (it’s February, full marks for leaving themselves some flexibility on exact dates). This 100m strip already includes  Persian, Italian and Japanese eateries, with Indian and Chinese over the road. A shisha caff opened last year, just missing Ramadan and the Eid ul-Fitr holidays.

They must have some cojones.

Why do they do it? The chances of success aren’t great. Last year, the rate of weekly pub closures was 39, better than the 52 per week in 2009. Chorlton is already heaving with food & drink options; Dulcimer, Charango (formerly Ostara), Argyles and Orlando’s are closed or wobbly.

But I’m sure the owners already knew that. They must have had queues of people telling them they were mad. The upside is, they might not make the same mistakes as some of the failures and there is invaluable merit in working for yourself. Plus, in an age of uncertainty, how certain is anyone’s job.

Good luck to them. Buena suerte.

Murky Pool

It is 1992, my brother and I are in a pub in Melbourne. We’d only been in Australia for, maybe, three months. We’ve got our names down on the pool table, playing doubles against two local lads. One of them breaks and clears, if I remember correctly, five colours. He then snookers himself; both of his colours are tucked behind the black and a cluster of our balls. I’m thinking, he’ll need a two-cushion escape.

Instead, he cracks into the black, breaks up the cluster, and opens up his final two colours.