O perfil de cnotiog

93 East has some pretty good live music events and can attract a good crowd. Despite this, I’m not a big fan of the place due to the expensive drinks, lack of decent drinks and obnoxious staff. At £4 for a can of Jamaican Red Stripe Larger Beer my local off silence which does 6 for £5 is always a touch more tempting. Plus the shopkeeper there smiles.

A nice little friendly pub with good beer and Food.

I have to agree with Toucs here. Sure, it’s not the `nicest’ pub ever and is never going to win any awards. The furniture and decor isn’t the greatest, (although they do have a collection of novels and encyclopedia’s for drinkers entertainment). But I feel many of the other reviewers are missing the `attractions’ of this pub.

Many of the good and bad points about this pub have already been raised, but to start, the pub is very big and doesn’t get overly crowded. This means you can just rock in with a large group of people and you won’t be struggling to find space together, and you never have to cue for 4 hours at the bar! They also have a large selection of alcoholic drinks, loads of ale, cider, perry, single malt whiskey’s, some belgian beer, bacardi breezer’s etc. Basically, they have drinks to suit everyones needs. But combined with these facts the main winners are the fact it’s open until 1am and it CHEAP! A pint of ale here comes in at around £2.20, that’s over 80p cheaper than the Lamb (an award winning pub) just up the road. Over the average ten pint night that’s a saving of over £8! That’ll get you your kebab on the way home and a bottle of water in the morning with some change to spare. And also, one of the main reasons for ending up in this pub is that you’ve been drinking elsewhere and now most of the places serving good drinks at reasonable prices are shutting. So when you rock in here after 10 pints are you worried about the place being a `touch’ sticky or the odd chav or alcoholic hanging around? Well, I’m not, my main concern is getting the pints of 8% Westons cider in. £2.50 a pint? Yes please, 4.

Lords is, well, the home of cricket. I’ve been to watch cricket at Lords four times now, twice for England Windies test matches and also for a couple of County one-dayers as well as going to numerous net sessions there and a couple of visits to the shop. I’ve still yet to visit the museum though.

Every time I’ve watched cricket at Lords I’ve been sat in a good seat with a good view of the cricket and it seems all seats in the ground are at least pretty good. The pavilion is a lovely old building, one of the most historic in the cricketing world. The new space aged media center is also quite a sight. The ground is generally pretty pleasing on the eye, but someone the new tall stands don’t ‘quite’ fit in, meaning Lords is not the quintessential ground it once was, but that’s to be expected with the safety regulations and ticket demands of today. The pitch at Lords is generally a very good batting strip but the famous slope of the ground means that there’s always something there for the bowlers if properly utilized. Barring interference from the weather Lords tests generally generates some pretty interesting cricket.

Some other bonuses of watching cricket at Lords are the availability of some good real ales and you can bring some of your own alcohol in, even in glass bottles, and the staff are generally pretty ‘loose’ with the regulations (or maybe I’ve just been lucky). And Lords, with its history e.t.c., normally draws in it’s fair share of ex-cricketers (and celebrities). Last summer on the 4th days of the England Windies test I was sat just a few rows away from Courtney Walsh and Jack Russel. Being a massive Windies fan this was a great bonus for me.

The nets at Lords are as you’d expect, top class facilities with quite a soft and bouncy surface. But along with the Englishness and history comes a bit of stuffiness i.e. you have to wear full whites in Lords net sessions which aren’t always ideal indoors in a hot and humid environment. They also do seem to generally enforce the limit of people per net (I can’t remember if it’s 6 or 7 people per net).

The cricket store at Lords is also pretty good, they stock a decent range of bats and kit, a much better range than a general large London sports store would have. But still, if your looking for some specific stuff they certainaly don’t stock everything. And in terms of bats and pads e.t.c. there are some specialist shops around that will have a better range at better prices than Lords.

So, in finishing, as good as Lords is as a cricket venue (and I’d recommend a visit to anyone, cricket lover or not at least once) it doesn’t get the 5* for a few reasons I’ve mentioned above and also it’s so expensive. £65 for a test or one-day match ticket and at just over £3 a beer doesn’t make for a cheap day out. So it becomes somewhere where you go for a day once per year or two. Also security there can be a bit funny and rude at times. But I guess that’s the nature of a lot of security in places these days. As to not end on a slightly sour note, if your in London, the sun is out and you’ve got a few pounds to spare, surely there can’t be too many places better to be than sipping a cold beer or cider (or a snakebite even) and watching some cricket in the home of cricket none the less.

Cardiff Sportsgear is a proper old school sports shop, not one of these new fangled ‘sports shops’ full of designer sportswear and a token football or tennis racket here and there. As the sportsgear in the name suggests, that’s there specialty and for a shop of this size they seem to manage to fit and an amazing range of quality sports gear into it. Years ago I was looking for a javelin and after searching nearly every (if not all) sports shops in the city center and having no luck I popped out to this store and as soon as I inquired about javelins got the response ‘Javelins, no problem, check out our range’ and was led to the back of the store where the shop attendant opened a cupboard to reveal a range of shiny new javelins of all colors and weights. Also, they have a great range of cricket bats of all sizes, Slazenger, Gray-Nicolls, Gunn & Moore, Newbury and so on. Just over two weeks ago I bought a nice long handle Gunn & Moore Cannon from them. The staff in the shop are also generally very friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. There always happy to explain the types of equipment available, there advantages and disadvantages e.t.c. and they always have the appropriate catalogues so you can see the entire ranges and if they haven’t got anything, they’ll be happy to order it for you. Of course they have a great range of football, rugby, tennis, cricket e.t.c. equipment along with snooker and pool, athletics, horse riding (i think) as well as many other sports not stocked in many shops. They also have another store that used to specialize in archery, diving, skiing and sports along those lines on the other side of the same street but I’m not sure what the status of that shop is these days. So if your in the area and need to buy or need some advice on some quality sports gear it’s always a good bet.

An old style Sam Smith's pub in the center of London. The pub has a few bars, a small front lounge bar, a large (almost stable type?) bar at the back and a cavern type bar downstairs. The decor is quite unique for a central London pub and it adds to the feel and atmosphere of the pub. I've only been to this pub on Fridays and it has always been very busy (as you'd expect), especially in the Lounge bar at the front.

Overall, a pub with good cheap beer and a good warm atmosphere, especially on a cold rainy evening. Great place for a beer and a chat after a long day at work.

This was the first time I had set foot on a previously operational submarine. The sub is parked up in an old industrial area on The Elbe, which is just the right setting to get you in the mood, nothing too glitzy for the old Russian sub. Inside the sub itself is really interesting, old Russian components, pipes everywhere and you get to 'see' what conditions on the sub would have been like. Plus during your journey through the sub you get to climb and crawl through the narrow doors of the sub.
Then after the tour you can sit down with a nice mulled wine whilst thinking what it would be like serving on an active sub. I'd hate it, I'm far too tall, would have back problems after the first couple of days....

After the tour I had the urge to load up Red Alert 2 and take down some dolphins with my fleet of Russian subs...

Tony's Fish Bar, located on Caroline Street in the heart of Cardiff, is the ideal way to conclude a big night in the city. With a large range of foods available, including pies, saveloy's, battered sausage (small and large), fish, fish cakes and chicken to name but a few, and of course kebabs. Tony's has on offer the standard range of kebabs (including falafel for the vegetarians) and the doner’s here are very good. What keeps Tony's kebabs apart from the rest are the sauces. The garlic and chilly sauce just take things to the next level. The garlic sauce is rich and creamy whilst maintaining a delicious garlicky flavor with a hint of mint. The chilly sauce, more of a chilly and barbecue sauce mix, adds a lovely tang to finish the kebab off. Foreigners, especially Taiwanese, seem to adore the chilly sauce. They also serve a mean curry and chips, and all this at very reasonable prices. For dinner or a late night feast or snack, Tony's is the ideal place to prepare you for that night out or the morning to come. Enjoy!