HOLIDAY: Bath

It took us between three and a half and four hours to get down to Bath, including a stop off at the fascinatingly posh 'Gloucester Services'. Bizarrely as we got closer the sat nav took us off the main route and down some back roads before we began the long descent into Bath. The hill just kept going down, and then we got to a junction and turned right and the hill got even steeper!

Eventually we arrived at our destination, the Bath Hilton, just a Hilton though, not a Double Tree, which means no cookies on arrival. It wasn't a pretty looking hotel by any stretch of the imagination, but the lobby and bar were nice enough.

A novel feature was the lift, which had a speedometer built into the wall, peaking 1.0m per second!

The room was (as described) compact... and rather over priced at a whopping £154, but it seems that Bath is something of a seller's market, seeing as the hotel was fully booked. It had a TV, an ironing board etc... but the bed was ridiculously creaky and the pillows were incredibly shit. 

We ventured out into the city as we usually do, wandering rather aimlessly, before managing to locate the museum of costume. It was a somewhat brief and under-populated by exhibits kind of place, though it was fairly entertaining, particularly some of the crazy Georgian dresses and the modern Versace dress for sluts.

After the museum we walked along to the 'Circus' which I had anticipated being a shopping centre (perhaps that's Bristol) but was actually a rather impressive roundabout / crescent.

This led us up to the even more impressive Royal Crescent, which we looked at for all of twenty seconds before concluding that, in fact, grand as it is, it was essentially terraced housing and wandered back towards the town.

We passed some shops where I think the old Haagen Dazs might have been, and then wandered some more until we were back to the shops. Rose wanted to to look in Mistral and I was looking for Super Dry to try and source a new winter coat. 

We were also looking for the Royal Hotel to check out the surroundings and menu seeing as we had earmarked it as a potential dinner venue. Having bought and consumed a huge bag of cheese crisps at the fancy services we decided to eschew lunch and hold out for a lovely dinner. We found the hotel and decided to pause a while for a drink in the bar, which was quite nice, and booked an early dinner with the young looking receptionist with the old voice!

We did some more shopping, found Hotel Chocolat and Superdry and I realised the grey / green coat I tried on in Northampton wasn't nearly as thick and wintery as I thought it was, but found a suitable replacement with a very funky blue zip instead. Then we headed back to the hotel to prepare for dinner, stopping off at Mistral for Rose to try on several things including a blue coat (more on this later).

After a lovely meal at the Royal Hotel we returned to the Hotel (spying a boat trip on the way back) so that I could take some cold tablets, then wandered off into the night again, eventually washing up at All Bar One where we had a lovely cocktail (Pina Colada for me and Raspberry Mojito for Rose).

After this we headed back to the hotel and flicked miserably through the channels for something to watch, which wouldn't have been necessary had the hotel provided a decent range of channels and then went to sleep. Or tried to... it was a long and restless night.

The next morning we had a nice breakfast in the very nicely appointed Atelier dining room.

Then we went back to the room and happened to see the boat going by with 'Next trip 10am' on the side, so we booked out and dumped our stuff in the car before rushing off to find the landing stage. That was a lot more tricky than expected (probably why the boat was a bit empty - signage would be a good idea!) but we just made it by the skin of our teeth.

It was a good boat trip, with a lovely dog on board. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the steep hills leading down into Bath, there has been some titanic flooding there in the past, with the water rising 30ft on one occasion. 

After the boat trip it was back into town to pick up my coat from Superdry, another go in Mistral... and then back to All Bar One for a chicken burger and chips before we decided it was time to go home. Inevitably, we had barely gotten out of Bath when Rose started wondering if she shouldn't have bought the blue coat from Mistral after all...

MEAL OUT: Royal Hotel (Bath)

Being the sort of uber-organised people that we are (!), we had previously scouted out The Royal Hotel as a potential dining venue on the internet. We checked it out in the afternoon and booked for 6:30pm. I would have to say it was an inspired choice.

Despite supposedly being 'busy', we arrived to find a rather empty restaurant and were then told that we would have to wait about 15 minutes for our table. This didn't really bode well... but we retired to the bar and waited patiently for the man to come and tell us they were ready for us. I had a sirloin steak and Rose had the duck and both were absolutely lovely. Depsite their pale appearance the chips and my green peppercorn sauce were both delicious.

It was a very old fashioned kind of place, but that made a nice change from the usual ultra-modern wooden tables, chairs and floors aesthetic. 

For dessert we both decided to go for the brownie, but switched out the white chocolate and cherry ice cream, for good old vanilla. It was quite a cakey brownie, but that did mean they could heat it more without it turning into a puddle of goo. I would say the brownie was good, but the main was very good. Overall, a very nice meal and a good choice all round I think.

GIG: W.A.S.P. (Wolverhampton)

W.A.S.P. really didn't make any impression tonight. Hauling the same old songs and videos onto the stage with no spark of anything to make it come alive, it was just there. The crowd reaction seemed fairly muted as well, I think even the once a year gig goers felt short changed somehow. A band with a back catalogue like theirs should not have a stagnant, dreary set list, nor should they still be cutting songs from the first album in half like they have been doing for years now.

And the screens, those fucking video screens... it's distracting having 30 year old videos playing during a song, but it would be marginally less so if the sound and images were in sync, And Blackie, your arty split into four back screen was an utter piece of shit. Please get rid of it immediately. 

You can probably imagine the setlist, all the obvious played to death bollocks you can think of minus 'Blind in Texas', which no doubt will surface again on the next tour as 'a song we haven't played for five years'. And if we ever see the Chainsaw Charlie / anything from The Crimson Idol videos again, we will Scream (Until we Like it). Which is another bloody song we never get to hear!

SHOPPING: Cheshire Oaks

It was very chilly when we arrived at Cheshire Oaks, but the forecast was for 19 degrees, so I had worn shorts. After the first half an hour the sun came out and it quickly warmed up, which was good because for the first thirty minutes I was bloody freezing!

After an hour we had managed to do one small section and it quickly became apparent that we were going to be here a long time, which is good because there's always the worry that we'll drive all the way there, and after two hours decide we've 'done' it. 

Well that didn't happen, we spent about six and half hours there this time, including a break for dinner at Coal. Among the things we bought were: A coat and a pair of trainers for Rose, a Radley Purse, some slut shoes, some books, various Lindt goodies, and a coat for me, although ironically that was found in the Sainsbury's around the corner...

In the TAG shop I tried on a couple of models, the Carrera flyback (with the most pointless feature ever) and a lovely Aquaracer Titanium black which was reduced from £4000 to £1800. I probably would have bought it were it not for the hideous 'cyclops', I just can't bear them. 

Earlier in the day we had visited Marks and Spencers, and while Rose was in the changing room trying something on I decided to try on a nice boating blazer.

I almost wish I'd bought it, cos it looks rather cool. Though where I would have worn it I don't know.