Notts and Lots

Nottingham’s a lovely place. It even has a beach. This shuts early though and is in the middle of the city centre, next to the town hall, so there isn’t much sand or water to go round. At least there aren’t any sharks swimming around next to it.

There are even trams wandering through the town, but whether or not they’re better than the Sheffield Supertrams though I do not know. Maybe one day I will find out, but how I will measure the difference between them, again I am ignorant.

On finding the city, We drove to my friends town centre apartment, equipped both with lifts and baby pigeons. Their parents had found what was the only plant (however tiny) that they could to lay eggs in, and maybe in future these babies will return to make babies of their own. I think the RSPCA would be pleased regardless.

In the evening we went to a buffet all-you-can-eat restaurant called Cosmos. Here were many Filipino chefs and much food to be had. We were even given a short lesson on how to eat it. But there was no specified order in which to eat, so I used my creativity based on my knowledge of what other restaurants I had been to before. So I had salad, then main course (3 plates) and then pudding. This worked out quite nicely. It was not good for my diet although I did put olive oil on my salad. It was however good on my wallet –I ate a lot of food, all only for 16 pounds.

Afterwards we went out to a couple of bars, the first called Das Kino (which means confusingly 'The Cinema' in German) but there was no sign of any cinemas apart from a couple of pieces of décor. The beers were foreign too and one looked strangely like lemon squash – so I didn’t have that one.

Then to Coco Tang: a maze of corridors and small bars (not much queuing action though which I liked) and a very small dance floor, good for those who want an excuse not to dance. We found one small bar cunningly hidden behind a secret bricked up door that appeared at first glance to be part of the wall. This was the cocktail bar. Unfortunately though we were made to leave quite quickly because of so called ‘water’ problems. What these problems were we did not discover, maybe it was water on the brain, maybe the bar staff just wanted to leave early.

At the end of the night I retired to the Premier Inn to sleep. The Check-In was made via computer (no robots just yet) and I was presented with a card but subsequently forgot my door number. After remembering, which wasn’t as difficult as I thought it was going to be, I tried the luxury Hypnos bed that had been advertised so well by Mister Lenny Henry. It was very good. Lenny wasn’t joking around. You can even buy one from them or winch theirs out the window as I had been suggested to. I didn’t though.

Sunday Lunch took my friend a long time to make and a long time to eat. It was good, but the cook himself wasn’t impressed. It made me think what his ‘good’ meals are like.

I went to the station to go home. Nottingham Station has 7 platforms both with a’s and b’s. Good exam marks but bad for long trains. I had to wait a while and when the right train came along, it was described as ‘out of service’ and a ’depot’ train. I was thinking how stupid the people were who were queuing up for the doors, but it turned out it was the right train after all.

I came home via my sister in Loughborough which is conveniently close to Nottingham. My sister’s bed isn’t as comfy as Lenny Henry’s. I think its spoiled me. I might in all reality have to buy a new one.