The Vigilance - Brixham

Visited 26th July 2009.

Brixham can be a tricky place to park so after a little drive round we ended up parking a mile away and walking into town. It was a pleasant walk but it did start raining just after we arrived at The Vigilance. We were totally unprepared for rain, it being summer and had to cut short our photo session and quickly head inside. Once inside and out of the rain we decided it was only polite to stay for drink. One of the smaller Wetherspoons we've been to and it definitely had more of a local feel about it. We did not stay long as we had sightseeing to do. We happily wandered round Brixham and eventually back to the car. All in the rain!

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The Isaac Merritt - Paignton

Visited 26th July 2009.

The wedding's over and a good time was had by all. Now it's time to do a little sight seeing so we have headed on to nearby Paignton. I spent many summers in Paignton as a child and have some very fond memories of the place. One place that I hadn't visited before was The Isaac Merritt. Wow, parking space right out the front. Nice place inside but they do have a strange sewing machine thing going on. Unusually I did not read any of the local information from the pictures on the walls but I'm guessing there must be a local connection with Singer.
We had a pleasant coffee and headed on our way, just making it back to the car at the same time as a traffic warden who was kind enough to point out that we hadn't paid for a ticket. What? Where's the sign? It turned out to be high up on pole we had parked next to with the ticket machine at the far end of the road. Fortunately the warden turned out to be a very nice guy and hadn't started writing the ticket. He was even able to give us directions to Brixham, our next port of call (ha ha get it?)

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The London Inn - Torquay

Visited 25th July 2009.

It's wedding day today but we just have time to do a little shopping first. Thirsty work all this shopping so we take a break and head to The London Inn. A popular place for breakfast, but today we only have time for a coffee. In we go heading towards the far end, up the stairs, passing a couple of ship figureheads and we manage to grab a table looking down into the main bar. We can see some more stairs leading up to more tables which were also busy.
The coffee was very welcome after our labours (how can the ladies enjoy shopping?) and we even remembered to get our free coffee cards stamped!

© John Sinner. None of the material contained in this post, or this blog as a whole, may be reproduced without the express and written permission of John Sinner. All rights reserved.

The Dragon Inn - Weston-super-Mare

Visited 24th July 2009.

Mr and Mrs Sinner have been invited to a wedding in Torquay so we have decided to take a few extra days and do a little sight-seeing. Having planned a route Weston is the first port of call.
We had a little trouble finding this one. After asking several different people for directions with no luck (all holiday makers?) we hit upon the idea of asking in another pub. Success. Look for the carrot and it's behind that. Carrot? More questions... Once you know it's not orange it's easy. Check the photo without buses and you can just see the pub in the background.
Like the TARDIS it's bigger on the inside than the outside. It was busy and noisy, with most of the noise coming from the huge number of children running around inside - most from the same family I think.
A gourmet burger for me, a chicken burger for Mrs Sinner. Whoops, two gourmet burgers arrive. Mrs S sends hers back as she knows she doesn't like the sauce. This seems to cause some confusion. Yes I know you only charged us for one gourmet burger so we are very lucky... but not if you can't eat it!
Next stop, Torquay.

© John Sinner. None of the material contained in this post, or this blog as a whole, may be reproduced without the express and written permission of John Sinner. All rights reserved.

The Baron Cadogan - Caversham

Visited 19th July 2009.

A decent pub and friendly staff but on the day of our visit disaster... no burgers! OK - that's not strictly true, they had burgers. Just no way of cooking them. Apparently the air conditioner over the grill in the kitchen was broken for the last two and a half weeks and they were still waiting for a part to arrive before it could be fixed. We were a day early as the engineer was due on Monday. Settled for a chicken roast instead, no whoops, it was a beef roast as they were out of chickens...
Unusually this Wetherspoons has a car park but I'm not sure what it was like as I didn't spot the sign until we were leaving. Doh!

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The Moon and Spoon - Slough

Visited 21st June 2009.

A valuable lesson was learned this day. In fact two lessons were learned.
1) Check that the camera battery is charged so that you do not have to use your phone.
2) If travelling any distance, ring ahead to make sure the pub is open.
As you can see from the photos, due to a problem with the tills the pub was closed. What am I going to do for dinner? Fortunately there is little chance of me wasting away and also fortunately The Windlesora in Windsor (see earlier posting, tag Windsor) is only a short drive away. A burger in Windsor it is then!
I will, of course, have to return to Slough at some point in the future for a drink and to check out the inside.

© John Sinner. None of the material contained in this post, or this blog as a whole, may be reproduced without the express and written permission of John Sinner. All rights reserved.

The Parchment Makers - Havant

Visited 31st May 2009.

OK, so I was feeling bored one Sunday afternoon. It was one of those rare sunny days so I decided to fire up the bike and head off to the coast. Beach of choice today was Hayling Island. Don't believe the signs, Sandy Point isn't! What it is, is a steep, stony beach which today was a fairly lonely place. And dry. So after a short twenty minute walk - just enough to work up a thirst it was time to head for the nearest Wetherspoon watering hole.
Which just happens to be in Havant. The map shows it to be only a five minute drive away but this doesn't allow for all the people trying to get off the Island via only one bridge. So twenty minutes later I arrive at The Parchment Makers. An unexciting exterior doesn't do justice to the cool and friendly inside. I was spotted taking my photos by a pair of natives who quizzed me and then offered to take my photo. By the time I got inside word had spread of my mission and everyone including the barmaid was pointing in different directions trying to indicate the next nearest Wetherspoons for me to visit. All in all a pretty decent way to spend the afternoon!

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The Regent - Walton-on-Thames

Visited 23rd May 2009.

A long, narrow pub with a small upstairs area, friendly staff and customers desperate to be models. After the obligatory photo shoot we went in and ordered the Gourmet burger with a pint of Pompeii Royal and the chicken burger and coke for my driver. Nice, the only thing missing was the burger relish (more on that in later posts) as on this occasion they had run out.
As usual, where to park. Not a problem this time, we cheated and parked in the Aldi car park opposite, but then felt guilty and ended up doing some shopping! We enjoyed our visit to The Regent and would definitely recommend it.

© John Sinner. None of the material contained in this post, or this blog as a whole, may be reproduced without the express and written permission of John Sinner. All rights reserved.