Reading Roars!

You may be aware that Reading has twinning agreements with several towns worldwide, one of them being the city of Düsseldorf, the capital of Nordrhein-Westfalen in Germany. Now, quite possibly for the first time ever (or quite possibly not), a twinning agreement has been struck between local blogs: Reading Roars! and Düsseldorf Blog.

Reading’s close relationship with Düsseldorf goes as far back as 1947 (it is described as one of the oldest such relationships in the world), and developed into an official twinning in 1975.

Now this agreement has entered the digital age.

So what does this partnership involve? To begin with, both blogs are now linked to each other. In addition to these reciprocal links, regular posts will be appearing on this blog from Düsseldorf Blog’s Wolfgang Osinski (look out for his first, on the local carnival phenomenon), and I will similarly post on Düsseldorf Blog.

I’m excited about this partnership and hope it will help to promote understanding and awareness of both cultures.

Curiously, while a link to this blog was removed from the international Wikipedia site, a link has surfaced on Italian Wikipedia, the Italian-language version of the popular online encyclopaedia:

Blog di Reading Roars

Grazie mille!

“Every night and every day it’s alright and it’s ok” goes the chorus in the Anydays‘ new single Rollercoaster, and it looks as if every night and every day it will be ok for the band too, who are steadily attracting attention on their space on, well, MySpace. Well, it worked for the Arctic Monkeys, didn’t it?

Bassist Niall Jeger, a Reading worker and Royals fan, forms one-third of the Oxford-based band (alongside vocalist Drew Atkins and Alex Bridge on the drums), who cite The Kinks, Beatles and La’s as their musical heroes. They played at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford last Saturday and Niall tells me they will soon be entertaining in Jersey. But we want to see them perform in Reading (and later at Reading), don’t we?

Maybe, just maybe, the Anydays will be following other Oxford successes Radiohead and Supergrass on the road to glory.

Angry rail users from Reading have had their say in a BBC article about overcrowding on rail services:

Ive travelled from Reading to London once a week for about 10 years. I always travel from Reading between 7.15 and 8.30 and I have NEVER had a seat. Not once. The cost is now in excess of £30 return

I used to commute from Reading to London Paddington (2003) on a daily basis and provided you travelled before 7.30am or after 8.30am you had more than a 50% chance of getting a seat. My partner still commutes to London and now, especially with First Great Western’s timetable change and shortening of some key trains, my partner has to travel before 7am just to be able to physically get on a train!! Most trains are now full and standing before they reach Reading. At a cost of nearly £4000 a year, this is outrageous.

Earlier, another passenger, Tony Richards, complained to train operating company First Great Western following a journey from Reading to Penzance last October.  FGW charmingly replied with:

If a passenger boards an already crowded service, they are in effect saying to FGW that they agree to travel in those conditions.

Ultimately if a passengers feels that the travelling conditions do pose a safety risk, the responsibility lies with the passenger in choosing to leave such a busy train.

Ah, the joy of travel.

A link to this blog on Wikipedia was removed (thanks “Dahlia Rose”) for being “inappropriate” and “self-promoting”. Perhaps Dahlia will kindly also remove links to Reading Wildcasts Lacrosse Club and Remix Reading? I believe that Wikipedia should be inclusive, not exclusive (as long as it does not offend).

Reading residents this morning woke up to a winter wonderland. An overnight flurry left the town buried under a thin crust of snow, most of it sadly gone by midday.

On my way home from work, I snapped a giant snowball (the kind you see in cartoons, rolling down a mountain) nestling next to a bin. An impressive effort – but on a school and work day, who found the time to produce it?

Reading-born Kate Winslet, one of the leading actresses in the English-speaking world, has been nominated yet again for an Oscar, this time for her role in Little Children.  It is Kate’s fifth nomination to date.

The other Best Actress nominees are Penelope Cruz, Meryl Streep (her 14th nomination, gulp) and fellow Brits Judi Dench and Helen Mirren.

The ceremony will take place on 25 February and you can watch it live in an exclusive Reading Roars! webcast (I’m kidding, of course – I’m a good actor, no?).

Reading University boffins have been working with the Fat Duck to help produce the perfect roast dinner.

The world-class (I’m pretending to know the meaning of this term) restaurant in Bray, Berkshire used a Radleys Carousel Reaction Station to investigate how to use stocks and sugars to produce “exceptional roast flavours” for adding to the meat while it is being cooked (my stomach is growling as I write this).

I would love to test the results, but with a 3 month waiting list I may have to Duck out of this one and buy the book instead.

I’m constantly reminded of the need to eat more fruit and vegetables. Sadly, five Frulis a day do not count.

On Sunday, I decide to make it happen – by eating at Cafe Iguana, the only vegetarian restaurant in Reading (amusingly, it is located next to Perfect Chicken, a fast food outlet of the very non-vegetarian kind that is anything but perfect), as excitingly different as the Global Cafe.

The first thing that struck me was the quality of the furniture. The heavy, wooden tables and chairs were beautiful. I wanted to stroke my seat (“Ma chair-ee”), but I restrained myself and concentrated on the menu instead.

The menu was ok, but I was more interested in the specials scribbled on a board on the far wall.

Hmm, what to have, what to have. The starter seemed scrumptious: Chinese spring onion pancakes with Japanese mushrooms. And so it proved. The pancake was far from crepe; crisp, rather than a gooey rag. The mushrooms, to my surprise were cold, but juicy and flavoursome. There was an unnecessary bit of salad on the side of the plate, like an afterthought (it seemed that there was mush room left on the plate for the cooks to fill), but on the whole the dish was good.

Then came the biggie, Mexican quinoa with chilli (if I remember correctly). A mean, bean dish, simple, but delicious. And it filled me up (shame – I wanted the Thai banana in coconut milk for dessert). My partner had the traditional crowd-pleaser, nachos with cheese and guacamole.

Of course, Iguana is not just about sturdy seating and vegetarian food. Head upstairs and you will find one of Reading’s best bars, the Iguana Bar, offering cocktails, Cannabeer, a cane bar and reggae. Irie!

So if you want to eat somewhere alternative in Reading, don’t ignore the Iguana!

The “de-concretisation” of Reading continues apace. Reading Borough Council have commenced a public consultation on proposals to replace the splendidly grey civic centre with something less concrete-looking.

Deputy Leader of Reading Borough Council Jo Lovelock (not “Joe”, BBC) explained:

The regeneration of this part of Reading is going to be a great opportunity to rid us of a concrete, windswept corner, which is looking very dated and sad.

This is welcome news. With the Chatham Place redevelopment project, “designed to make one of Berkshire’s top cities a prominent European location” (who wrote that?!), and Station Hill project also promising to deliver significant improvements, both architectural and social, to areas of the town, we should expect to see a more aesthetically pleasing Reading rise in the not too distant future.