Reading Roars!

You are browsing the archives of 2007 March.

Reading Borough Council and Chronicle Extra are leading a campaign to tackle Reading’s graffiti problem. Over the next 6 months, the worst affected areas will be cleaned up, according to Cllr Steve Waite.
Reading Chronicle editor Simon Jones comments on his blog:
…I guess it is an interesting debating point: where do you draw the line between [...]

In an earlier post, I welcomed Reading’s Station Hill development, but added that we needed to increase cultural efforts to strengthen Reading’s recognition on the international stage.
And, appropriately enough, we may get just that - with a new stage of a different sort. According to The Stage (that word again), if the Station Hill [...]

I was biting into a steak at an Italian restaurant (Bella Napoli) in central Swansea last night, when a bizarre thought entered my mind. I suddenly saw resemblances between the restaurant layout and the structure of this blog.
The restaurant bar was on my right, manned by a chirpy Rossoneri-supporting Italian with a penchant for The [...]

Overheard on the Thames Valley Park bus this week: “Seattle is a little like Reading.” 
I’ve not been to Seattle before.  Apart from grey weather, Microsoft campuses, other technology companies and perhaps, even, the Starbucks influence (the coffee corporation is headquartered in Seattle and has opened several outlets in Reading), what do the two places have in common? 
Any ideas?

Congrats to the Reading Chronicle and Evening Post for, according to Simon Jones’ Reading Chronicle Blog, they have been nominated in the 2007 Newspaper Awards.
The Reading Chronicle has been nominated in the Fujifilm Grand Prix Award category for its Polish language edition, a brilliant initiative. The award will be given to the title that has [...]

The Thames Valley Park bus service is in danger of becoming a joke.
Around 6pm this evening, I joined an already large queue at Microsoft Campus bus stop to catch the TVP bus into Reading town centre.  Cars sped past, but no bus appeared and the queue continued to lengthen.  Although it wasn’t raining (or snowing!) - [...]

My council tax has gone up again, as expected.  Thames Valley Police Authority accounts for the biggest increase (again), so I was interested to read the Police Authority’s Finances 2007/08 document sent by the Council.  The leaflet stated:
As a result of extensive analysis, and taking into account internal and external factors, we have decided that [...]

Returning to the subject of ‘cool’, I have to mention London St’s Global Cafe again, an island of cool in a sea of sameness.
I was there on a Thursday night recently and the music drifting from the speakers was captivating.  I was told that the artists were Anoushka Shankar, daughter of Ravi;  Goran Bregović, a [...]

I suspected that a standard class rail ticket for an early morning journey from Reading to Swansea (and back on Friday evening) was not going to be cheap. But £153?! The figure floored me. Even the lad serving me behind the bullet-proof glass at Reading Station had a chuckle.
Put it this way: I paid less [...]

Numerous media commentators have recently said that London is the new capital of the world, replacing New York. Now that may or may not be true. Certainly the UN, whose headquarters are based in the Big Apple, isn’t what it used to be, and London is said to be the centre of the financial and [...]