Reading Roars!

Fancy an evening of live music this Friday? A duo named “Branded” will be performing at The Pheasant pub in Southampton Street.

In an earlier post, I said that The Pheasant was ranked the lowest of all pubs in the Reading Pubs league table - but don’t let that put you off. I’ve not been there and Maurice, Branded guitarist, did say that it has slightly improved recently.

On to the music itself. Branded will offer “the usual mix of rock cliches, served up in the best possible taste” (so I’m guessing that’s a dollop of Don McLean’s American Pie, Guns n Roses’ Sweet Child o’Mine/Paradise City and Sweet Home Alabama).

I returned to Zero Degrees on Saturday night.  Busy, busy, busy!  As expected.  What I wasn’t expecting was a no-trainers policy.  I didn’t think it was going to happen purely because, well, Zero Degrees seemed different to me. 

I was ok, as I was wearing more formal looking shoes, but my (male) friend had stripes on his footwear.  Fortunately, and surprisingly, after being told no, he was excused by the doorman as his trainers were black.  So white trainers bad, black trainers good.   His girlfriend, incidentally, was wearing shoes with a very striking floral design and that was perfectly ok.

A ridiculous rule (like we all stare at each other’s feet, and do white trainers really spell trouble?), and one to remember.

And now for a seemingly random and non-Reading related entry.  Are there any readers/bloggers here based in Vancouver, Canada?

Updates from me have hardly been coming in thick and fast lately.  Well,  perhaps thick.  It’s been such a busy month.  Anyway, news about the so-called “Russian scam” landed in my in-box yesterday.  It’s happening in Reading, apparently:

Reading Police are making people aware of a rise in distraction thefts of mobile phones in Reading Town Centre from customers at Bistros and Cafes.  The method used by the offenders is to distract the victim by pushing a newspaper or map under their nose and ask for directions.

 

Whilst the victim is trying to help , an accomplice steals the phone. The description of these offenders varies on each occasion, sometimes groups of 2 or more, sometimes in families and of Eastern European appearance.  Please warn your NHW members or staff.  Also please make sure your mobile phone is post-coded (with a UV pen) and obtain the phone’s unique electronic code so that it can be deactivated if stolen.  This can be achieved by keying in *#06# and then record the number that is displayed on the screen.

If you have any information about the above message that is of an urgent nature please contact our police enquiry centre on 0845 8 505 505 and state you are responding to this Ringmaster message. 

So it’s confirmed: Sidwell out, someone else in.  That someone else is Boavista’s Kalifa Cisse (who?), signed by Reading FC for “just under” €1 million.

Cisse is a French defensive midfielder just 22 years of age.  Apparently there was quite a bit of competition for his signature (he was linked to Bolton back in January 2007).  He’s also “very nice”, according to John Madejski.

As for Sidwell, he’s now had his Chelsea medical and is close to signing with the London club (where he will undoubtedly earn a lot more.  Money, eh).

Good luck to the both of them, but especially Cisse, who will probably spend less time anyway warming the bench than the Blues-bound Sidwell.

Doing anything this evening?  How about a bit of African adventure?  A cultural adventure, that is.  A quick reminder that tonight is Ethiopian night at Global Cafe. 

To whet your appetite, here are 5 quick facts about Ethiopia (source: Wikipedia).  The country is:

• the second most populous nation in Africa
• the second-oldest officially Christian nation
• roughly the size of Bolivia
• the spiritual homeland of the Rastafari movement
• currently hosting the HQ of the African Union

Maybe I’ll see you there?