Reading Roars!

It’s the Greatest Event on Earth and it’s happening this week in Be…rkshire (though Beijing, I see, is hosting something similarly attractive). 

Thousands will be flocking to Reading for the world-famous Reading Festival this weekend.  To all of you going: have a great time.  Would anyone have 2 day tickets they’d be willing to sell, as I would also like to go?  Pathetic, I know…

I’m getting older, there’s no doubt about that (as Sir Alex Ferguson might say). 

Returning from London last night at around 11pm, I was struck by the sheer volume of noise spewed by the bars on Friar Street.  I used to go to some of these bars several years ago and the music was respectably loud then.  Now, the volume is ridiculous. 

It’s becoming less Friar Street, more Faliraki.  Or am I getting too old?

I’ve just realised that Reading Roars! has passed its 3 year anniversary.  Three years!  I’m not convinced I can/should keep it going for another three.       

To date, there have been 412 posts (not an awful lot) and more than one theme change.  Culture is king: no other category has come close content-wise.

Regrets?  A few.  I wish I’d tried harder with the name (I quite like “The Reading Rover” now).  I made promises I couldn’t keep.

Anyway, keep buggering on, as Churchill famously said.

Late-night favourite (though not one of mine) Bodrum Kebab has gone continental, now claiming to offer relatively ungreasy breakfast treats such as danish pastries, croissants, fresh baguettes and cappuccinos. 

I used to think that putting a coffee shop inside a bank was odd, but this is truly bizarre.  Photo to follow.

Not too long ago (September last year, to be exact), Living Reading was launched.  Now, covered already by the local press, we have Viva Reading, a bid to encourage buinesses to back cultural activities (Viva Reading and Living Reading, interestingly, appear to have a close connection: viva is a Spanish word, derived from “to live”) . 

Reading Borough Council chief executive Michael Coughlin, who launched the programme with patron John Madejski, described Reading as an “ideaopolis”, which would presumably make London an ideamegalopolis.  Or something.

Full details about the corporate sponsorship programme can be found on the Reading Museum site.

A warm welcome to Jon and his new blog centred around living in Reading.  According to Jon, the blog is:

A sometimes irreverent but always irrelevant look at what it means to live in Reading, Berkshire.  A lot of people like to slag off Reading and say it’s a dump but I say “hold your horses” - there’s Prospect Park, the Forbury Gardens, Greggs!!!  See, there’s a helluva lot of good … you just have to look for it.

Greggs? 

Anyway, it’s good to see another pro-Reading blog.  There’s more to the town than shopping and a busy railway station…