Reading Roars!

I can’t help but feel that Reading deserves better on Tripadvisor. The town’s top-rated attraction is listed as Marks and Spencer, ahead of Silchester, Basildon Park and Mapledurham House (attractions that aren’t actually in Reading, but located just outside the town).

The M&S Broad St store has a TripAdvisor Traveler Rating of 4/5 and 3 reviews, including the following (possibly written by someone who works for them):

its an excellent store one of the best retail outlets i have ever shopped in it has just had a £10 million refit, and it certainly looks stunning, fabulous envirionment to shop in extremely friendly and helpful staff, nothing was to much for them, especially a few of them in homeware. nothing i asked was too much. just a totally amazing shopping experience definately reccomend it to everyone in the area.

The UK Wolf Centre, a place I’d not heard of located mid-way between Reading and Newbury, is ranked 6th ahead of genuine town centre attractions St. Mary’s Church, Kennet & Avon Canal and St. Laurence Church.

The Abbey Ruins lie further down the list. One traveller gave the attraction 4/5 and wrote in their review:

Sadly it hasn’t been exactly looked after

Less ruin-like ruins would be nice, I suppose. The same individual wrote scathingly:

There is also a plaque with a song which I think was the oldest song ever written down - though I’m not quite sure why they bothered since the song is pretty naff.

I’m tempted to share my knowledge about Reading on the site, but I guess that it wouldn’t be the right thing to do.

I popped into Workhouse Coffee this afternoon for a Brazilian (coffee, not bikini line treatment) and saw that they had a sign with the following profound Gandhi quote:

if you want to change the world, you have to be that change

Very inspiring and very true.

Congratulations all those who took part in last Sunday’s Asics Reading Half Marathon.  Shamefully, I was still in bed when you were pounding the streets.  Yeah, I will do it next year. 

Matt C: Well done, mate.

I’m not into the “celebrity thing”.  The lives of famous people don’t interest me (unless they happen to be footballers, politicians or business people).  Nevertheless, I was interested to read about Pete Doherty sightings in west Reading (”Rocker Pete was just so charming“), of all places.

The scruffy singer who, much like Amy Winehouse, always seems to be in the papers these days, was seen drinking in Oxford Road pubs, because he is allegedly seeing a girl from the area.

The Pete Doherty Effect will do wonders for west Reading pubs, I’m sure, if only temporarily.  Greg Costello, owner of the formidable Workhouse Coffee, even said to the Evening Post (”Pete Doherty’s pub crawl“):

It seems Reading is the new Soho

I don’t think that Reading will ever replace Soho (although Workhouse Coffee is better than any cafe I’ve ever been to in that part of London), but I do think that west Reading has a very promising future.  There’s a more confident air about the place, as demonstrated by the arrival of the new Tesco store, the Chatham Place project, and bright initiatives such as the Polish pub and Workhouse Coffee.

And finally, the Pun of the Week prize goes to the Evening Post for their story about a local Page Three Idol contestant, who hopes to win a contract with The Sun:

A Reading teenager is keeping abreast of her career by getting to the last 16 of a modelling competition.

The article looks enormously popular on the Evening Post website: 62 comments and counting…

Local author Julie Cohen, who writes sexy fiction for Headline Little Black Dress and Harlequin/Mills & Boon, has set her latest steamy book, One Night Stand, in Reading. Impressive enough. I was also impressed to discover her sparkling blog (it really is sparkling - see for yourself).

In a post published earlier in the week, Julie explains the Reading location in One Night Stand:

I decided to set the story in Reading for three very simple reasons. One was that I wanted something different from all the rom-coms set in London and New York and exciting places like that.

The second was because of my heroine, Eleanor, the erotic comedy writer. I wanted her to be dissatisfied with her life–her job during the day writing smut, her job during the evenings tending bar in a dodgy pub, her lacklustre love life, her mysterious and far too exciting sister June, her boring mother Sheila, her best friend Hugh’s penchant for bringing home a new blonde or redhead every night. A part of that was being dissatisfied with where she lived. Now Reading is actually a quite nice place to live, but it does have its down sides, and Eleanor sees them all. It’s part of her emotional journey to learn about where she lives and to discover that she’s part of the community.

The third, simplest, and possibly the most compelling reason, was that I live in Reading and I was really, REALLY pregnant and I could barely haul myself out of my chair to go to the bathroom several million times a day. There was no way I was going to go research some exotic location for this story.

Specific town locations used in One Night Stand include Forbury Gardens, Jacksons and the Madejski Stadium. The story concerns a bored erotica-writing barmaid named Eleanor who becomes pregnant following a one night stand with a stranger looking like George Michael.

You can buy One Night Stand for just £3.49 from Amazon.

Matt is a genius.  Matt Rose, that is.  The Evening Post reports in Cow about that - century of cheer! that, after seeing glum faces in Reading, the 17 year old Reading School student decided to dress as a cow to cheer up 100 members of the public.  After fulfiling requests such as bursting into song while standing at an urinal (very a-moo-sing) and, allegedly, juggling a cactus, Matt completed his challenge on Christmas Eve. 

Many 17 years old bum around all day, scowling or playing on their Wii.  Matt wanted to make a difference by helping to make the nation a happier one (it’s interesting how so many people are perceived to be miserable despite that the UK is the 5th largest economy - this may be because of the growing social divide and rampant empty consumerism).

Matt, if you’re reading this, here is my 2008 wish list that will make me happier still:

• A seat on First Great Western trains.  First Great Western is the second worst train operating company in the UK for punctuality and yet unregulated fares are to rise by an average of 6.1%.  If I’m expected to pay so much then I should, at least, also expect a seat to sit on.   Our rail services (with Network Rail/government also to blame), unfortunately, much like the England football team, are a national disgrace.
• Cleaner streets.  Reading’s streets and waterways are nauseatingly filthy.  The smoking ban has resulted in an increase in fag ends on our pavements.  Vomit and discarded kebabs point to the soaring popularity of Reading’s bars.  In recent weeks, I have seen a teenage girl lob a plastic bottle into the water at The Oracle’s Riverside and joking about it with her mates, and another girl casually drop a bottle of water on the ground near Broad Street. 
• A solution to fix Reading’s traffic congestion.  Or more movement in this direction.  At the moment, the only true city characteristic that the town possesses is the extent of its traffic problems. 
• New ownership of Reading FC.   Madejski has done a formidable job.  Now it’s time for someone with even more bulging pockets to take the club to the next level.

Happy New Year!