Andrew Bowden 🐀

There was a Burger King there for sure.

When Westfield first opened, we'd tend to go to the food court maybe once a week, as a bit of a treat. And when you have the time. because it would definitely need a few more minutes allocating to the lunch slot.

I haven't been round there since 2021 (maybe 2022) but it feels like the commercial offering now may just be too much. And I would not be surprised if the rents and business rates are too high to support food/drinks businesses with limited viable hours of operation.

I first worked there in 2004. If you wanted a pint, you went to the BBC Clubs in Woodlands, White City, TV Centre. If you wanted food, you had a long walk, or you went to the canteen. And that was it. But Westfield opened up a lot of options. And then there's TV Centre.

W12 Studios. Was a big place but never seemed to draw in anywhere near enough people to fill it. Haven't been there since 2021 but the BBC winding down its offices around 2016 saw a lot of long term residents like Davy's go and the decline seemed to set in, not helped by Covid.

Normally swim 450 lengths a week. On top of that last week I did a 14km bike ride. Which is great. Except all that exercise makes me hungry...

Glad we've boiled a lake to generate a picture of a bridge labelled with its nickname.

Great Britain has only two days of gas stored, while Iran war threatens to disrupt supplies National Gas insists storage broadly in line with levels for time of year despite disruption for tankers carrying LNG

We keep getting these subtle hints that tell us that - as a society - moving away from fossil fuels is probably quite a good idea. Yet the response of some is simply "more fossil fuels will solve the problem!"
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Totally. And the more time passes the more it will do so. Just look at what 100 years has done to the holocaust after all.

A last day at nursery school, on Andrew Bowden's Blog In another universe, today is my daughter's final day at nursery school before she heads to primary school in September.

I am sure for some it was blind optimism. Others, a coping mechanism. And for those of us who could (perhaps reluctantly) see how the wind was blowing.

I wrote this in July 2020, and I don't think I will ever forget sobbing uncontrollably that day.
blog.andrewbowden.me.uk/2020/07/23/a...

I watched that all the while thinking of the story a year or two ago where some idiot decided to fell loads of trees alongside a river to "prevent flooding". This being the complete opposite of what actually happens

Now that is brilliant. And just shows we should trust nature more.

There's some other stuff to do with a mage, but as of page 137 the orc and dwarf are in a boat, drinking gin.

The book I picked at random from the library appears to be about a female mercanary orc who gets injured, discovers a bookshop and a love of reading, and who falls in love with a female dwarf who is a baker. Obviously.

Just before lockdown came in, I dropped my 3yr old daughter off at pre-school and knew, just knew that there was next to no chance she would allowed to go back before she moved to school. Whilst scores of other people and business were saying it would all be fine by Easter...

a man in a suit and tie is pointing up Alt: Columbo is trying to work out this quite implausible sounding statistic.

The app I use to track my bike rides tells me my 48 minute ride today, where I cycled 14km at an average speed of 17.5km/h, burned off a mere 148 calories. Yeah, right.

Definitely in agreement although if I had written this, I would have cited Stellify.

Stellify. An awesome song.

Correct. I don’t want Smol Bean talk from my bank, I want a sober tone from someone middle aged

A sign with information about a play, that says a gun is shown but not fired

I'm calling Chekhov

The friends being Tim Van Eyken, Nick Hart, Will and Joe Sartin (aka Patakas) and Martin's grandson Finn. Also joined on stage by Martin's spare guitar, his brass monkey lamp, and Norma Waterson's triangle and the poker she used to play the triangle with!

The stage at New Mills Arts Theatre empty of people but with microphones, guitar cases, violins and more.

I don't do phones during gigs, so here's a pre-show photo of the New Mills Arts Theatre before The Songs Of Martin Carthy, with Eliza Carthy and Friends. A great show but I do hope Eliza's chest infection clears up soon!

I was driving so I went for the Guinness Zero. But fair play to the New Mills Arts Theatre for a good range of local beers, and for supporting the local brewery five minutes up the road from them.

That's not to say the economic environment over the last few years and cost of living increases hasn't made people consider their priorities though. That's everything since COVID. And the reality is, Marple's local primary schools are very good.

The lazy reply here is "Labour's VAT on school fees forcing schools to close!". But the Year 5/6 pre-VAT fees are £3,101.67 a term. VAT takes that to £3,722. Most people prepared to pay the pre-VAT price in the first place will stretch to extra VAT. I don't buy VAT being the reason.

Today's big Marple news - a consultation's been announced on closing Brabyn's Prep School "in response to a number of challenges facing the independent school sector." The nursery would stay open.
www.brabynsprepschool.co.uk/2026/03/06/a...

Will never get tired of this clip, love how she flips the Vs to the manager as she leaves

On the other hand, tonight's now going to be seeing The Songs of Martin Carthy at the New Mills Arts Theatre, led by the astounding folk music musician (and Martin's daughter) Eliza Carthy. It'll be awesome, of that I am very much sure.

Tonight was supposed to be seeing folk music legend Martin Carthy at the New Mills Arts Theatre. Thanks to his diagnosis with late-onset Alzheimer’s, it's not. And that's a real shame.

I always did this and wasn't in the army cadets. But then it was pointed out to me that when you lay the table, the knife goes on the right and the fork on the left. So why not do that in the drawer?