It's market day in Spalding. I love walking through the market place after I get off the bus and seeing everyone setting out their stalls. They all have their allotted pitches. There's the one that sells all sorts of rugs and doormats; the second hand books stall - not as interesting as you might think - with his ingenious trailer which folds out both sides to display shelves of battered paperbacks; the people who have the 'foreign' food stall - must be Latvian or Polish - something vaguely east European anyway; clothes stalls - designer or otherwise - mainly manned (womanned) by immigrants; the fresh fish stall; 2 birthday card etc stalls; net curtains; cushions; haberdashery; bicycles; DVDs - probably illegal copies; many and varied fruit and veg stalls; fresh meat and of course the obligatory snack bar - selling at that time in the morning bacon butties!! The smell is gorgeous! I usually stop at one of the fruit and veg stalls - today I bought Braeburn apples, clementines and some cherries - delicious. It occurred to me as I was buying them that cherries must be some of the few things that defy the saying about anything nice must be illegal, immoral or fattening.
Once through the market place I have to walk down a narrow passage by the civic centre dignified with the name of Buttermarket, and come out by the river Welland. The ducks haven't woken up yet and they're all in little huddles with their heads under their wings. Because there are a few white ducks on the river the mallards are starting to look very strange with lots of white feathers mixed in especially on their chests. I have yet to see an all white duck with a green head but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. This morning the weather was a bit dull but on a sunny morning this walk to work is idyllic. I often take the river path and then across a footbridge coming out opposite the office. A great start to the day.
Showing posts with label Spalding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spalding. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 July 2008
Sunday, 6 July 2008
Books etc and reviewing wars
Books: I am currently reading Barbara Erskine's latest time slip offering - 'The Warrior Princess' - and totally absorbing and scary it is too. This one to a certain extent follows on from the last as it's set in Romano Britain and modern day Wales and Italy. More later when I've finished it.
Noreen over at Norn's Notebook has raised some interesting points about the life and death of the high street as we know it. We need moderation and balance really - not just independent shops but also the chains. In Spalding - population approx 25,000 - there are Boots, Woolworths, Holland and Barrett, Dorothy Perkins, Specsavers and just outside the town centre - Halfords, Sainsbury's, Argos, Carphone Warehouse, Lidl, Co-op, Aldi etc. But we also have - an independent book shop, independent butchers, greengrocers and bakers. It is a similar mix in Boston - population approx 70,000. Though in Boston there are more of the chains and they have a Marks & Spencer whereas Spalding only has an M & S Simply Food. If I was to draw a sweeping generalisation I would say small towns perhaps get the balance right. The bigger towns are of more interest to the chains - e.g Boston has a Waterstones, Costa Coffee and Past Times. Spalding has an out of town outlet centre which attracts a lot of visitors from elsewhere as it has an excellent garden centre, Cotton Traders, Marks & Spencer outlet, Next outlet etc etc. So really we have the best of all possible worlds living here. There is also a water taxi from the town centre!
Reviewing wars - I only became aware of this issue recently because I belong to Amazon Vine. There is a members only forum where such esoteric issues as tactical voting on reviews published on Amazon are discussed. Apparently there are certain reviewers out there who apply tactical voting to other people's reviews to try and get higher up the reviewer ranking list. As no one has managed to work out exactly how Amazon calculate the reviewer rankings I can't help feeling this is a total waste of time. Through reading the discussions I become aware that there are some very weird reviewers out there - people who always mention their family in derogatory terms in the review, others who post exactly the same review whatever the product and then there's the people who paste in reviews from elsewhere on the Internet! Skulduggery aplenty!! Amazon do take down anything that contravenes the law but they seem to let the rest carry on - fascinating stuff!
Noreen over at Norn's Notebook has raised some interesting points about the life and death of the high street as we know it. We need moderation and balance really - not just independent shops but also the chains. In Spalding - population approx 25,000 - there are Boots, Woolworths, Holland and Barrett, Dorothy Perkins, Specsavers and just outside the town centre - Halfords, Sainsbury's, Argos, Carphone Warehouse, Lidl, Co-op, Aldi etc. But we also have - an independent book shop, independent butchers, greengrocers and bakers. It is a similar mix in Boston - population approx 70,000. Though in Boston there are more of the chains and they have a Marks & Spencer whereas Spalding only has an M & S Simply Food. If I was to draw a sweeping generalisation I would say small towns perhaps get the balance right. The bigger towns are of more interest to the chains - e.g Boston has a Waterstones, Costa Coffee and Past Times. Spalding has an out of town outlet centre which attracts a lot of visitors from elsewhere as it has an excellent garden centre, Cotton Traders, Marks & Spencer outlet, Next outlet etc etc. So really we have the best of all possible worlds living here. There is also a water taxi from the town centre!
Reviewing wars - I only became aware of this issue recently because I belong to Amazon Vine. There is a members only forum where such esoteric issues as tactical voting on reviews published on Amazon are discussed. Apparently there are certain reviewers out there who apply tactical voting to other people's reviews to try and get higher up the reviewer ranking list. As no one has managed to work out exactly how Amazon calculate the reviewer rankings I can't help feeling this is a total waste of time. Through reading the discussions I become aware that there are some very weird reviewers out there - people who always mention their family in derogatory terms in the review, others who post exactly the same review whatever the product and then there's the people who paste in reviews from elsewhere on the Internet! Skulduggery aplenty!! Amazon do take down anything that contravenes the law but they seem to let the rest carry on - fascinating stuff!
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