The Robin Hood's Bay Roadtrip!

Having made it back from our epic Robin Hood's Bay roadtrip, it's time to blog :)

So, on Monday me and my dad went up to Robin Hood's Bay (RHB) in North Yorkshire for 3 days - RHB is a small fishing village, popular with tourists and known as historically being a home for smuggling!

Monday we spent in RHB, checking out the various pubs - of special note are the Laurel, Ye Dolphin, the Bay Hotel, and the Victoria Hotel.  This had been the first time for some years that we ventured into the Victoria, and had a very nice time, which included a weird bluey purple pint, and a quiz night, which we'll certainly be checking out again if we're in RHB on a Monday.

After a big Monday exploring the pubs, on Tuesday we were feeling a little sensitive when we went to Whitby, the nearest town to RHB, popular with tourists, and known for fishing, Whitby Jet, and Bram Stoker's Dracula.  Nevertheless, we checked out a lot of decent pubs, bought some presents, and enjoyed an excellent meal at The Humble Pie :)

And then onto Wednesday, which we spent in RHB, taking in a ghost walk but mainly chilling out with a few DVDs :)

Notable signs we saw:

1) The fish and chip shop which had a phone number - in fact, two phone numbers - to take bookings.  I never imagined that there was such a demand to book fish and chips!

2) The stairlift company that offered stairlifts, to rent or buy (again, never really thought that people would want to rent a stairlift, they've always seemed a fairly permanent piece of kit to me)

3) The sign we saw outside an office which was apparently for "The Moors and Whitby Prevention Hub" - personally I quite like both the Moors and Whitby, having an office dedicated to preventing them seems a bit harsh.

All in all it was a great opportunity to explore a couple of the places that we like so much in a bit more detail, there's some pubs in Whitby that I'd now definitely like to revisit, and it was great to just have a bit of time to relax and not do anything too taxing.

The trip wouldn't have been the same without our supporters - thank you to our amazing sponsors:

http://www.thegratitudeletters.com/

youtube.com/denkai

deano_1

cinders1980

And here's a few photos:

Bag packed!

View down onto Robin Hood's Bay

My dad with lots of glasses, somehow having fallen off his chair

Apparently the soup of the day was Beef Wellington, onion duxelle with a smooth chicken liver pate. Bit of a fancy soup if you ask me, I'd have been happy with tomato.

The bay

If this was a computer game, this would definitely have been a hidden area of some sort

I've also done a video of our time away which can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhf2PTUah_8&feature=youtu.be and there will also be one or two more videos coming that we recorded while out there :)

Pizza

So, with all the exciting events occurring in the world at the moment, let's focus on one of them.

Yes, apparently today is Pizza With The Works Except Anchovies Day (really) - I'm a big fan of pizza, it's a wonderful invention, a sort of hot open sandwich .  In a way, it's just a sort of cheese on toast (open grilled cheese sandwich for Americans) with extras, isn't it? Yet it tastes totally different to cheese on toast - and I do love cheese on toast also, in fact it's a source of disappointment to me that the grill in our oven doesn't work at the moment, so the only way of doing cheese on toast is to toast the bread, arrange the cheese upon the toast, and then microwave it, which just seems a bit wrong.

When ordering pizza I generally go for some sort of meat feast, although if I am going to Domino's it's more likely to be a Texas BBQ, and ideally I like a thin crust pizza, not deep pan.  Sometimes I do try the "Chef's special" which is basically everything except anchovies, I don't really know what an anchovy is to be quite honest, I'm very inexperienced when it comes to fish - I like haddock, cod, and pollock when fried in batter and served with chips, I've discovered that I like tuna, perhaps with melted cheese in a sandwich or on pasta, or mixed with mayonnaise and on top of a jacket potato, but apart from these types I have very little experience of fish.  Swordfish I tried once and it was very nice, but whenever I'm shopping, spot the fish counter, and think "hey, swordfish is okay" I then see the price and realise that actually I ought to work on clearing the mortgage rather than having to apply for a new credit card to pay for the swimming thing.

I have had tuna on pizza, and it was actually okay, but it did still seem a bit strange to me, I felt uncomfortable eating it, in a similar way to how you might feel uncomfortable changing seats on the third or fourth day of a week-long training course - theoretically you can certainly do it, and there's nothing necessarily wrong in doing it, but you wouldn't.  Social norms, and all that.

What's your favourite pizza toppings?

I'm delighted to say that the Robin Hood's Bay roadtrip is coming up very soon (Monday, in fact), so tomorrow I'll be packing!  I did a quick update video this morning, talking about beers and our planned itinerary, I must thank all of our supporters:

Diane Lynn of www.thegratitudeletters.com - The Gratitude Letters is a great blog which makes you stop and think for a moment about all those things in life that we should be grateful for.  I find it very beneficial, I'm a nightmare for rushing from one thing to another without allowing enough time to contemplate.  Do check out her blog.

Denkai Designs - my wife kindly supported us, I presume so that we'd not run out of money and have to come home early!  She's a flosstube YouTuber (she videos about cross stitch) so do check her stuff out, she's annoyingly good on camera.

Also thanks to deano_1 and cinders1980 who also both kindly supported us!

Sadly, the sponsor t-shirts that we were planning to wear I just can't make happen, I'd love for them to but it would just take too much out of the contributions to do.  Nevertheless we'll be recording videos while we're away and I'll be blogging and videoing when we get back (internet access in Robin Hood's Bay isn't the best, plus I don't have a laptop to take anyway) which I hope will be good fun for everyone!

Dealing with spam email

I've been getting spam email recently from people that I've apparently agreed to buy things from. For a long time, I've simply ignored or deleted these emails, but today I decided it was worth making use of these, so I've sent off some replies.

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Email from Jumadelto:
Subject: African mount

Greetings,


The African mount you are intrested un purchasing is going for 200.00 without delivery
Regards,
Juan


Sent from my LG G Vista 2, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone


My reply:


Juan,


I could never do business with someone using an LG G Vista 2.


Regards, Mike


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Email from Mahe M Avinashi Gounder:
Subject: Close5. Womens shoe.

Hi Micheal. Got ur msg in close5. U said u interested in buying the item. Winter shoe. Women. Size small. When shall we meet.


My reply:


Firstly Mahe, mispelling my first name REALLY annoys me. Now, to business.


Is it a left shoe or a right shoe? I am purchasing on behalf of a female pirate, and she requires a left shoe. If it is a right shoe then we really are wasting each others time.


Assuming it is a left shoe, please meet me and my client at Port Royal in Jamaica on the seventeenth day of November, she assures me that she will be "bringing home the booty, shiver me timbers" to port on that date. We may have to be on the lookout for Customs Officers.


Regards, Michael

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Email from Eddie:
Subject: TV Stand

When do you want to pickup the tv stand?

Sent from my iPhone


My reply:


Eddie,


I was really rather hoping for delivery, this being the Internet and all. How much is it for me to subscribe to Eddie Prime?


Best wishes, Mike


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Email from Christine vargas (with an email address starting "tina"):
Subject: Bread Box

I will sell it off on sunday so email then early I wake up at 7am


My reply:

Christine (I don't accept the name Tina as a shortening of Christine),


It is currently 7.17am on Sunday. I assume that you've already been up and about for 17 minutes whoring your bread box all over the internet, and as a result I've missed the boat. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours.


Regards, Mike


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And the one that I've had a reply to...



Email from alfredo valadez:
Subject: 49ers jersey


Hello I do have the jersey still. I stay in the eastlake area chula vista.


My reply:


Ah Alfredo, I was really after a 48ers? Any chance you can remove 1?


Cheers, Mike


Alfredo's reply:


What ???


I feel bad for Alfredo.


In other news, we are rapidly coming up to the end of the Robin Hood's Bay Roadtrip crowdfunding campaign - currently we have 3 amazing sponsors, Diane Lynn of the Gratitude Letters, Denkai Designs, and deano_1 - for just £1 (which, for non-UK readers, the current exchange rates makes cheaper than ever!) you can join that list, be promoted, and most importantly, fund the purchase of alcohol. Check out the campaign now at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-robin-hoods-bay-roadtrip-friends-fun

Sneaky Dreams...

This picture has nothing to do with this post.  I just felt like including a picture of a couple of Norwegian policemen.

Today I'm being picked up early to catch a train down to London, so last night I went to bed early and set my alarm for 5am, to give me time to get ready, ahead of being picked up just before 6.

So this morning I woke up, and I wasn't awoken by my alarm going off, so I thought "Hey, I've woke up before the alarm, that's good" and decided to watch a little bit of television for 5 minutes before making a start. 

Then I then decided to glance at my phone.

5.50am.

And a car drew up outside, which was my lift.  I panicked, and ran to get dressed.  I couldn't believe that I'd slept through my alarm - something which happens once in a blue moon.

As I'm upstairs frantically throwing a shirt on and picking a tie to wear, I can hear my mum downstairs talking to the chap who's picking me up explaining that I'm just getting ready, and I won't be a minute.

I become aware that I'm at my parents house, not my own - and I wonder how did the guy know to come to my parents house, when I only gave him my address?

Then I woke, in my own bed.

I checked the time, and it was 4am.

I got up anyway.

At least -  I think I have!

I must give a big thank you to Diane Lynn of the Gratitude Letters for the latest donation to the Robin Hoods Bay roadtrip campaign, it's much appreciated - do feel free to check out the campaign at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-robin-hoods-bay-roadtrip-friends-fun/x/7476667#/, it's got 12 days to go :)

Top 3 reasons for supporting the Robin Hood's Bay Roadtrip!

If you missed my last post, I'm having a go at crowdfunding to get sponsors for me and my dad going to Robin Hood's Bay next month!

Firstly, thanks and congratulations to deano_1 for being the first person to support us, it's much appreciated, and I'm particularly happy that you specifically sponsor a pint for me, it's very welcome indeed :)

Anyway, here's three top reasons for supporting our campaign!

Three - You'll be supporting the local economy!

We're going to Robin Hood's Bay and Whitby in North Yorkshire, both of which are popular locations for tourists, and because we're going out of the main tourist season, our spending will be very beneficial for local pubs and food outlets.

Two - The Reward!

You'll get your name on our very special sponsor t-shirts, to be worn during our time away!

One - Fun!

At the end of the day, it's a bit of fun! We all like to have some fun, and this campaign does it. So support us :)

My dad has a unique way of "tackling"...

So if you'd like to get involved, either by sponsoring us (from just £1 for a third of a pint) or by sharing the campaign, get over to https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-robin-hoods-bay-roadtrip-friends-fun/x/7476667#/

And if you'd like to watch this blog post, instead of read it, check out the update video :)

Cheers!

Return to Robin Hoods Bay

So yesterday I went to Robin Hood's Bay with my dad.

Robin Hood's Bay, or RHB for acronym lovers, is a touristy fishing village in North Yorkshire in the UK, which I actually recently got to guest blog about.

Bearing in mind that we visited on the last day of September, we were extremely lucky with the weather, I had a jacket in the car but that's exactly where it stayed!

I first visited Bay I think when I was about 12 or 13, and for several years Bay was the family holiday.  I even went to stay by myself when I was about 20, with the notable memory of cooking a pizza with the polystrene base still attached (I was under the influence of alcohol at the time), and then not being able to turn the gas oven off so spending all evening with the oven door open to let the heat out.  In the morning I had no trouble whatsoever turning off the oven, it's very strange.

Since then we generally try to go every year, if even for only a day.

The mist was rolling off the hills opposite, which I tried to capture with various settings on my phone camera, but all I managed to do was make it brighter, so here's one of the automatically optimised pictures.  Which is quite nice.

We ventured down onto the bay itself for a little while, as you can see in the photos it was really nice, with just a touch of breeze.

My dad declared that he was going to have a paddle, and by the time he realised just how cold the water actually was it was too late, he was committed!

 

And of course no trip to Bay would be complete without a visit to a couple of pubs for some good quality beer!

My pint of Old Peculier, absolutely delicious.

I think the only problem was that we didn't get enough time there - I'm hoping to sort out something to get a day or two in the village, RHB is possibly one of the best places in the world to relax and unwind, but to do that you need the time to do it, so I hope to be able to get perhaps a cottage for a night or two in the low season.

Do you have a favourite place that you like to return to?

For more about Bay, why not check out my dad's post about the folklore of the village :)

Guest Post - Folklore of Robin Hood's Bay

While I'm away on honeymoon, my dad Graham guest blogs today, talking about the folklore of a little fishing village called Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire in the UK, one of his favourite places in the world, and has at least two extremely good pubs.  That last fact doesn't really have any bearing, I just quite fancy going to one of them.

My dad in one of the extremely good pubs, the Dolphin. Cheers!

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FOLKLORE OF ROBIN HOOD'S BAY...

Now in the old days, especially in rural areas you might just find your horse one morning, hag-ridden, sweating and quite exhausted. Clearly the witches had been abroad, riding egg shells across oceans, flying the airs on broomsticks and having a whale of a time on your horse.

We have no horses!

Actually, I’m pleased that we are horseless, I mean to say you start getting into hag-ridden horses and next thing you know Linger’s ghost is knocking on your door!

Terrible bad luck it is to see Linger’s ghost – I never seen him, honest sweetheart, and even if I did, which I didn’t, I’d still not see him, cross me heart etc gov’nor!

Linger’s ghost?

(for the uninitiated, Lingers ‘Ghost’ was firmly tied up with smuggling in and around Robin Hood’s Bay many, many years ago)

Well I for one be knowing nothing of any Linger’s ghost and that be the truth of it, but I did hear a tale once told to me by some stranger in the Inn one dark night. ‘Ee were a-shivering and a deathly pale colour he was, and he told me he’d seen this ghost all white and ghastly it were, standing looking out to sea up on the cliff tops. An it did a-see him and it gave out a terrible moan and did come for him to take his life an a drag him down into the deeply-dark waters.

Well, ‘e did run for ‘is life and didne stop still ‘ee reached the safety o’ the Inn.

He tole ‘is tale to any who would listen but none would say owt to him, save that it be bad luck to see Linger’s ghost and lest he wants to swim with the fish, he should keep ‘imself to imself in future and stay away from the cliffs at night, cos that be when Linger’s ghost comes a haunting.

Over a mug of ale old blind Jake said that he’d seen the ghost himself not a month ago up on the cliff tops, though everyone knows that’s nonsense, ol’ Jake be as blind as a bat.

Interestin though, the following day the excise men were about the village looking for smuggled goods and they did ask if anyone had seen Linger’s ghost abroad these past nights.

Sure enough no one had seen it – ‘tis bad luck to see Linger’s ghost … and if they did, only a fool would admit it. (like that young idiot Carson years ago, reccon’ed he’d seen the ghost and what happened? He were found at the bottom of the cliff – told ee it be bad luck)

Notes from an old book ….

Robin Hood’s Bay, or Baytown as the locals would have it, is a very strange place. There are men to be found in the local watering places who could buy up three or four of your fashionable city shops on a whim, and there be none of the paupers in the streets here, as so often found in the big cities.

This is a rich place!

I’ve often thought to myself, the modern Baytown does well considering there are only a handful of permanent residents living there now, businesses thrive, endless charity events are ran and if there be bugger all folk living there full time, they do darned well on it.

Of course, there’s no smuggling there now, there hasn’t been any smuggling known of associated with Baytown for .. oh, probably 20 years now!

Feel free to check out my parents mail order business selling all kinds of weird and wonderful magical goodies at www.facebook.com/RavenMagical

A Day Out

Had an excellent day today out at Robin Hoods Bay with my dad, checking out a couple of pubs and a few shops.

Despite raining we were determined to enjoy our day at the seaside and enjoy it we did - here's my dad carrying out some impromptu testing on behalf of Ye Dolphin:

Whilst I decided, being the designated driver, to cool down by the assimilation of ice cream through osmosis into my hand.

All things taken into consideration it was a good day - a very decent "pig out grill" at Ye Dolphin, followed up by a trip to The Laurel.  It's strange how Bay affects me - I assume it's something to do with the place itself, coupled with regular visits for over half of my life - but I always feel at home in Bay, relaxed and safe.  Endless afternoons talking nonsense in The Laurel over a pint or two, playing on the beach... it's just such a nice place to be.  I often hear seagulls in a morning near my house and that always reminds me of staying in cottages at Bay, waking in the morning to the cries of the gulls.  I felt a little guilty for being extremely quiet today (I think I was anyway) but the feeling of being relaxed was so good I was lulled into peacefulness (no I don't mean I had a nap)

I did amuse myself today with the strategic placement of QR codes in places around Bay.

A QR code pointing back to this website - although I kind of imagine it being a 4-eyed alien that's been shot in the bottom right eye.

I've placed copies of my blog's QR code inside a book in one of the book shops, in some of the pubs, possibly in one or two other places as well.  I'm hoping that the code by itself with no explanation will spark some curiosity and get people coming here to find out what's going on.  If you stumbled across my blog after finding such a code, welcome! And do feel free to drop a comment about where you found it (and then maybe check out the very good adverts on my pages too)

As an aside, if anyone really really wants to dish out some QR codes for me drop me a mail with your postal address - I'll send you some.  Just be thoughtful about where you put them - I'm aiming for strange and bizarre and making people curious - not annoying them by sticking one under their car wiper blade.

Changing the subject completely, I've just read an article by Mark Hill on the 6 most absurdly difficult video game puzzles of all time.  It's well worth a read, the bizarreness of the puzzles (especially numbers #1 and #2) are hilarious and I couldn't stop myself from laughing at the last one.  And it's amazing what you can do with sellotape, a cat and a packet of syrup.

Finally, has anyone not seen the bizarre music video "Gangnam Style" by Psy?  It's a extremely strange yet very very funny video by a South Korean rapper - I must admit to being relieved when I checked (albeit on Wikipedia) that he is well known for his humorous videos.  I recommend 1:54 in the lift.

Right - time for me to crack on with watching the Guild!

Keeping it real

Good evening,

Just thought I'd post a bit of a piece before bedtime.  I've been busy tracking down my old blog articles and getting them on here so that they're all in one place.  They're mainly about World of Warcraft and Guild Ravenswing (which I was a senior officer of, whether I am or not I'm not sure bearing in mind that I haven't logged in for a number of months!)

I've got quite an interesting week up ahead of me which I'm looking forward to.  I've got three days at work (mostly in the office no less - it is something of a standing joke that even when I'm "at work" I'm not in the office!) which includes Wednesday afternoon meeting the Construction Sector Network and the Association for Project Management to discuss an initiative that I'm involved with called G4C.

G4C (Generation For Change) is an initiative to gear up the future leaders of the construction industry with the skills and knowledge that they need to revolutionise the industry.  I'm particularly involved with the Yorkshire & Humber region, where I've been trying to do stuff for about 2 years now, with varying levels of success.  Short story is that I've been far too focused on organising and doing everything myself (plus making some defendable but ultimately questionable decisions) and the other regions seem to be taking off better than mine.  So to address this I'm setting up a committee of people that will work together to organise things, and basically do bigger and better stuff than I could achieve myself.  I'm really looking forward to getting the committee going and seeing how things go - plus I'm aware (as the name of this whole blog indicates) that it is getting harder for me to declare myself as a "newcomer" to the industry and one day I will need to hand this thing onto someone else, and the committee should be an ideal vehicle to keep the initiative going.  Obviously if you are in the construction industry and based in Yorkshire / Humber do drop me a line if you'd like to get involved.  We've also got a LinkedIn group at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4075124

Apart from work on Friday myself and my dad (Ravanna/Oshune to WoW folk) are heading off to Robin Hoods Bay for the day.  Bay is a little fishing village just south of Whitby in North Yorkshire, about 2 hours drive from my home.  It is really nice and lovely to relax there and since I was 13 we've probably been almost every year to Bay for a break of some sort, be it a week or just a day.  The thing that differentiates Bay from other places is that it has a really nice community feel to the village, you really do feel as though you're coming home when you come to Bay.

© Copyright Rob Newman and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Above is a pic of the bay itself, missing from this picture is the usual ice cream van!  The main issue I've got is where do I want to go for lunch - the normal choice is the Dolphin, an excellent pub on King Street which delivers a fantastic menu of food and a good choice of ales as well.  However, I have been for a few days in the mood for fish and chips, so on this occasion I may vote for the chip shop instead. Hard to decide! (But a nice problem to have)

Wherever we eat we'll have to include a visit to the Laurel before we leave.  The Laurel is a tiny pub halfway down the big hill (the only bad thing about Bay really, walking up the hill!) which holds special memories for me, spending afternoons on holiday in there, talking nonsense over a few pints.  One of the things that I never used to be particularly good at was going into pubs by myself, generally I'd only go if I was going to meet up with some people or going with someone.  But the Laurel is so welcoming (as to be fair is one or two other pubs in Bay - perhaps it's the location) that I could happily wander in, have a drink and a chat and be on my way.

Typically, when I'm in the mood to write, reality breaks in.  I've got to be up for work in about 8 hours so time to get some sleep!  Stay tuned for more...um...words!