Lunches; Cutbush Lane; sofa movements part 2

Our game with the chocolate orange has ended – Dad expressed a desire to have it if we were just going to muck around with it, so I gave it to Ray to take down to my parents’ place when he goes down this coming weekend to help service Dad’s mower, and sundry other outdoor tasks.

Claire kindly took me out for lunch on Thursday to The Black Boy at Shinfield, a pub that I last visited over 15 years ago - it's had a substantial refurb in the meantime. It seemed busy for a weekday lunchtime but the food was very good. Claire had been given a Honda Jazz as a courtesy car while the Smart is in for repairs, but didn't seem any too taken with it. I have to say the dropped bonnet did look a bit awkward.

Met Kate for another lunch time catch-up on Friday, although as before not actually involving lunch in her case. Dol.che Vita was packed so we tried out Café Index at the new ‘Henley Business School’ building. Amused from reading the ‘Places to eat on campus’ page that Café Index makes big claims for its tea and coffee, but does however only sell ‘Sandwiches’, as opposed to the ‘Quality sandwiches’ sold by Dol.che Vita. My sandwich was, indeed, somewhat inferior, but I padded it out with a packet of overpriced handcut crisps.

Crisps are one of the relatively few foodstuffs (sausages being another) where I am relatively OK (indeed, one might say better) with the more downmarket varieties. I don’t require my crisps to have been handcut and lovingly fried that morning on an organic farm in Devon; Walkers will do fine. Equally with sausages: where I can see the arguments in favour of better quality meat, I prefer sausages without the addition of leek/apple/rosemary/chocolate; nor do they need necessarily to be made from wild boar or venison.

Henley Business School was formed from the merger in 2008 of Reading’s business school with the Henley Management College, whose splendid riverside campus is now being referred to as the University’s ‘Greenlands’ campus. The Reading operations have built themselves a couple of nice new buildings on the Whiteknights campus to compensate.

Some of Saturday was spent working as I had a job interview to prepare for and Ruth had a bid template to finalise. In the afternoon, inspired by Thursday’s visit to The Black Boy, we (I) decided to see if it was walkable from my flat. Indeed it is – about 45 minutes at a reasonably brisk trot along Cutbush Lane. Cutbush Lane is really quite interesting, at least for those of us who find disused roads interesting – although presumably at one point it was a continuous country road, much of the Earley end of it has now been made into a footpath with the building of the Lower Earley estate, and its former route over the M4 has been closed off and is now pedestrians and cycles only. This page on the website of the The Society for All British and Irish Road Enthusiasts (SABRE) gives a bit of history and links to an aerial photo of Cutbush Lane as it is today. Once over the M4, the lane passes Upperwood Farm (was owned by the university; not sure if it still is), Oldhouse Farm (still is) and Shinfield Grange (pic here), apparently formerly the home of the Palmer family but since 1989 the home of the College of Estate Management, until recently linked to the University of Reading but a 'going our separate ways' plan was agreed last year.


Sunday was such a nice day that although I had intended doing some more interview prep, I went for a walk instead over to Woodley, using Woodley's branch of Waitrose as a goal for the afternoon (although Asda's closer, I have avoided it for the last few weeks as it doesn't have much to recommend it; have instead being buying essentials at the useful little branch of the Co-op on Wokingham Road). Crossed over the railway and the A329(M) at Earley station and then had a bit of a stroll by South Lake (right) before heading for the precinct.

Woodley Town Council's website describes it as "a thriving town", though it is in fact a sprawling housing estate with a 1960s shopping precinct in the middle. I lived there for a short time while a student at Reading, on the slightly newer 'Airfield' development on the eastern side. Here's the house where we lived - my Renault 5 is on the drive and my then housemate Diana in the doorway.

For the last week, both the new sofa and my old orange sofa have been occupying the living room, rendering it necessary to step over them in order to enter room and sit down, made more challenging when armed with glass of wine and plate of food as per Friday evening. Howver, we moved the orange sofa out into the front garden at the weekend, where I insisted on a final photo shoot with it. Ruth texted me on Monday evening to say that it had been collected by the council. RIP sofa. Have now entered a short period of mourning.