• About

snacks & adventure

~ oversharing is a way of life.

snacks & adventure

Tag Archives: pubs

Ian’s Birthday and Liz’s Visit

08 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Snacks

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

birthdays, England, pub crawl, pubs, The Eagle, travel, vacation

Ian had an birthday a few weeks ago.  In the interest of making his big day A Big Day, I hounded him for months about how he wanted to celebrate, without ever getting a straight answer or actually making any plans.  And then a friend of ours from college came (relatively) last minute, and Ian came up with the perfect fete: we did a cross-Cambridge pub crawl on Friday and a fair on Parker’s Piece on Saturday, with a trip to Grantchester and Audley End thrown in for good measure (about which more later).

Anyone wishing to imitate our awesome pub crawl is welcome to our itinerary:

– Fort St. George for Pimm’s
– The Old Spring for drinks & dinner
– Champion of the Thames for scampi fries and after-dinner drinks
– The Eagle, because its famous (its the place where the discovery of DNA was announced AND the place where RAF troops hung out during WWII – there’s still their graffiti all over the back room
– detour through the city centre, to laugh at all the scantily-clad townies waiting in line for the awful bars
– the Free Press
– The Tram Depot, because its open late

We didn’t go to the Kingston Arms or the Cambridge Blue because we were drunk and tired, but those would have been next on the agenda:

The next day, we went zorbing – which has been on my to-do list for a little while.  It’s basically exactly what it looks like: you get in giant plastic balls and run/jump around for a few minutes.  It’s like having a movable bouncy castle.  Its awesome.  As expected, though, it gets pretty clammy in there pretty quickly.
 

Advertisement

Pub Signs

14 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Snacks

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Cambridge, drinking, England, entertainment, food, history, pubs, travel, UK

This is the fourth installment of a regular series entitled “Cantabriggian Details,” about Cambridge, UK.  The Eagle is a famous one because its where Watson & Crick celebrated the discovery of the double helix, and there’s a room in the back with signatures from RAF members.  Plus its in the dead center of downtown.  The Six Bells is right next to my new workplace, though, and the Live and Let Live is just around the corner from that – so if I’m partial to any of these places its those two.

Oh, England.

27 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

class, England, My Friend Lauren, pubs, sociology, UK

If you want proof that England is still a very class-conscious and formal society, I think this photo will suffice.  Its from the London School of Economics website (I think, or maybe University College London) and I encountered it in the process of applying for a job a few weeks ago (I clicked “Ms.”)

I’m a little annoyed that there’s no Professor Lady option.

There is so much to learn about the nuances of class and social mores in England – because it is very, very different from the US.  After rock climbing last night, a group of us got into a heated discussion (in a pub, of course), about the boundaries, definitions, and perceptions of class. It started because Lauren and I were talking about how pleased I am to live in a terrace house.  Lauren said that most English people live in terrace houses, and we decided to take a survey of the table (there were 8 of us).  A few seconds late, we learned that everyone else had grown up in a free-standing or semi-detached dwelling, and that everyone considered themselves to be middle class.  The resulting debate – on the definitions of class; what the major hallmarks are; on how self-perception of class changes or doesn’t change as education and income change; and how to best generate social mobility in the UK – left us both on such an intellectual high note that my husband thought we were trashed, despite our single beer each.

Lauren was annoyed that her survey of rock climbers had failed that she sent me statistics on housing in the UK the next day – she was right; a plurality (though not a majority) of people live in terrace houses.  The discussion has continued: both the BBC and the New York Times have class calculators.

I would say that class is a mixture of income, education, and profession – but of course in many respects the most important denominators are impossible to quantify (although the BBC tries pretty hard): how to you quantify culture and self-perception?

I would be curious to hear what other people think is the chief determinant of class, and I’d be interested to know how fluid people find class to be.  The US and UK are the least socially mobile countries in the world, although for different reasons.  Is there a panacea? What is it?

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 172 other subscribers

Adventure or Snacks?

  • babies
  • Delivery
  • Early Days
  • Parenthood
  • pregnancy
  • Snacks
  • Uncategorized

Click me, big boy!

  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Blogroll

  • TAMBA
  • Twinny Life

TwitRoll

  • RT @mollyfleck: Scenes from Chicago’s premier car-free space during my bike commute this morning 🙃 https://t.co/2XKGIQPZtO 3 months ago
  • .@DivvyBikes I spent 20 minutes looking for a dock in the Loop this morning. When I finally left the Loop to dock,… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 8 months ago
  • RT @WorldBollard: Bollards save lives AND bring immense joy and happiness to the world. #WorldBollardAssociation https://t.co/4IjwPZS1Nb 8 months ago
  • RT @kathleen_belew: One historian of abortion argues that abortion stays at pretty much the same rate per capita over time whether it's leg… 9 months ago
  • I've supported this project as a consultant since I started at Sam Schwartz and I'm so excited to see it go live. C… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 9 months ago

pinterest!

Follow Me on Pinterest

The Gist

adventure Amsterdam architecture art babies baking Bath Beer Belgium book review books breastfeeding Brussels Cambridge Christmas Cornwall cream tea cupcakes design England entertainment Family feminism food football Freiburg friends Germany Ghent Great British Summer high risk pregnancy hiking historic architecture history holiday holidays identical twins internet memes Kings College London Made In Chelsea media Mill Road movies multiples My Friend Jaime my friend kamilla My Friend Lauren nature NICU outdoors Oxford Parenthood parenting photography preemies pregnancy premature premature babies pubs rock climbing snacks summer the Peak District This American Life Toronto travel twins UK urban planning vacation Valencia Wales walking yoga

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • snacks & adventure
    • Join 172 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • snacks & adventure
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...