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I am typing this from a Hotel room in Chippenham.

I am on a course for the rest of this week and I thought I would give you people a rest from my utterings whilst I am here but unfortunately the hotel has a free wifi!

Great for keeping up to date with my e-mails but as I said, unfortunate for you lot who might otherwise have had a rest from me!

My dogs are going to miss me as is my misses who will be celebrating our 25th on her own on Tuesday.

The good folk of Wiltshire won't know what's hit them either, particularly when I start moaning about how "flat" it is around here!

Happy Anniversary tony .

And that be the place i was born(lancashire lad now),beautiful as it is a little flat.....

C'mon Tony... what you really mean is... it's just not Welsh enough!

By the way, is Wales casting a covetous eye over Cumbria? Every so often a train rolls through here with all its notices in Welsh as well as English. I know 'Cambria' and 'Cumbria' come from the same root... but is there some expansionist thing going on here? 

cysgod-du (Grand Slam 2008) wrote (see)

... my misses who will be celebrating our 25th on her own on Tuesday.

Hi Tony,

over the last couple of years I have spent a lot of time in Chippenham and the surrounding area. In fact... I may have been in that hotel too (is it the Angel by any chance?).

A nice, if a bit pricey, place to eat nearby is the Sign of the Angel at Lacock. The Bell at Yatton Keynell also does good grub. And if you want a rolling-countryside walk, then theres some nicely hilly ground between Corsham and Colerne around Box Hill. I've run around there many times.

In Chippenham itself there are a couple of reasonably good Indian restaurants ; Taj & Asoka. I have had an excellent experience of the food in the Asoka but it can be a bit variable according to my local friends. For Thai, head to the Thai Barn in Bradford on Avon, or one of the many in Bath.

There are certainly worse places to be stuck for a few weeks! 

Thanks everyone.

To be honest, I am only here until Friday this week and I have a lot of work to get through. I am here with four other colleagues and we can't really go too far because the course is so intense.

We are going to have a bite in the Brunel this evening and maybe a pint or two in the Black horse.

And yes John, it is the Angel and you are quite right, I needed to find a good mortgage brokers today to finance last night's bar bill!

One thing that stikes me with the town centre here is that I have never seen so many different banks and building societies and Barbers shops in one street.

And I don't think I have ever seen a shop front with gravestones in the window before.

"Do you want me to wrap that one for you sir?!

Well, I used to live in Chippenham - spent about 17 years there!  I know the Angel Hotel very well Tony - it's a lot nicer (and consequently expensive!) now than it was a few years ago.  It used to have really ugly apartment blocks out the back (now the car park) - looked like a probation hostel type place!!  The Brunel (just under the arches?) is a fairly new place - only been open about a year I think, and I've only been in a couple of times.  I went back to "The 'Nam" (as we call it!) a couple of weeks ago cos I was photographer at a wedding down there and I was amazed at how much it was the same as 5 years ago, but at the same time amazed at how it had changed (a lot of mobile phone shops these days!).  The barbers have sprung up in the last 12 months too - the original barber (and still the best) is Gary Hatto's, which is on the A4 as you head out of Chippenham towards Calne - about 300 yards up from The Bear pub at the top of town.

Pubs to avoid: The Rose & Crown ("The Rosie") - it can get a bit rough at times (mainly weekends), as there's too many live-for-the-weekend townies eager to get pished and prove themselves at the proverbial drop of a hat.  And also the one near 'Buckles' chip shop, near the bus station.  I forget its name but it's rough as a badger's arse.  The Black Horse is OK, as is The Bear (The Bear used to be a sh*thole about 8 or 9 years ago). There's a pub called the Three Crowns, a bit further up past Gary Hatto's barbershop which is (or always used to be) quite good.

Are you working up at the Paramedic training centre place up on the hill on the way out of town towards the M4?  Not far from Hardenhuish School (my old school).  When I was in my early teens I used to be a 'pretend victim' in 'disaster scenarios' up there that trainee paramedics would have to treat whilst being observed by assessors. It was great fun!  We were given injuries complete with 'special effects make up' and be briefed on how to act etc., and afterwards we'd be interviewed by the assessors to state how well we thought the paramedics treating us did.  There's a wrecked plane in the woods (or there was) for 'plane crash scenarios' and various wrecked cars for RTA simulations, etc. etc.  It was great fun!  I was once given a fake 'tib and fib' injury, complete with bones protruding from the skin and lots of fake blood - afterwards, when I was riding home on my bike in my shorts with the fake injury still there I got some very shocked looks from passers-by who thought I was riding my bike with a severely badly broken leg!!

P.S. did you know that King Alfred famously 'burnt the cakes' in the vicinity of what is now The Angel hotel?  And Oliver Cromwell apparently stayed a night or two in a room above Iceland?  I don't think it was Iceland when he was there though - it was probably still 'Beejam' back then

Have fun in The 'Nam (if possible!), and say hello to my girlfriend's mum if you happen to pop into Haine & Smith opticians in Emery Gate shopping centre.

Thanks Michael,

Well,'

The Brunel was great, Nice food, but I opted for the steak which was a little "chewy."

Last night, we opted for an Indian in another new place called the "Indian Cafe," on the corner of Station Street. I highly recommend this place, good Indian food and VERY reasonable!

I have just got back from the Italian restaurant opposite the Angel, and another great meal!

Cannot fault the eating establishments in the area so far!

I will certainly need to get the dogs out on return home, to shed the pounds gained eating out in Chippenham!!