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Despite all the cycling (thank God the bikes are back in the shop now) I decided to take a run round Cheddar Reservoir this morning. Every time I do this I wonder how many more circuits I have in me, but last time wasn’t the last one and hopefully this one isn’t either. This one was fairly good fun, if a little slow and with the run to and from my cabin came in at 7km, which is encouraging. And equals pretty much exactly two circuits of the res. I listened to “The Warlock Effect†by future RHLSTP guests Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman which transported me away from Cheddar to 1950s London. It’s smart and witty and I suspect there are some surprises to come. Plus I learned how to learn a pack of cards in 55 seconds and how to light a cigarette with a playing card, so it will make me very cool at parties too.
I’ve been running round this reservoir for forty years now. And I can tell you, I wish I could stop as it’s very tiring and I could do with a kip.
It was our last full day in Cheddar and we spent most of it with my folks, having lunch out in
La Rocca for the second time this week. It’s a decent Italian restaurant, much better than it needs to be for tourist trade, though sadly it hasn’t been too busy the times we’ve been there this week. So do pop in for a pizza if you’re in town.
I’ve had to deal with the destruction of the Cliff Hotel on this visit.
I’ve written before about its pivotal part in my life, both in getting into video games and snogging Australians, two activities that I have built my life upon, though not at the same time. It’s rude to not concentrate on each activity individually. The footprint of the building seems ridiculously small, but its obliteration is total, apart from some weird winch like mechanism which is still standing at the water’s edge. I don’t know what’s going to happen to the Cliff Hotel shaped gap. Perhaps the Richard Herring museum will spring up there. Or maybe they’ll just use it for parking more cars. Getting a parking space when we come to La Rocca is the trickiest thing. My dad can’t walk that far, so we need to drive but usually all the car parks are full and I either go and park by my old Middle School and jog back or go in one of the free temporary spaces where you can only park for an hour. Though I’ve taken the chance and stayed for nearer to two the last couple of times and so it’s getting to the point where I have saved enough to pay for the inevitable parking ticket. Today there were unusually spaces in the car park by the pub at the bottom of the Gorge. Which doesn’t augur too well for half term holiday - back in the day you wouldn’t have been able to move for tourists. Maybe soon the whole Gorge will be levelled to the ground like the once successful Cliff Hotel. It will take some work to bulldoze the whole thing, but the people in charge don’t seem to be sentimental, so if things don’t pick up the Mendips will be toast. To be fair they’ve been blasting away at them for a few decades now in the quarries so eventually the Mendips will go.
I worry that La Rocca might be the next thing to be bulldozed. Anywhere I like has been ear marked for ruination, whether it's pubs, restaurants or Cox's Cave. La Rocca used to be
an ice cream parlour which again figured a bit in my youth, though my favourite memory of the place was when I did a spot of busking on my euphonium just up the road and the manager sent someone out with a can of pop for me! Then I was moved on by the police and when I asked the manager if I could play outside his place instead it was an emphatic and understandable no!
Everything disappears. Even the gorge was once hills, but nature chose to fuck them.
He’s still a politician, but his book Breathe shows that he is trying to do something about the climate and pollution and is also an interesting insight into his job.
Buy it here.
