quote:

Originally posted by Shevchenko:

quote:

Originally posted by Shaker Beads:
GTTMUH - Two Bristol derbies coming up in February! Thank you Johnstone's Paint Trophy! I've just got to hope I can get a ticket now. Come on City!

Another City fan

Good man

Count me in on the City supporters club too...I've only got to two games this season, but hopefully I'll make it to more next season - I'll be living waay closer to Ashton Gate. Public transport in Bristol ain't half crap.

Whereabouts in Bristol do you live, Shaker? (If I'm allowed to ask that without the Mods accussing me of stalking you.)

I'll be at Ashton Gate at the end of April for Gloucester's "home" match against Bristol. Never been to Ashton Gate before, where is it (I know Bristol(!) but whereabouts) and what are the pubs like nearby?

Ashton Gate's just south of the river. From the centre, you go southwest, through Clifton/Hotwells and over the bridge. Pretty easy to find.

The Coopers Arms is the only pub I can think of near the ground - I don't think there are very many near Ashton Gate, actually. It's no Griffin Park!

How come Gloucester have moved a home game against Bristol to Ashton Gate?

There's loads of City fans here! Course you're red too MLV!

Public transport in Bristol is terrible mate, really awful, in fact a few years back it was offically the worst city in the UK - I can't imagine it's got any better.

I did my MSc dissertation on transport planning type stuff and Bristol was one of my case studies, I knew it was rubbish before I studied it now I know just how rubbish! Did you know in Bristol alone, over £350 million is lost every year to congestion? Bristol is heading for traffic melt down and it'll come fairly soon at this rate. I try and avoid the buses at all costs, trains aren't too bad but not that convinent living in the city.

I don't know if this will be deleted straight away now! I don't actually live in Brizzle, I live in the sticks near Keynsham (well that's where I grew up, been away at uni for last few years). It's a small town smack bang between Bath and Bristol. I'm moving to Bristol soon though, not sure whereabouts yet though. Hotwells is near Ashton Gate, Southville's closer - it's a sort of up and coming gentrified place.

Pubs close to the ground aren't that great - there's some nicer places in nearby Southville (The Tobacco Factory is a safe bet) and Hotwells about 10 minutes walk away has some nice pubs near the water like the Nova Scotia

Michael - to answer your question, Kingsholm is being redeveloped. While Gloucester are still playing there at the moment, the work on the grandstand, AIUI, means that they won't be able to play at Kingsholm for the derby (which is the final match of the season, IIRC).

Hello Guys & Gals,

I feel like I haven't posted a normal post (meaning one that doesn't start "Milan HOME 10.00 @ £1.75" or "Inter v Parma...A") for ages.

For those of you with even a passing interest in the recent happenings of my existence, I can say that I'm finally settled in my new home and my new life. Things are going as well as I hoped they would, which is awesome, and I'm starting to feel a lot less guilty about what I did to my former wife (when you find out that both she and her sister have been proper bad-mouthing you to your friends, it makes things that little bit easier).

I wanted to say thank you to everyone who offered support, advice and even words of caution throughout my upheaval. Your virtual friendship is truly valued, and I appreciate all that you did for me.

Anyway, enough of all that malarky...

GTTMMH: Champions League starts again tomorrow!

Glad things are working out for you mr mezz

Curva - another couple pubs in Hotwells are Bag o' Nails and the Hope and Anchor. The Bag o' Nails is a proper ale pub, nice place, it's got a website as well, I think that's why my second post was deleted!

GTTMUH - I'm going to see Hot Fuzz tonite, hopefully it'll be good

quote:

Originally posted by Shaker Beads:
There's loads of City fans here! Course you're red too MLV!

Public transport in Bristol is terrible mate, really awful, in fact a few years back it was offically the worst city in the UK - I can't imagine it's got any better.

I did my MSc dissertation on transport planning type stuff and Bristol was one of my case studies, I knew it was rubbish before I studied it now I know just how rubbish! Did you know in Bristol alone, over £350 million is lost every year to congestion? Bristol is heading for traffic melt down and it'll come fairly soon at this rate. I try and avoid the buses at all costs, trains aren't too bad but not that convinent living in the city.

The buses are truly awful. Infrequent, late and expensive. £2.10 for a 7-8 min bus ride today - I would have walked it but I had three bags with me.

The reason I had three bags with me was that I went home for the weekend - got the coach this morning from London Victoria - Bristol, obviously via the M4. And I'll tell you, with the congestion charge coming in today, we absolutely flew through West London, it probably took half the time it usually does. Brilliant stuff. Of coure, as soon as we got onto the latter part of the M32, it was typical Bristol gridlock. With your qualifications I dare say you knoew more than me about all this, but if there's ever a city crying out for a congestion charge, it's Bristol... I think I did know that statistic about congestion actually - wikipedia knows everything...

I'm moving down to Clifton Village next year - about 5mins from the Coronation Tap if you know where that is. Great location, near the uni, near the shops and about 15/20mins from Ashton Gate. Just a shame it's full of pensioners...

BTW, do you know if the derby on Wednesday is on Sky at all? Doesn't seem to be in their listings...

livesportontv.com says no - Barca v Scousers, with Inter, Roma and Chelsea all on Sky on Wednesday so no chance.

quote:

Originally posted by MICHAEL_LA_VIOLA:
The buses are truly awful. Infrequent, late and expensive. £2.10 for a 7-8 min bus ride today - I would have walked it but I had three bags with me.

The reason I had three bags with me was that I went home for the weekend - got the coach this morning from London Victoria - Bristol, obviously via the M4. And I'll tell you, with the congestion charge coming in today, we absolutely flew through West London, it probably took half the time it usually does. Brilliant stuff. Of coure, as soon as we got onto the latter part of the M32, it was typical Bristol gridlock. With your qualifications I dare say you knoew more than me about all this, but if there's ever a city crying out for a congestion charge, it's Bristol... I think I did know that statistic about congestion actually - wikipedia knows everything...

I'm moving down to Clifton Village next year - about 5mins from the Coronation Tap if you know where that is. Great location, near the uni, near the shops and about 15/20mins from Ashton Gate. Just a shame it's full of pensioners...

Coming from London and the public transport system there it must be a culture shock to come to Bristol! They've been researching implementing road charging in Bristol since the early 1990s and the research has usually shown nothing but good results. Local authorities have to produce Local Transport Plans based on implementing national transport policy guidelines and in 2000 LTP, Bristol CC said it would implement road charging, the second LTP (2006) has no mention of it at all, well aside from literally a couple lines saying "it's been dropped" basically!

It's like a lot of things in local governance, if the top of the hierarchy isn't interested then there's no chance of it happening - Cardiff CC is interested in sustainable transport, but they couldn't give two hoots about sustainable waste management. Buses here are awful because basically there's no competition (that's the fault of central governemnt not ensuring competition would happen as they stated when mass privatisation took place). The only city in the UK where public transport patronage has increased over the last decade (other than London) is Cardiff and surprise surprise there the bus company isn't in the hands of a private company - it's run as one but it's actually owned by the city council.

Effective, sustainable land use/transport planning is virtually non-existant in Bristol as well. Tonnes of developments that have been shown to be completely unsustainable in terms of transport access have been allowed to proceed. That big broadmead place in the centre basically flouts every guideline going set out in national policy like PPG13!

Anyway now I've sent everyone to sleep!

I know Clifton Village it's nice up there, I like the park up near the observatory thing and there's a nice fish and chip shop up the end of the high street as well. I know the Coronation Tap too! My mate used to live round the corner from it and we used to go drink thatchers there, crazy thatchers, it should still be there, they always had loads of ciders when I used to go. It is oldie up there you're right! Lots of nice old dears walking their little dogs round the village green - lovely!

Yeah, like ferret says doubt the game tomorrow will be on TV anywhere with the Champions League back on. Best bet of anything is Radio Bristol which is 94/95 something on FM, pretty sure they'll be commentating on it on there.

I can't get away from the game at the moment I went to see Hot Fuzz last night and the Nick Frost (is that his name? the big bloke) character was wearing a Rovers shirt quite a few times!

Curva - check out City's website for directions to Ashton Gate - I posted a link yesterday but it was deleted

quote:

GTTMMH: Champions League starts again tomorrow!

Being completely neutral when it comes to Champs' League (can't see Villa or Hull City making much of an impact, ever) it's great to hear that champions league song. In fact the hairs stood up on the back fo my neck tonight - "Lasagna Lasagna"

Shaker, i liked your thing about public transport. It's rubbish basically anywhere outside of landen cos nowhere else gets substantial government money.

I've noticed most of the bus drivers in birmingham dont actually know where they're even going.

quote:

Originally posted by Shaker Beads:

Anyway now I've sent everyone to sleep!

Not at all, I found that really interesting actually. I'm doing a Geography module at the moment called 'Sustainable Development', which is kinda related to what you're talking about. You're spot on about the lack of competition - First Buses just run everything, don't they? Bloody useless they are too.

There was a news item on BBC West news (you've gotta love it...) last week about a bus journey from Cheltenham - Bristol, it was meant to take 30minutes, but ended up taking over two hours, because the bus driver kept taking the wrong turning at a roundabout, and ending up in Bath... It was a great story, because it sums up the fact that (a) The buses are crap, and (b) There's almost nothing worth reporting on in the "West" - that was their headline story!

MLV, hast thou been to Oceana?

Yes. Horrible place, in my opinion. Not quite as bad as the one we have back home (Kingston) but still pretty scummy. Went there in the first week, because it was free for Bristol students. Stayed about an hour, and walked to a place down the road...

Once - not the nicest place...not as bad as the one we have back home (Kingston) but still pretty crappy...

quote:

Originally posted by MICHAEL_LA_VIOLA:
BTW, do you know if the derby on Wednesday is on Sky at all? Doesn't seem to be in their listings...

As far as I know Sky have the rights to the game but are not willing to how it because it would interfere with the Champions league. I'm hoping HTV might have a half hour highlight show later, but I haven't heard anything.

Well if highlights are on anywhere don't tune in to them, you'll regret it! What a load of rubbish, I think I'd rather have watched the scousers win at Barca instead last night now. It was really poor, it wasn't that either side didn't try just both showed less quality than a very hungover pub team on a Sunday morning. What a disappointment, I feel daft going on about it for so long now! It was just one of those games where you keep thinking 'it only takes a minute to score a goal and liven things up', but in the end you realise it's really not going to happen! pants pants pants. About all I enjoyed all night was a balti pie.

Taking a slight positive I'm not really fearing the second leg much. Rovers haven't got much going for them at all, it should be pretty even up there still. I'm going to stop talking about it now!

Rosa - that's true about the government funding of public transport being very low but other big factors are things like the planning system in this country. The planning system in the UK is basically totally geared towards provision for the car, it has been for decades. In theory these days developments have to ensure they are accessible by other transport modes (i.e. sustainable ones!) but in practice most local authorities don't enforce this at all.

There's an aspirational "car culture" in the UK as well that doesn't exist in other places, as vague as that might sound it's true. As soon as kids reach 17 the first thing most of them want to do is drive! I don't worry about sounding like a righteous old fogey anymore on these things! But I can't understand why you would need a car at 17? Whenever I go see my parents they moan on about how bad traffic is in Bristol but they're going to probably buy my little sister a car soon - she doesn't need one! She lives less than a mile from sixth form, she has legs! That's what I mean about the car culture. I think it's quite a chicken and egg situation - did the car culture create the car dominated planning system? Or did the planning system create the car culture?

MLV - I saw that news story! Brilliant! It had some poor girl trying to get to an evening class and she made the last three minutes or something. The best local news stories in the west are the ones that involve animals in some way, like a dog that is raising some abandoned lambs or a jack russell discovering some roman pottery near Shepton Mallet. I've been a few places and you can't beat the west country for random slow news days!

btw - Bristol City Council has just been identifed as the worst performing one in the country! Nice!

quote:

Originally posted by MICHAEL_LA_VIOLA:
Once - not the nicest place...not as bad as the one we have back home (Kingston) but still pretty crappy...

Oh dear, MLV going to Oceana in Kingston. From what I've heard that place could be equivalent to the 7th level of hell.