Nottingham

I made it to Nottingham yesterday without too much drama. My train was slightly late because of temporary speed restrictions on the tracks, which meant I got a small refund (about £7) on my ticket price. Not too shabby!

This morning has been an adventure because the WiFi in my guesthouse room is terrible. I set out to find a coffee shop but the only one nearby and open was a Starbucks inside a vast shopping mall called Victoria Centre. I had to gin up the courage to walk through the mall doors -- with their signs saying it opens at 9 a.m. -- and passing all the silent and gated shops, find the Starbucks, which opened at 7:30! Go figure.

Anyway, back to yesterday. After getting off the train, I wandered around central Nottingham for a couple of hours, taking pictures. There are some lovely ornate Victorian buildings (above) and lots of curious shops and people out and about.

I popped into a sandwich shop called Birds for a lamb-and-mint pasty, which I ate on a bench on a pedestrianized street. I then headed toward my guesthouse, just north of downtown.

I came across this local character, sitting at the base of a statue and keeping up a lively dialogue with himself. I like his crown. He appears to have a huge joint in his hand in addition to his tallboy Heineken, which might explain the dialogue.

I eventually found my guesthouse, called Mama's. I killed time with a cup of coffee in a Korean restaurant across the street until my check-in time of 3 p.m.

All the rooms at Mama's are named for cities. Mine is "Vienna." I had a bit of confusion over the keys -- the room keys look exactly like my house keys, and I somehow got them mixed up and then couldn't figure out why I couldn't lock the room door. I embarrassingly got the clerk involved and she couldn't figure it out either, but I eventually tumbled to what was happening. Good grief!

I took a little nap and then walked to a nearby pub called The Gooseberry Bush for dinner -- cheeseburger and a pint. I read the New Yorker as I ate -- an article about Jared Kushner and his "diplomacy" and profiteering from his connection to Trump. Very appropriate for the talk by Owen Jones I was about to attend, focused on the malfeasance of our current and past leaders who perpetually put profit and money ahead of policies that will benefit their constituents.

The talk was held at an Islamic community center called the Himmah Hub. See that camera in the foreground? That freaking thing was in my line of sight the whole time -- I had to lean slightly right or slightly left to see Jones as he spoke. Leave it to me to choose the worst possible seat in the house, and I was there practically before anyone else!

Jones was very interesting. Among his memorable points, he lightly quipped that Donald Trump would make a great drag queen, because he's already such an extreme character, caked in makeup and making catty, cutting remarks about other people. (The difference, I would say, is that drag queens do it in fun, while Trump does it out of sheer meanness.)

On a more serious note, he had a lot to say about Israel's genocide in Gaza and about the instability in Western societies, brought on by economic and political decisions during the years since the fall of the Soviet Union. (The most obvious being the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.) He sounded some notes of hope, though, noting the popularity of politicians in the USA like Zohran Mamdani and AOC. I'm looking forward to reading his book.

Afterwards, I popped into another pub called the Lincolnshire Poacher and had another pint before heading back to "Vienna" and my bed under the orchids.

And now, more people are moving around in the Victoria Centre and there are even a few other customers in this desolate Starbucks. I guess I should make a plan for the day before I catch my train back to London at 2 p.m. I'm thinking I'll go see the castle.