Very expensive for what it is: £12.10 for cod and small chips (and, small refers both to the order size and the individual chips, none of which exceeded 2cm long). The oil seems to be of a healthy variety which is to say devoid of beef drippings and, as a result, flavour.
But, the Cod’s Scallops doesn’t cater to the likes of me and you. Rather, it is quite obviously geared to the middle-class (what, in the States, is considered entry level rich and over here is largely privately educated and out-of-touch with the, ugh, working poor). In generally over-priced Harborne, I imagine the Tarquins and Felicitys stumbling out of The Junction at closing time need a place for some plaice (like the rest of us do in our comically shit boozers) if they don’t want to trouble Driver with calling ahead to wake Cook on the ride home.
The kitchen was always going to be the most stressful room to refurb (even though the bath was an absolute logistical motherfucker). But, there had been no planning done in the kitchen design as we bought it and the stress of living in this poorly thought out galley (I’m in the kitchen several hours per day) built up over the nearly three years we focused on the rest of the house. We had been picking away at it when we converted the old bath to a laundry and when I was de-Artex-ing the gaff but the first signs of the potential came with tearing down the plaster on two walls and removing a spurious cabinet over the BUN paint tester spot:
That was over a year ago and other things got in the way until late summer this year when we finally pulled the trigger and bought some better appliances then cabinetry to surround it (Ikea out, Ikea in, but Ikea has a solid kitchen reputation).
With all the parts in the house (and the dangerous and tiny gas cooker replaced by a very well reviewed induction hob with two fan ovens), we set about dismantling the old — appropriately enough on the day before the Queen’s funeral.
The pipework for the underfloor heating was partly assembled then finished and leak tested once the quarry tiles were removed.
Installed one week, we were able to start the flow through them the next. Jimbo seemed to approve of the warmth despite some tile clean-up, polishing, and sealing still to do by the time this snap was shot:
The de-rendering last month was mainly meant to expose the brickwork around the window we were replacing. The old one stretched down to the drainboard and sink and was fitted unsympathetically and asymmetrically into the original casement frame. All of that was pulled out.
It is a double brick wall so I had much more masonry to lay than expected (not to mention that it was the first bricking I have done since 1978 on my uncle’s dairy). We are painting the outside when we finish the repointing (probably early Spring) but the new brickwork and window look okay.
The tiling we planned for the wall with the new window would be a struggle to hang directly on the brick, so I installed cement backer boards while Jackie applied some base coat paint to the portion of the opposite walls that will be exposed between the hanging and base cabinets.
It is still a wreck, we’re prepping meals and drinks on the old worktop which is balanced on sawhorses, the dining room is cluttered with flat packs and hardware (much to Jimi’s delight), and food/dishes/small appliances are scattered hither and yon. But, we can start to see it coming together at long last.
Hostile crowd of dudes in the corner. Obviously regulars, they spent some effort trying to stare down someone who obviously wasn’t. When the Vod closes down in a few months, I doubt they’ll realise it’s because their steady diet of Coors Light wasn’t enough custom to keep the doors open. That’s a shame.
Endless British Pub Crawl (Part 3) 