Dan Q

Month: August 2015

Review of Wriggles Brook Gypsy Wagon B&B

This review originally appeared on TripAdvisor. See more reviews by Dan.

Wriggles Brook Gypsy Wagon B&B, 2 Brookside Cottages, Hoarwithy, HR2 6QJ, England.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Beautiful site, even in the rain, and amazing home-cooked food.

My partner, her toddler and I spent two midweek nights in August in the larger “Showman” caravan to celebrate our anniversary. In a long field that twists its way alongside a babbling brook, the owners have set up a trio of traditional horse-drawn caravans, each in a wooded clearing that isolates it from the others. Two of the caravans are smaller, designed just for couples (who are clearly the target market for this romantic getaway spot), but we took the third, larger, (centenarian!) one, which sported a separate living room and bedroom.

Wriggles Brook combined a beautiful setting, imaginative and ecologically-friendly accommodation, and about a billion activities on your doorstep. Even the almost-complete lack of phone signal into the valley was pretty delightful, although it did make consulting Google Maps difficult when we got lost about 20 minutes out from the place! But if there’s one thing that really does deserve extra-special mention, it’s the food:

Our hosts were able to put on a spectacular breakfast and evening meal for us each night, including a variety of freshly-grown produce from their own land. We generally ate in their mini dining room – itself a greenhouse for their grapevines – but it was equally-nice to have pancakes delivered to the picnic table right outside our caravan. And speaking as somebody who’s had their fair share of second-rate veggie breakfasts, it was a great relief to enjoy a quite-brilliant variety of vegetarian cuisine from a clearly-talented chef.

More photos and an extended review can be found on my blog: https://danq.me/2015/08/29/anniversary-at-wriggles-brook/

Date of stay: August 2015

Room tip: “Showman” caravan is larger and most-distant from the path, if you’re looking for privacy (although all of them are quite well-isolated).

Trip type: Travelled with family

Review of Macdonald Bear Hotel

This review originally appeared on TripAdvisor. See more reviews by Dan.

Macdonald Bear Hotel, Park Street, Woodstock, OX20 1SZ, England.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Spacious, professionally-run hotel, but very hot in the summer!

My partner and I spent a night here at the tail end of a mini-break to celebrate our anniversary. Our ground-floor room was clean and spacious and conveniently-placed for the car park and the bar served a delightful selection of cocktails. Unfortunately we were there on one of the hottest days of the year, and the rooms aren’t equipped with air conditioning: even with the windows wide open and a fan running, it made for an uncomfortably hot night!

Date of stay: August 2015

Room tip: In summer, ask for a North-facing room to minimise the temperature: there’s no air-con!

Trip type: Travelled as a couple

 

Review of The Feathers Restaurant & Bar

This review originally appeared on TripAdvisor. See more reviews by Dan.

The Feathers Restaurant & Bar, Market Street, Woodstock OX20 1SX, England .

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Amazing gin selection!

Despite the fact that we’d mentioned being vegetarian (and expressing an interest in a special vegetarian menu they offered) when we booked, this message hadn’t been passed on. However, the staff were very apologetic about the mistake and the chef was able to put together an approximation of the special menu for us at short notice, including a dish new to the restaurant, and it was all delicious.

We paired each course with a different gin, expertly-selected by the incredibly knowledgable bartender at The Feathers’ special gin bar.

Anniversary at Wriggles Brook

Three weeks ago was (give or take a few weeks because we’ve never bothered with accuracy) the end of Ruth and I’s 8th year together, and we marked the occasion with a mini-break away for a few nights. We spent the first two nights in a ‘showman’-style gypsy caravan in Herefordshire, and it was amazing enough that I wanted to share it with you:

'Showman' caravan at Wriggles Brook
It wasn’t quite dusk yet, but we couldn’t resist the urge to light the fire (and the dozens of tiny lanterns).

The place we went was Wriggles Brook, a ‘glamping’-style site in the shadow of the Forest of Dean. In a long field that twists its way alongside a babbling brook, the owners have set up a trio of traditional horse-drawn caravans, each in a wooded clearing that isolates it from the others. Two of the caravans are smaller, designed just for couples (who are clearly the target market for this romantic getaway spot), but we took the third, larger, (centenarian!) one, which sported a separate living room and bedroom.

Annabel in wellies stomps through the orchard at Wriggles Brook.
Between our caravan and the others the owners grew a varied orchard, which Annabel found particularly interesting. By which I mean delicious.

The bedroom was set up so that children could be accommodated in a bunk under the adults (with their own string of fairy lights and teeny-tiny windows, but after she bumped her head on the underside of the beams Annabel decided that she didn’t want to sleep there, so we set up her travel cot in the living room.

Dan and Annabel on the hammock.
Annabel and I swinging on the hammock near the

So yeah: a beautiful setting, imaginative and ecologically-friendly accommodation, and about a billion activities on your doorstep. Even the almost-complete lack of phone signal into the valley was pretty delightful, although it did make consulting Google Maps difficult when we got lost about 20 minutes out from the place! But if there’s one thing that really does deserve extra-special mention, it’s the food!

Steam train in the Forest of Dean.
Nearby activities include steam trains. That’s all I needed to hear, really.

Our hosts were able to put on a spectacular breakfast and evening meal for us each night, including a variety of freshly-grown produce from their own land. We generally ate in their mini dining room – itself a greenhouse for their grapevines – but it was equally-nice to have pancakes delivered to the picnic table right outside our caravan. And speaking as somebody who’s had their fair share of second-rate veggie breakfasts over the last… what, four and a half years?… it was a great relief to enjoy a quite-brilliant variety of vegetarian cuisine from a clearly-talented chef.

A speed bump sign in heavy undergrowth.
I’m not sure why the Wriggles Brook site has ocassional signs like this sticking out of the undergrowth, but they sort-of fit the eccentricity of the place.

So yeah – five stars for Wriggles Brook in Herefordshire if you’re looking for an awesome romantic getaway, with or without an accompanying toddler. Ruth and I later palmed the little one off on JTA so that we could have a night away without her, too, which – while fun (even if we didn’t get to try all 280+ gins at the restaurant we ate at) – wasn’t quite so worthy of mention as the unusual gypsy-caravan-escape that had preceded it. I’m hoping that we’ll get out to Wriggles Brook again.

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The Web Is Not a Post-Racial Utopia

This is a repost promoting content originally published elsewhere. See more things Dan's reposted.

Rust, a 2013 indie survival game from Facepunch Studios, plays like a cross between Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto. Players find themselves “born” into a mysterious wilderness, naked and alone, forced to forage for resources and to craft clothing, supplies and shelter for themselves. They must contend with starvation, hypothermia and animal attacks, but by far the most dangerous threat comes from other players who roam the island.

When the game was first opened up, all players were given the same default avatar: a bald white man. With the most recent update, Rust’s lead developer, Garry Newman, introduced different avatars of different racial origins into the mix.  However, they did so with a twist — unlike typical massively multiplayer online role-playing games, Rust does not allow players to choose the race of their avatar. Instead, they are assigned one at random. Newman explained the change in a blog post…

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Why Cities Aren’t Covered in Empty Cans of Coconut Water

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As a comedian I’ve performed in over 30 countries, and I try to spend my days exploring the city I’m in. For years I’ve noticed a common thing in every one — litter. Not just any litter, the same litter in every city, in every country. You know the stuff I’m talking about — crumpled bags from Whole Foods and empty cans of Coconut Water, right? I’m kidding, we never see that. What I consistently observe is probably familiar to you as well — fast food wrappers, soda cans and cigarette butts. Whether at home or abroad, I often pick up after strangers, and this led to two incidents that stuck with me…

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Non-Rails Frameworks in Ruby: Cuba, Sinatra, Padrino, Lotus

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It’s common for a Ruby developer to describe themselves as a Rails developer. It’s also common for someone’s entire Ruby experience to be through Rails. Rails began in 2003 by David Heinemeier Hansson, quickly becoming the most popular web framework and also serving as an introduction to Ruby for many developers.

Rails is great. I use it every day for my job, it was my introduction to Ruby, and this is the most fun I’ve ever had as a developer. That being said, there are a number of great framework options out there that aren’t Rails.

This article intends to highlight the differences between Cuba, Sinatra, Padrino, Lotus, and how they compare to or differ from Rails. Let’s have a look at some Non-Rails Frameworks in Ruby.

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UK drinkers look at alcohol guidelines, laugh, and have another beer

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You will be shocked to hear that, according to a new report in the journal Addiction, the UK government’s drinking guidelines are incompatible with the UK’s drinking habits. Solving the problem might lie in a counterintuitive update: accepting the reality of binge drinking…

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