Musings and rants of a Peterborough blogger

Peterborough has Vivacity!

Apr 27

A few weeks ago Peterborough City Council announcement their intention to move all running of public sports, leisure and arts facilities into a new Peterborough Cultural and Leisure Trust and today I found out the name of said Trust – Vivacity!

I hope this means an improvement in services for Peterborough residents, considering we’ve just lost another theatre (the Cresset is closing in a few weeks in case you hadn’t heard!) but why they feel the need to market it with a rebrand is beyond me. Rather than coming up with names, mission statements and logos, just get out there and provide the services!

According to an article from the Institute of Sport and Recreation Management,Vivacity is the culmination of three years’ work. So this has been in the pipeline all this time?

“The launch marks the beginning of a push to encourage more people to use the city’s cultural, leisure and sports facilities.” – I’m not sure how many people will feel encouraged to pay more for Peterborough cultural, leisure and sports facilities but it’s not like we have much say in the matter.

What the move to a trust does mean is that once it has charity status there are additional benefits and the services will be able to dodge exempt from business rates that normally apply to business, so that alone does make financial sense.

Come Dine With Me – Peterborough

Apr 14

News is that the Peterborough version of Come Dine with Me has now been filmed and is due to air later on this Summer!

Regular readers of this blog will know I’m a fan of the series and a bit of a foodie but there’s no way I would put myself forward for the show. Cooking under pressure isn’t any fun, plus over the years CDWM has become a bit of a caricature of itself with the contestants often paired together in the hope of something dramatic on TV.
Then with the endless repeats shown across digital TV it’s hard to keep track of which is the current series, so I’ve found my interest waning… of course I’ll be setting V+ to record the Peterborough episode of the show!

So I wonder what we can expect to see when Peterborough get’s it’s 5 minutes of TV fame. Will we have a mix of the cultures that make up Peterborough? English meets Asian meets Italian meets Eastern European?

Will the aspiring hosts be shopping locally at some of the great meat suppliers we have like Willowbrook Farm and deli’s like The Pasta Shop? Will Peterborough get off lightly when it comes to narrator Dave Lamb’s comments?

If you know someone that took part in this episode of Come Dine With Me, I’d love to hear more about their experience!

Creating a buzz in The Bee Hive, Peterborough

Mar 19

Sitting quietly on the edge of Peterborough town centre with Bourges Boulevard and the Asda carpark for company, the Beehive pub has always been a bit of an unknown quantity in Peterborough’s pub scene. Admittedly I’ve never had up the courage or the desire to go inside, finding the location a bit inconvenient and never knowing if it’s still open for business.

I’ve not held back in the past with making my feelings known about Jim’s Bistro (read my review here), the French-esque restaurant on Broadway so hearing that owner James (Jim) Trevor is taking over the Bee hive has got my attention. What are Jim’s plans for the Bee hive?

View Peterborough on Google Streetview

Mar 11

Pretty much a year to the day when I first heard that Google’s Streetview cars had been spotted in Peterborough and the images have now gone live on Google Maps!

Have you had a look yet? Do let me know if you find anything interesting happening in Peterborough that day – I know that may be a long shot…

Chimichanga Peterborough is open!

Feb 25

I’ve heard it on good authority from Richard Kendall (@richardkendall) that Peterborough’s latest Mexican-themed restaurant is open for business!

This does mean however that Prezzo Group neglected to keep me informed… shame on their PR department! Let’s hope the food and the Tequila is up to scratch.

I’ve already made my feelings known about what I think this restaurant opening means for Peterborough but now I get to try it and put theory into practice.

Chimichanga Mexican restaurant in Peterborough

Feb 18

Chimichanga Peterborough logo I walked past what was the Verve bar on Church Street and noticed that there’s now a “Chimichanga – We’re hiring” sign in the window, so I’m guessing it’s only a matter of weeks before Peterborough’s newest Mexican restaurant is open. I reported on Chimichanga coming to Peterborough back in October so have been keeping an eye out for any new developments.

So Chimichanga is a chain restaurant and I can understand why many people loathe chains with a passion, but I think this is probably a good thing for Peterborough and if you’ll bear with me I’ll give you 5 reasons why…
Read More…

The smartphone hunt continues

Feb 18

So I went down the Android route, choosing the HTC Hero and overall I’m glad I did as for me, it does a few things better than the iPhone.

The Android Market was one of my big concerns but I’m happy to report that I’ve been able to find just about ever application I could want and more! Some are very good indeed and are used on a regular basis.

Not everything is rosy in HTC Hero land however – there are few things I would like to see improved upon: Read More…

Renting a car in America in 2010

Dec 20

When it comes to driving in America, choosing the right car is half of the fun. When you’ve got endless miles sat with the cruise control jammed into “on” you need to make sure you’re in a happy place so choosing the right car is essential.
Even with the price of fuel being so much cheaper in the US, I’ll be ignoring the thirsty supercars in favour of something slightly sensible.

So looking ahead to what the car industry has to offer in 2010 I’ve found there’s quite a few models that tick the right boxes.

Jofftastic