Octothorn, Dromedaries, Harriers, BatchMan, the Warwick Twassive and Other Witterings

Blimey, where to start. I've been so busy recently, and there's been so much going on.

Lets time travel back to Thursday, which was the We Are Warwickshire film premier by Adam Swords at The Wild Boar on Lakin Road.

A half dozen short films were shown by young Warwickshire film maker Adam Swords. They are a series of black and white vignettes on local businesses in the local area. Namely:

The Bike Yard, Leamington
Cafe Catalan, Warwick
The Orangery, Kenilworth
The Wild Boar, Warwick
Crustum, Kenilworth
Brazen Ink (formerly in Warwick, now The Parlour).

The films were unexpectantly compelling and the film-maker himself very personable when introducing each of them.

Now for those that don't know, I only moved to Warwick at the start of this year, I joined Twitter at the same time (find me here if you want) and haven't looked back since! For some reason, 555 of you (at the last count) enjoy reading my witterings, but more importantly I've realised that it's a great gateway into the Warwick community. In fact, it was on Twitter that I heard about Adam's film premier.

What made it even more local, even more special, was that each of the businesses featured in the films, contributed to the night in some capacity. Billy and Sophie were there from the Bike Yard to sample the drinks. The drinks were provided by The Wild Boar, and also gave out hot chips. The hot chips were encased in delicious bread from Crustums. Before all this, Catalan provided some tasty appetisers and canapes which were given out in the fine surroundings of the Boar which had been brightened up with flowers from The Orangery. And finally, Brazen Ink had tattoo'd a picture of the Warwickshire Bear and Staff on Adam Swords' bottom*.

* one of this may not be entirely true.

It's worth mentioning that Nick from Crustums Bakery, using beer from the Slaughterhouse Brewery (some of which is brewed at The Wild Boar) made a very very very delicious 'Boar Bread'. Very very delicious.

Everything was provided free of charge from each of the businesses, and all was of the highest quality, so I'd recommend that you hunt a few of them out for yourselves.

The relaxed and friendly atmosphere made for an evening of striking up conversations with whomever happened to be nearby. At one point, that nearby person just happened to be Liz Drake of LoveWarwick twitter notoriety. It was nice to put a face to the name, and Liz said likewise. I've now met two of the Warwick Twassive in real life, the other being Jack Linstead of Warwick Rocks fame.

"Warwick Twassive?" I hear you ask. Well, I thought I'd be able to skim straight over that one, clearly not. It was a phrase I coined whilst whittling away the hours at work. From my initial beginnings on Twitface, it seems that there are a group of Warwick twitters who make up the core of Warwick's online presence. The Warwick Twitter Massive or #WarwickTwassive (!) have been a great way to find out about new events and happenings in Warwick for me. If you've got any more witterings for me, come and say hi here.

Warwick Twassive

Which brings me onto the next topic of conversation, the 'hash tag' or the #hashtag. I think it was Warwick's main Monster Muncher, Vicky Jackson, that posed the question, what are these "# # #" things? I know them as the number symbol, as in Vicky is Warwick's #1 Monster Muncher. Most people in the #WarwickTwassive know them as Hash Tags, the symbol that goes ahead of twitface key words to help you  search/follow them. The more musical among us may think of them as a 'sharp', as in play C#. American's may refer to them as the Pound sign (as a unit of weight). Or, if we were around good few years ago and lived in a small hamlet, with eight land-holdings all around us, we may know it as an Octothorpe. Yes, an Octothorpe. This fact pretty much made Gareth Dore's day.

An Octothorpe

More twitter witterings were around the topic of the forthcoming Warwick Rock's Festival of Food and Film, who are now also on twitface. On the subject of Food and Film, I offered up a couple of gourmet fusion film titles. I think the first couple were "Lambshank Redemption" and "Pie Hard". Suddenly twitter went coco loco, and immediately loads other suggestions from the #WarwickTwassive were being suggested. You can find more of these on an earlier post of Warwick Witterings. Todd from WarwickTweetUp suggested "Bapman", which with my midlands slant on it, turned it into "BatchMan". I think this combined effort, along with "Planet of the Crepes" from Hannah are my personal favourites. What about you?

Which leaves me trying to find a link to my next topic from the ministry of information that is the Warwick Witter. Speaking of which Ministry were a rock band from Chicago, who released the album "Dark Side of the Spoon", another food fusion pun, and it was Storm Thorgerson who designed the cover for Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon". Tenuous I know, but I got there! Anyway, all the to say that Storm, an album art visionary sadly passed away last Thursday.

Storm Thorgerson, 1944-2013

Readers of this blog may or may not know that I've been embarking upon #ShopWarwickMonth throughout the whole of April. As it turns out, I don't actually buy 'much', the better half seems to get the lions share of our daily rations. However, where I have needed something, I've tried my best to Shop Locally and Shop Independently (yes, all on my own, I'm a big boy now!). On Friday night, me and the earlier mentioned better half went to the Warwick Arms Hotel for their highly recommended Fish & Chips night. (£25 gets you two generous portions of Fish N Chips and a bottle of fizz).

Further twitface conversation reveled that they are also open for coffee and cake throughout the day. Apparently they used to offer coffee to take away, but it wasn't a success, but if you take your own cup in, they'd be happy to fill it for you.

#WarwickRocks mug, ideal for takeaway coffee

In addition to this revelation, they serve tea, coffee and cake all day. This is great news, as there's usually little selection of where to go later in the evening other than a pub. Don't get me wrong, this is normally the right choice to make, but for when I fancy something non-alcoholic I'll now know where to go. From the outside of the Warwick Arms Hotel, it's not immediately obvious to me that non-residents are welcome at any time of the day for an americano and slice of carrot cake, but now, thanks to twitface, I know.

Similarly there are a number of restaurants in Warwick that are happy for you to visit for just a coffee, a glass of wine or a slice of lemon tart. Both Piccolinos and Aqua Food & Mood welcome in patrons regardless of if they want a three course meal or a glass of prosecco. As Aqua's Abz stated, they're there for "Food AND Mood!". What other restaurants offer this in Warwickshire, where else can you go along for just a tipple if you wish?

Back to the blog, and the most read post on Warwick Witterings so far is the "Coming soon in Warwick & Leamington" post. Well, almost in stark contrast, a 'recently closed' entry is The Cape of Good Hope pub. Which is sad news, as it's a fantastic canalside drinking hole. Although I'm reliably informed it'll be soon reopened, and better than before! More news as I get it.

Right, well if you're still reading, well done you.

Some things I've not even had chance to mention are Dromedaries and Bactrian camels (you learn something new on twitter everyday!), the former has one hump, the latter has two. Jenny from Sweet As Cakes spotted  one in Leek Wootton.

Skett's Markets are starting a new CRAVE (Craft Retro Antique Village Event) Market in Warwick on Sundays starting from May 5th.

Sunday was Record Store Day, HEAD in Leamington, an indie record shop, had some great records (yes, actual vinyl) issued exclusively for independent retailers to sell on #recordstoreday . If you've not been in, it's a great shop, with some very helpful and knowledgeable staff.

...and finally, on Saturday morning I was motivated to take part in my fifth every ParkRun. It's a free weekly 5km run around Leamington's Newbold Comyn. The sun was out, and it was a near perfect start to the weekend and get over the hangover. In short, I'm now inspired to try and know 5 minutes off my 5k time over the next 5 months. I think I may need the help of #WarwickRunClub , Spa Striders, Warwick Wasps or the Hampton Magna Harriers, or perhaps all of them?!



It seems this whole blog post was written whilst you were all watching Olivia Coleman (of Peep Show fame!) in Broadchurch (#broadchurch) on TV and whilst Manchester United were crowned 2012/2013 Champions by winning the Premier League.

Olivia Coleman in Broadchurch

Olivia Coleman in Peep Show