Gnosall open mic night

Probably quite a short post but who knows. We were leaving Stafford behind and were checking where we would stay next when I spotted on the map the town on Gnosall. By the way who knows how to pronounce Gnosall?  We were clueless so decided to ask the wifey in "The bakery" which might not have been a wise move because "The Bakery" was some way short of what one might expect of an establishment with such a name. It did have some bread and some buns but was sadly laking in the baked goods which were promised by the name. Alas I digress. How do you pronunce Gnosall. Well according to the aforementioned wifey in the aforementioned bakery it is No as in the word no and sall and in the start of the same Sally. No-sall. 

OK having sorted that out why were we stopped in Gnosall? Well I happened to know a guy who, in combination with others, runs an open mic night in the Royal Oak in Gnosall. As it happens it is on a Thursday night so we decided, having plenty of time to get to Chester to stop in Gnosall for the day. The staff of the pub kindly agreed that we could park in their carpark and stay overnight after the evening. In exchange we made use of their dining facilities for lunch and purchased a few beverages in the evening. Win - win as they say.

We had some time on our hands so we wandered around Gnosall looking for the post office in order to buy some stamps. We followed the signs for the post office, as you would, and found a fairly quaint small town or large village depending on your point of view.  Here's what I found about Gnosall

History & Features

• Gnosall dates back to the Domesday Book (1086), where it was listed as "Geneshale."

• It has a strong medieval history, including St. Lawrence Church, which has Norman and Gothic architectural elements.

• The village grew around agriculture but has evolved into a semi-rural community with modern amenities.

Whilst searching for the said post office we passed a couple of post boxes with knitted tops. Sheila snapped this one and we subsequently found another two each with knitted tops. There must be a phantom post box top knitter of olde Gnosall town. Sounds like an episode of the Two Ronnies.

Anyway let's get back to the search for the post office. We followed the signs but could not find any trace of the place. We were lucky enough to spot and friendly lady just getting out of her car. The car is not really relevant to the story but it places the thing in context. OK so I say to this lady in my best English, because we are in England now so there's no need for any Spanish. Can she tell me where the post office is? She tells me that it used to be in the building opposite but that it has now moved to the other end of town. In the oppostite direction from whence we had come. Still it was a lovely day and we wandered round the town on the way back. We passed the old church mentioned above, St Lawrence Church, or so the research would have us believe. I have no reason to think otherwise. Study of the photgraphs should reveal the Gothic and Norman features. It was pretty old but still looked robust enough to stand for another hunderd years or more I suppose.

You will no doubt be pleased to know that we found the post office and were able to purchase the stamps we needed. Have you seen the price of first class stamps recently? Wow. If you are one of the recipients of the things we posted I hope you are appreciative of the effort we went to both to find and then pay for the stamps. If you do not get anything from us in the post then it's not because we didn't want to send you something. Have you seen the price of stamps recently?

In the afternoon we went for a wander by the canal side which was extremely pleasant. The sun was shining and we chatted to a few boat owners as they drove their barges peacefully along the canal. What a lovely pace of life that is. 

I could not resist taking a photo of one of the canalside gardens. It was utterly hideous. I do not know what the owner thinks is attractive or appealing about his collection of objects. Make sure you click this photo to see the enlarged version.

After our walk we headed back to the motorhome and decided to stop once again in "the Bakery" to re-examine the selection of baked goods on offer in the hope of finding something appetising for afternoon coffee. We settled on a packet of Manchester Tarts. Have you ever had a Manchester Tart? If you know what a Manchester Tart is you can skip the rest of this paragraph. If not, read on.  In case you have never had the good luck or misfortune (depending on your point of view) to sample a Manchester Tart I shall describe it to you. So firstly picture a paper cake case, one of those serated things that muffins come in. Are you with me still? Now substitute that for one of the aluminium foil kind as in a Christmas pie but deeper as in the muffin case. So far so good. Now the Christmas pie analogy was rather apt becase the kind of pastry in the bottom of a Christmas pie was the same as the pastry in the bottom of the Manchester Tart. However the similarity ends at that point. So no mincemeat. I have no idea why they call it mincemeat because there is no mince in it anywhere but alas I have digressed once again. So instead of the mincemeat in the bottom of the pastry case of a Manchester Tart you will find some runny jam. The lady who sold us them was kind enough to warn us of the perils of biting into a Manchester Tart without taking the necessary care to avoid the jam spewing out and down the front of your shirt or other chest covering garment. Frankly, although I did find the jam, I did not feel that it was in sufficient quantity to have warranted the warning which did have us more than a little concerned. Anyway the jam inside a Manchester Tart is hidden by a generous topping of cold custard with garnish of dessicated coconut. So there we have it Manchester Tarts. Would I buy them again? Probably not. They were OK but not worthy of a reinvestment. PS we managed to eat them with sufficient assiduity to avoid any jam covered attire.

In the evening we attended the open mic night with its usual collection of performers. Why is it that people who cannot hold a tune feel the need to get up and inflict themseleves upon others? Anyway some people were really good, me in particular, and some were pretty good and some were average.

Best performance of the evening!!

The organisers announced that this would be the last open mic session because the pub was closing down. Now I can assure you that it was NOT because of my performance but it was in fact closing down anyway. A very enjoyable evening.

Today we have moved into Wales (by about 200 metres) but it is still Wales so we have added another country to our journey.

So that brings us to the end of this short post!!!

Have a great day.

David Sheila and MJ