Leicester

[Sundae]

I have replaced the old video with a newer (shorter) one from today, where I got pole position. Well, the front seat on the top deck anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBozp_oFjp0

The driver sits downstairs on all buses - so it would just have been a passenger in the other video. I understand that some London Double Deckers have been replaced by articulated buses (much to car drivers' disgust) but the double decker is alive & well in Leicester. What has been phased out totally are the old Routemaster buses, which you accessed via a platform at the back of the bus and bought your ticket from a conducter. Having spent a large part of my childhood in London I mourned their passing - I remember more than one occasion where it felt as if I'd taken off as a parent or Grandparent dragged me by the hand onto a moving bus. Knowing my family it probably wasn't moving very far or very fast, but you don't know that as a 6 year old. It did mean you could get off where & when you fancied though - often a boon in heavy traffic.

The Loaded Dog is indeed a pub. Not a traditional one sadly, a made up name for a student pub. But that's the one I've mentioned before, that does a curry, chips and a pint of beer for £2.95 (less than a McDonalds meal) so I forgive it.

My favourite traditionally named pub was in Oxford - the Eagle & Child. No idea how the name came about. Very few pubs are known by their full names anyway - the George for the George & Dragon, the Crat for the Aristocrat and the Plant for the Last Plantagenet are some of my locals.