November 2011
Berkhamsted’s climb up the culinary ladder continues. I heard last week that Raymond Blanc will soon be joining the likes of Chez Gerard, Villagio, the King’s Arms and the Gatsby. Fantastic! I’ve been to M. Blanc’s more famous establishment, Le Manoir, a couple of times. It is a very special experience, and not just for your wallet! Let’s hope Berko’s Blanc mirrors its success. I look forward to giving it a try.

After many weeks of hearing nothing I finally received my notice of reprieve for transgressing the Moor End Road restrictions. Having appealed fairly early on in the fiasco (25,000 drivers fined at the last count) I thought I might succeed, especially when it turned out that the enforcers couldn’t cope with the sheer volume of paperwork which had been generated. The warning signs and road markings are now clearer but people are still being caught. They can’t believe that if you want to get to the Magic Roundabout from Waterhouse Street, all of a few hundred yards,  you must now turn round and drive all the way back to the other end of town.

I have finally decided to bite the bullet and take out membership of the Rex Cinema, Berkhamsted. This is after years of endless phone calls trying to book tickets on a Saturday morning. But I doubt of this will be much good when Hugo is shown. It’s about a boy who grows up in a Paris railway station and Scorsese’s shots of the city are apparently breathtaking. Alas they are in 3D!

I don’t like the Old Town’s new Christmas lights. What happened to the lovely old ones with their warm reds and yellows? They have been sacrificed in the interests of energy saving. The new ones, colourful and environmentally PC though they may be, have a cold and clinical blue hue. Warm and inviting they are not.

I see the Gazette has caught up with my posts about sky high petrol prices in Hemel. My advice is to nip over to Shell, Redbourn where 4-star is 129.9p a litre, at least 3p less than here.

2025 Update: Interesting to note that 14 years on, petrol is still around the same price.