It was a bit of a squeeze to get in because the St John’s Chop House, in common with most other restaurants this month, is heavily booked for Christmas parties. However get in we did and we had a fine table upstairs close to our own ‘private’ bar!

I remember the time when there was no a restaurant on the site where the Chop House now trades. In the mid 60s there was a grocer’s shop but it was then reinvented as an Italian restaurant: the Bistro Italo. This was a sister restaurant to theVino Bistro in Mill Road and both restaurants offered ’sophisticated’ fare at affordable prices. I remember 3 course lunches for ten shillings and a dinner for 2 including wine for three quid.

There’s a gap in my knowledge of about 30 years but I do know that in the Mid 90s it was Michel’s, a rather up market establishment, then Prezzo, pasta and pizza, before becoming St John’s earlier this year.

Inside it is what you’d expect of a chop house: plain wood, cool lighting and, what has now become de rigeur, black uniformed serving staff. The service was good: efficient and attentive. And there’s an excellent wine list with most wines available by the glass.

And food? Starters are modest and heavily salad based. The salads where pleasantly aromatic. The menu of mains was maybe disappointing. It’s a chop house so where are the chops?  Fair enough there was a pork chop, pronounced excellent by one of our number, but no lamb chops. I’d have expected at least a Barnsley Chop.

5 out of our 6 were happy. My steak was excellent and the hand cut chips were impressively variable. Two sea bass were fine, the pork chop was good as noted above and the lady who took the suet dish pronounced it excellent. The disappointment was the goose: chewy and dry. Perhaps an aberration.

The desert menu is very heavy and certainly after a suet pudding you can’t handle a toffee pudding. Perhaps the next version could be a little lighter. But there is a real coffee machine and the espresso was just fine. £30 a head, including service, is not a bad deal.

The third Friday in November is a regular date for Hawarden Grammar School old pupils from the late 50s/early 60s to meet, reminisce and exaggerate. I’m not a great person for staying in touch which I regret so this year I went.

For those whose memories don’t go back that far it’s maybe worthwhile describing secondary education 50 years ago. First of all of course there was the 11 plus which effectively split the youth of the day into two at the age of 11. However because primary schools were pretty good it wasn’t that divisive. My cohort included a large percentage from the council estates in addition to the inevitable middle class kids.

There were 4 forms of entry at Hawarden and that meant class sizes of over 40. That was not unusual. In the firsts and second years there were 2 mixed forms, one all boys and one all girls. And then in year 3 we ’specialised’ which meant splitting the boys from the girls because boys did science and girls did languages. Actually there were 5 girls doing science in my year and 3 or 4 boys doing languages. However this meant excluding generations of girls from careers in science and engineering. And although the boys did one language their choices in the humanities were also severely limited.

O levels came in form 5. Many kids left and maybe one third stayed on until the 6th form. I seem to recall that most of the council house kids left at this point leaving just the middle classes with a focus on university or ‘teachers training college’. These latter institutions have now morphed into or merged with universities but were an essential part of the career path in those days.

Anyway this year there were about 25 people at the reunion including 8 from my year. I would have recognised none of them but it was excellent to meet them again and to find out that life had treated them well.

Nobody goes to Cuba for the food. In restaurants the choice is generally chicken, fish or meat and the meat is usually pork.You get some salad (good) and some vegetables cooked English ie over-cooked (bad). And for dessert it always seems to be flan. But the Cafe Cienfuegos is different.

The wife and I went to Cuba courtesy of Travel Editions. We’ve used them several times for tours in Italy and they’ve been good. We thought we’d try them for Cuba since we wanted to go before it changes. Because with Fidel gone and the rest of the revolutionary leaders old and a new man in the White House change there must surely be.

We were in a group of 11 plus a local guide and an excellent driver.and it was tremendous fun although perhaps 10 days was enough. It was a bit like an Agatha Christie crime story only it wasn’t about murders but who would get the next bad stomach. We numbered a doctor and a dentist, 3 ‘consultants’ and a couple of IT geeks. Photos available on request.

Cuba was exactly as expected but more so. The old cars are still there, everywhere, and it has many of the trappings of a communist country. Bit it’s also Spanish and Caribbean which means that it’s neither quite like the old Eastern Europe nor China before it started to change.

Cuba has colour and music and on the streets, although it’s not exactly like your average European country, there’s enough fashion to tell you that the average urban Cuba knows what’s current elsewhere in the world despite the state domination of the media. However there’s no free press, the TV is ostblok standard and the internet where it’s available is dial-up slow.

The clue to the food is in the country-side: limited mechanisation and continued state domination of the sector so that despite apparently fertile land it imports food and doesn’t do variety. And why it does not offer the bounty of the Caribbean Sea beyond just ‘fish’ and lobster I do not know.

But the Cafe Cienfuegos is something else.It’s in the Club Cienfuegos which is a yacht club and would fit  anywhere in the Caribbean or the Mediterranean. It’s classy, elegant and has a great position. My guess is that many of its patrons come by sea rather than walking from the Hotel Jagua which we did.

The food, service and ambience were simply first class. The waiters spoke fine English and interacted with humour and dignity. The food was excellent. Most of us had steaks (after 5 days away we needed red meat) and although not exactly Aberdeen Angus it was very tasty and had ‘good bite’. And to wash it down, wonderfully, there was a selection of wines at European restaurant prices. The Casillero del Diablo (one of my regular tipples in the UK) went down a treat.

And whilst we’re at it. As long as you look there are good eateries elsewhere in Cuba. We also enjoyed Don Tomas (a Welsh restaurant?), an excellent top-end cafe in Vinales, and the Cafe del Oriente, seriously fine dining, in Havana.

A couple of years ago I’d never been to Bournemouth, now I’ve been 3 times and it’s a resort to be recommended. This time I stayed at the Hotel Riviera on West Cliff.

We didn’t have much of a summer this year but September was a bonus and there were people on the beach and in the sea when I arrived. And my room was on the top floor with an uninterupted view out over the bay and clear sight in both directions. It was splendid.

But the Hotel Riviera is no boring, clone of a modern hotel. Neither is it to be confused with the Riviera Hotel also in Bournemouth which looks nice but isn’t on the front. It reminded me of the hotels I used to stay in when I went on summer hols with my parents some years ago.

In those days it was usually Llandudno which still seems to me to set the standard for a resort. At Llandudno there’s still a pier and there’s a string of hotels along the front. And when I used to stay there there was a tramway which ran open-top trams to the neighbouring resort of Colwyn Bay. There was then and there still is a cable car going up the local peak, the Great Orme, where the destination used to be Randy’s Bar.

But back to the Hotel Riviera. It is not expensive, great value at £50 for dinner, B&B. But the mealtimes are from a different age. No breakfast before 0830 and last orders for dinner at a quarter to seven! I don’t mind tradition but that’s a bit limiting. I didn’t make dinner but I enjoyed the breakfast, despite having to conform with pre-arranged seating.

The hotel has one of those splendid lifts with concertina doors. And of course if someone had left the door open, it was not automatic, someone else had to go and find the lift. No problem for me but there was a disabled lady on the top floor in the room next to mine. She needed the lift but unfortunately it was not big enough to take her wheelchair; she had to stand and her partner folded it up to take it in the lift with them.

The bedroom was a compromise. The traditional sink in the bedroom but also a shower and toilet shoe-horned into a cubicle by the door. No room for the cat to be swung. But the view was exceptional.

It was a good stay. I had lunch in the garden on the day we arrived and enjoyed breakfast every morning. I would change time for dinner but otherwise it was fine; I’d happily return.

 Yesterday we went to London. Birthday treat to see the Jersey Boys. Being a child of the 60s the Four Seasons are of my era and being of a contrary nature I was always inclined to favour them over the Beatles. Which is not so say that I didn’t like them as well.

At the risk of boring the 60s were different. It was the generation of the tranisitor radio which made music portable. It was also the start of a radio revolution first with the pirate radio ships and then the birth of Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4. Then I listened to Radio 1. Now it’s all Radio 4.

The 60s were also different in terms of media. There was obviously no Internet, there were no CDs and there weren’t even casette tapes. We had big shiny vinyl LPs and smaller singles. And money didn’t seem to stretch very far. LPs were for Xmas and birthdays and special events, singles maybe more frequest. But it did mean a music collection of ’sensible’ size. Every album was played over and over.

But the show was brilliant. We’ve been to see 4 or 5 musicals recently and the impact of modern day sound systems is massive. Add the impressive sets and the easy transitions from scene to scene and you come out suitably awed.

This show had the music, and impressively the Four Seasons music did improve as they matured, a very professional performance and a story which I had not appreciated. There was real sadness, the reward from hard work and honest endeavour and loyalty and commitment to one’s mates.

There’s no rush, the show is on until October 2010, but it is worth seeing. But you will need to save up. West End shows aren’t cheap these days, just like buying music in the 60s.

I’m not what you’d call a petrol-head. I don’t watch Top Gear but that’s mainly because it’s become too overtly an anti climate change concern program instead of one which highlights engineering excellence and promotes the thrills and pleasures of driving without the excesses. But then perhaps it’s the excesses which turn the petrol-heads on.

I’ve had a car for my entire driving life. For a time they were provide to me by my employers but I started buying my own (more later) and I guess I’m going to finish in the same way. I’ve now got a Skoda which does nothing for my ego but runs on fresh air.

Last week I rented a Mini. I was quite excited because my first car had been a Mini, 770 XTU and I’d hoped for a nostaglia experience. No way.

Minis 40 years ago were pretty basic. They retailed new at about £500 which in retrospect was a mistake; car companies didn’t do much marketing then. Inside there was little in terms of upholstery, there were enormous wells in the doors where there was a wire pull to open them and the ignition was on the floor. As you drove it you felt it; the basic mini had little power and demanded anticipation and expert use of the gears. It was great fun and mine was green but more of a pea green than the one in the photo.

Today’s Mini is by BMW of course and is not basic. It is well fitted out, comfortable and fully electronic. But when I drove it there was no sense of  ’I've been here before’. No doubt it is a good car but it disappointed me. I’ve recently hired a Golf, which of course is out fo the same stable as my Skoda, and I found it much more responsive and easy to drive.

The one feature that did impress me though was the auto engine cut-out and restart. Whenever you stop, engage neutral and pull on the hand break, which I do all the time, it’s how I was taught, the engine cuts out. The when you depress the clutch again to start off the engine restarts. And being a BMW engine with, presumably ,a Bosch starter motor, it starts quickly and first time every time. This has a measureable impact on fuel consumption and on carbon emissions. Well done BMW!

It was 12 months ago that I started this blog. It was meant to complement my political web-site which thanks to the kind electorate of Cottenham, Histon and Impington is required to continue. And thanks to my fellow Lib Dem councillors on Cambridgeshire County Council I am starting my 3rd year as group leader and so I was able to attend the LGA conference. Which is where this blog started 12 months ago.

I like Harrogate. It’s got some really nice hotels and a good choice of splendid restaurants (more on one below). Unfortunately Cambridgeshire County Council decided that we should not stay at one of the many close to the conference centre but to challenge us with one somewhere out on the Knaresborough Road. Nice enough location if you want to enjoy the wonderful green space south of the B6040, not so good if you want to shuttle to and from the conference centre during the day. I part way solved the problem by adding to the local council’s concessionary bus fares deficit (Harrogate really does have a splendid bus system) but given the humidity and 30 degree heat it wasnt’ really practical to return to the hotel during the day.

Restaurant-wise I picked a winner. I went to Graveley’s which is a proper fish and chip shop with a licenced restaurant ‘on the side’. I was on my own and in these days of expenses scandals I was looking for value and I got it. Within 5 minutes of sitting down I’d ordered, got a beer and was tucking in to haddock and chips. I couldn’t do a direct comparison to Petrou Bros in Chatteris which sets the gold standard for fish and chips but Graveley’s came pretty darn close.

My jouney home was interesting. I travelled by train of course and had an hour and a half to spare at Leeds. After lunch (a choice of open air cafes across the square from the station! I chose and enjoyed Loch Fyne) I returned to get my train only to find it cancelled. So with half an hour to wait for the next one I decided to take some photographs of the station (I taken a few in York on the way up). Oh dear no. A very nice official from the station staff told me I could not photograph the structure of the station (although I could get permission if I wrote in) because of the risk of terrorism. I ask you. Does that not sound a trifle OTT? I didn’t argue. We smiled and shared a ‘what’s the world coming to’ moment.

Every month I write a monthly report. I do it because I’m a county councillor and it keeps the parish councils in my division up to date with what I do. I finish every report with a personal item. I thought you might like to read the one I wrote yesterday. You can read the full monthly report (not recommended) at www.davidjenkins.org.uk.

And finally … yesterday I didn’t watch the Cup Final. Granted I had other things on my mind but I still felt no compunction to take time out to watch it. This would have been unheard of years ago. I’ve grown up with football, although now I have more passion for the oval ball game, and I’ve always made a point of watching the Cup Final wherever I’ve been.

I grew up with 2 football teams which I supported. One was and still is Connah’s Quay Nomads which plays in the Welsh League, division 1. I used to stand on the terrace there every Saturday. The other was Manchester United because it was the time of the Busby Babes and I just got sucked into supporting them. I wish I could shake it off now. Today I also support Histon of course.

But why didn’t I watch the Cup Final this year? Because the heart has gone out of football. I would not deny that as a spectacle it is often a joy to watch and that although individual skills may not have improved tactics have and some of the moves are thrilling to watch. But football has become a business, too many people talk of ‘brands’ and there’s little loyalty between clubs, players and communities. I can’t have a passion for that. That’s why I didn’t watch the Cup Final this year. Maybe next year though.

The Guardian yesterday ran an article about Suffolk for the benefit of Roy Keane who’s just taken over the manger’s role at Ipswich. It talked of sheep and tractors and contrasted the pace of Suffolk life with that of Manchester and that part of Cheshire beloved of its footballers.

If you head off down the A14 east from Cambridge and take exit 42, the first one for Bury (that’s St Edmunds not Giggs lane), and head south you get t oHorringer which is a fairly tupical Suffolk village. Traffic calming, a village geeen, nice big houses and a couple of pubs. The first of these is the Six Bells which looks inviting; the second is the Beehive which is more nonedescript: there is no front door and entry is from the carpark. That’s where we were last night.

It was my second visit, I’d first been maybe 6 years ago. It has not changed. I remember the landlord and the displays of wines behind the bar. But most of all I remember good wholsome food, well served and a reasonable bill. 

There were 6 of us and we had a 2 for 1 (ie 6 for 3) deal so we only paid £20 a head for 3 course, coffee and enough wine to go around. There were sardines, crayfish and figs with ham as starters then sea bass, pork belly, duck and liver to follow. It wasn’t necessarily Gordon Ramsey but it was good.

Most important the Beehive is still a pub. There were people standing at the bar and there was a range of draight beers (although the choice of bottles was poor). And the wine list as you can see is ample with nothing over £20. Well worth a visit and I should not wait for another 6 years to go by.

And by the way: one of our number runs the rather smart gentleman’s outfitters in opposite Trinity in Cambridge and he says that his new season’s clothes are just in and it’s worth a visit.

For collectors of meaningless trivia: if you want to find a restaurant midway between Histon and Market Harborough go to Keyston. Keystonis just oof the A14 west of Huntingdon and it strikes me as a rather affluent village. The blue bins mark it out as being in Huntingdonshire and it boasts a fine church, a manor house and a fine restaurant at the Pheasant.

The Pheasant used to be part of the Huntsbridge group which also owned the Three Horseshoes in Madingley (another of my favorites) and is now reduced to the Bridge hotel in Huntingdon. It was sold to the current owners, both of whom have impressive experience, in 2007. Today was my first visit. It won’t be my last.

I met a business colleague and we really didn’t eat enough to justify a ‘review and the place was hardly busy so we didn’t see the staff performing under anything like stress but you know how it is when you go to a place and just get a ‘good feeling’. I will go back and give it a good work-out.

You might call the Pheasant a gastropub but my guess is the owners would say that it’s more than that. However it is still a pub, and a village one at that, and it boasts the wooden kitchen style tables and stone floors characteristic of gastropubs. Whatever you call it, it has the right look and feel.

It was quiet but nonetheless it was good to be served promptly and efficiently. We both had moules, maybe we should have avoided these on a Monday but they were fine. I took the Belgian option ie with chips, Jerry stuck to bread. He had a pint brave man that he is; I could not, it just sends me to sleep at mid-day, and stuck to water. And I forgot to give the place the tap water test.

The staff seem to be largely European, as of course were the diners but you know what I mean, so I felt that we would be on firm ground asking for an espresso. No problem. Mission accomplished: back to Market Harborough and Histon respectively.