Jane and I took a trip up to Nottingham today. I’ve been there a few times before (back in the day, I even did an interview for undergraduate study and got the offer of a place at the University of Nottingham) but not for a long time. I can confirm that, unlike Loughborough, it is definitely a city. Big buildings, lots of variety, grubby corners.

Anyway, we enjoyed a bit of a wander, following most of the ‘Nottingham Trail Map’ we picked up at the tourist office, including an Anish Kapoor sculpture by the Playhouse that came after my previous visit. We also enjoyed greek coffee at Elena’s Patisserie (a lovely little independent café) and, at the other end of the commercial spectrum, a buffet lunch at the local branch of Cosmo. No need to do anything for dinner tonight after that feast!

I also persuaded Jane to detour to Nottingham’s PMT music store, which probably has about twice as much packed in as the Oxford branch. Big city advantages again. From Jane’s point of view, it is probably just as well that I hadn’t done extensive research and worked out where all the music shops walkable from the city centre were! And, since she endured that visit patiently, I relented and we took a short hop on a tram on our way back to the car, probably not saving any time but it wasn’t too dear and was our first tram journey for a long time.