Ye Olde Ostrich part 1

Happy Birthday to my son Joseph, Who was 5 on the 4th of July, and due to his obsession with Lego, the next Olde inn was decided for us...

As a birthday treat for Joseph, my wife and I planned a trip for us all to take him to Legoland in Windsor. So, to kill 2 birds an all that, we looked on our Ye Olde Innseekers map and found that we had a pub in the local area, Ye Olde Ostrich, in Colnbrook, not more than 5 miles from Legoland. As we are about 120 miles from Windsor, we booked a cheap Travelodge at neighbouring Slough, as it was a damn sight cheaper than Windsor. My Dad and I added on another day to the trip so we may visit the Ostrich, and I got permission off the Mrs to have a night in the pub while she stayed in a strange hotel...

So, Excitedly, we picked Joseph up from school and hit the road, made good time, had a pleasant evening in the hotel eating a take away Chinese, rose early, went to Legoland, Grandad and Grandma came along, and Joseph absolutely loved every second of it... it was a perfect family day...  

Joseph and Chloe Shopping for a new Darth Vader....

And then we had to go back to Slough...

I'd really been looking forward to this! Two weeks off work with a trip to see Mrs Browns Boys, a day out at Legoland with the grandchildren, a night out to see Kings of Leon and a weekend away at one of the pubs on our list. Well, the first three went well.

After a long day at Legoland we got back to the Travelodge looking forward to a rest and a quiet night. Me and my good lady were chilling in our room when my son turned up and he was a bit pissed off to say the least. Some dickheads in the room opposite his decided they were going to set off the fire extinguisher in the corridor and while trying to do so they banged the extinguisher against the door of my sons room, frightening the kids who were in bed and on the verge of going to sleep. After a strong verbal warning from the hotel manager they quietened down and eventually me and my son decided to go for a pint at a pub I'd spotted just around the corner.

This pub, the Rising Sun, didn't look very appealing as we approached it. Painted completely black (and from the look of it, a long time ago) it looked pretty foreboding.

 (I should point out here that I've tried to find a picture of The Rising Sun on-line but all the photos I've found show it with white windows and a big blue name sign across the front of the pub and it all looks very nice. This isn't quite how I remember it, but maybe my memory's playing tricks on me)(or it could be the quantity of Stella consumed).

Anyway, just as we crossed the threshold of the pub, not quite knowing what to expect.....................A ROCK BAND KICKED UP!! It was an open mic night and over the next three hours or so we were treated to some excellent blues and rock guitarists. We played a couple of games of pool and, when one of the locals put some money on the table, we ended up playing doubles, me and my son against Artur, a Polish guy and  another fella who's name escapes me but he looked like he could have been Mo Farahs' granddad  They were both nice blokes and we had an excellent time. The landlady, Teresa, even gave me a bar towel for my collection. If you find yourself in Slough and you fancy a pint, try The Rising Sun. It's a proper pub!

Legoland is on the outskirts of Windsor, and that is a beautiful place, the castle, the parks, the fountains for paddling in, the clean shopping centre strewn with all the top designer shops (not that I give a Shit about shopping, but it is a reflection of the area, generally, I think an area is better with armani shops than cash convertors...) 

But we were stopping in Slough... 

Slough is a Shithole.... please, don't visit, just believe me, If you're taking your family to Legoland, pay the extra and stay in Windsor, and drive AROUND Slough. The place has gangs of youths wandering up and down the town centre, throwing stuff at shop windows going completely unchecked, free to do whatever they like. I'll tell you how bad Slough is, look at this extract from Slough.gov 

"Writers have supposed the name to be derived from a 'slough', 'mire' or 'morass'. These are usually places where the soil is soaked all the time and generally muddy. Indeed a number of references are made in local  writings about a 'miry place'"

Basically, the place was named after a hole of shit....

If you know anyone who works for the Thames Valley Police, they have got a proper easy job, cos they certainly ain't doing any friggin' police work down there...

Actually, I'm being unfair... we had a crap stay in Slough, to the point where I was worried about my kids safety, But me and Dad stumbled upon, quite possibly, our perfect pub. Dad and I love rock music, and, as Dad mentioned, we ended up in The Rising Sun at their open mic night, and we sat there watching all the local musicians turn up and just, jam... We made some good friends playing pool, listened to some excellent music and didn't trip over someone eating a mixed grill. Generally, pubbing perfection....

So, Friday we went a ride into Windsor, a very nice place with parks, fountains you can play in and, of course, the Castle, where you can't even walk on the grass??? We spent a couple of hours playing in the park with the children then an hour or so in the fountains, had a nice meal in one of the cafes and a walk around the shops and up to the castle.

But soon it was time to head back to Slough and get ready for our trip to Ye Olde Ostrich in Colnbrook. So we went back to the hotel to chill out for an hour or two before the nights excitement! After some discussion the ladies decided, sadly, that they weren't bothered about going and would stop in the hotel while me and Clint went. Clint ,Sue  and the grandchildren said they were going up into town to get some food before we went out. Me and Aud weren't particularly hungry as we'd had an excellent feed in Windsor in the afternoon so we stayed in the room waiting for them to get back. Then we were reminded where we were..........

Without going into too much detail, what should've been a nice family meal at Pizza Hut, turned into a violent evening between the staff at pizza hut and some local gang, to the point where I was worried for the Mrs and Kids safety. Thames valley police are, and I choose my words carefully, Fucking useless, and to get my family home safe without having to drag them through a bunch of angry teens, I had to call my Dad to come and fetch us. Thanks a lot Thames Valley Police!

Anyway, to the task at hand! We had had a nice long day in Windsor, and a terrible evening in Slough, I was both knackered and very reluctant to leave Sue and the Kids in the hotel. Sue assured me she was fine and they were all tired and would probably be asleep soon anyway. So I went round to Dads room, and immediately I could tell he wasn't up for it either, it had been a long day, but I suspect it was more that he wanted to head back to the Rising Sun...

Clint's half right. I would have liked to go to the Rising Sun as I knew there was a rock band on again and we had had a good time there but I was still looking forward to going to The Ostrich. So eventually off we went to Colnbrook. I drove as it's only 5 minutes or so and we would leave the car there and get a taxi back, picking the car up in the morning.

I just want to add something here, as I was the passenger in said car, I left the menial task of chauffeur to Dad, and I did what every modern man does, and checked my facebook... One of the sponsored pages was British Airways, (weirdly) and there was a story about BA taking receipt of their first Airbus A380, the worlds largest passenger jet, at Heathrow that day. I jokingly mentioned to Pop that we should keep an eye out for it as Colnbrook is only a couple of miles from the airport. As we pulled into the pub car park, we got out of the car and at that moment, a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 was passing over, and I gotta say,  someone sold his soul to the devil, 'c

os its magic that keeps that beast in the air, its HUGE! As it was taking off, it looked like it was skimming, not climbing through the air. It looked like it was struggling to make it! Its a hell of thing to watch, truly, the pinnacle of engineering...  

  Anyway, back to the pub. The Ostrich was reputedly founded in 1106 and was originally called the Hospice but the name has "morphed" into it's present form. As we pulled into the car park Clint took a picture and, I must admit, the place looked pretty good.

The place looks very olde worlde from the outside but once you got inside it looked even better but with a couple of notable exceptions.

A few days before we went I had e-mailed the landlord to remind him we were coming and I had a mail back from him in which he explained that he was sorry but he wouldn't be there and the pub "guide" also wouldn't be there due to serious illness and that he couldn't guarantee that there would be many regulars there for us to talk to but that his deputy manageress would be there and knew we were coming.

 That didn't bode well.

That's all for now. More very soon. Cheers!!