Just back from a short break in Harrogate.
My wife and I are regular visitors to the picturesque North Yorkshire town.
We started coming here after I was invited, in February 2012, to give a presentation at a seminar hosted by the Federation of Licensed Victuallers at The Old Swan Hotel.
Later, having made my escape, I was lucky enough to get a table in Betty’s, the famous and slightly kitsch Yorkshire tea room, without having to queue round the block.
Bathed in warm winter sun and enjoying a pot of tea with a Fat Rascal, I remember thinking, "I like this town".
Before that I had been to Harrogate twice, I think, each time on business, but it was my second visit, on July 7, 2005, that I remember most because it was the day of the terrorist bombs in London (7/7).
I had been invited - with Deborah Arnott of ASH - to address a meeting at the Local Government Association annual conference. I travelled up the previous day and was in my hotel room watching breakfast television when news of the bombings started filtering through.
One bomb went off at Kings Cross at the same time that I often passed through the station on my way to work at the old Forest office in London.
Several people, thinking I might be at Kings Cross, tried to contact me. However, following the blast, the mobile phone network was down, so they resorted to email and I was able to tell them I was 200 miles away.
The debate with Deborah Arnott went ahead as scheduled but many delegates preferred to watch the unfolding news on the TV monitors in the foyer of the exhibition centre.
Others were busy checking out of their hotels before rushing back to London, so it was a rather muted occasion.
It certainly put the proposed smoking ban in perspective. Why was so much time and energy being spent urging politicians to ban smoking in every pub and club in the country when there were far more important issues to address?
I feel the same about Rishi Sunak’s generational smoking ban. Given everything else that is going on in the world, internationally and at home, it seems preposterous that the Government is allocating precious parliamentary time to banning the sale of cigarettes to future generations.
But I digress.
Over the past ten years Harrogate has become, if not our second home, then our first choice for a short break. Sometimes we stay for two or three nights. Or we stop overnight for dinner and breakfast before driving north through the beautiful Yorkshire Dales and on to my in-laws in Scotland.
We like it so much we've considered moving there. Property isn't cheap, though, so the nearby towns of Ripon or Knaresborough might be more realistic.
Either way, I'll keep you posted!
Above: Autumn leaves in Harrogate this week with the famous Stray in the background; below: outside the Slingsby Gin shop, Christmas 2019
