2023 Lisbon Trip (Day One – Windmilltwomealgate)
Luton’s railway station general ugly exterior isn’t helped by their new plywood doors or whatever it is that they’ve got going on there. I tried to find some quotes about Luton to add some spice to this post, but there don’t appear to be any which is slightly disheartening. Instead, I asked ChatGPT to tell me the best thing about Luton and it replied:
“Luton is well-connected to other major cities in the UK, making it easy to travel to and from the town”.
It’s not really selling the place if I’m being honest. I instead asked for a fun fact about Luton and was told:
“The town is famous for its hat-making industry, which dates back to the 17th century. Luton was once the largest hat-making center in the world, and at its peak, the town produced over 70% of all hats made in the UK. The traditional Luton hat, made from felt, was popular with both men and women and was exported worldwide”.
That’s a bit more exciting. Actually, I’ve been using ChatGPT for useful purposes over recent weeks, and not just asking for things such as funny jokes about Luton.
“Why did the tomato turn red?
Because it saw Luton’s traffic and got embarrassed!”
OK, I did ask it for a joke about Luton…. Moving on.
This is a little more uplifting than the railway station’s frontage and is visible to those walking from the station to the town centre.
I’m slightly confused about the branding that’s going on here, although it all looks quite exotic for an American diner.
There’s my destination, the White House, the JD Wetherspoon pub. There was relatively little choice for me here, it was one of a very few Good Beer Guide pubs in Luton that were open at lunchtime.
At this point I heard that the others had safely arrived at Stansted Airport and Bev was being pushed around by Steve. Just like me, he’s a very competent carer and Bev realised just how fortunate she was.
And just cutting into this at the same time, Nathan sent me this photo of an Amiga at The Centre for Computing History helping me relive my youth. He had been able to have a nice sit down to recover from being scared from Bev, he was being very brave.
The rather pleasant surroundings of the White House pub, but as this is a Good Beer Guide it can have its own post.
Steve was a true gentleman with all of his pushing and he showed great tolerance when Bev demanded to be taken into the Windmill Wetherspoons at Stansted Airport. She decided to order at the table using the app, but due to technical error (or user error as Steve called it) she got all muddled up and also had Susanna order her food at the bar. What happened then is that two meals turned up, which to me is just a clever ruse to not look greedy when ordering two meals. Apparently a discussion then took place and Bev is writing to the Head Office of JD Wetherspoon or something, but I don’t get involved with such things. I’m pleased that I didn’t experience any such issues. I suspect that Steve was wondering what he had taken on at this point.
I can imagine my substantial readership of two is now wondering when I’m actually going to write anything about Lisbon. But, patience, only a few more posts and I’ll be at the heart of the action writing up about an industrial estate near to Lisbon Airport.
