Tag: Braintree

US Trip 23 September to 8 October, Day Nine: Cape Cod To Portland Maine Via Lunch With Pady Jalali Just South Of Boston, 1 October 2025

Me, Janie & Pady – thank you, photographer/waitress.

Janie and I set off quite early from Cape Cod after a hearty breakfast and fond farewells with our hosts Mike and Helen.

Janie drove the 90 minutes from Cape Cod to South Shore Plaza in Braintree, just south of Boston, where we had arranged to meet Pady at the American Cheesecake Factory.

Yo, cheesecake…yes! cheesecake.

It was lovely to see Pady again, after a couple false starts over the past few years, due to her unfortunate needs to abort planned visits to England, most recently in July.

Mansplaining…

Phonesplaining

A few hours flew by before our agreed departure hour arrived – 3:00ish, to avoid the Boston traffic on the way out to Portland.

Janie and Pady admiring the Pad-mobile

Pady had carefully planned the convenience of the meet up around an easy to find and get away from location. But none of us had counted on an earlier than usual rush hour, on account of the Red Sox playing the Yankees in a play-off match starting at 6:00. Who knew?

What would have been a little over two hour drive became a three-and-a half hour drive, which Janie insisted on doing, pleading that I was better at navigating to new destinations, which might be true.

We arrived in Portland just as it was getting dark. We checked in to our lovely AirBnb apartment and then went in search of a local casual place, as we didn’t want all that much food after sampling “light lunch” and sharing a cheesecake with Pady earlier.

We found a quirky, casual place named The East Ender, which turned out to be a karaoke bar downstairs and a casual diner upstairs. The wailing from the karaoke bar had to be heard to be believed, but mercifully the sound didn’t much travel up the stairs. We were able to enjoy a light supper of caesar salad (Janie) and schnitzel (me).

Yum-yum

One of the waitresses suggested that we might like to try our hands at the karaoke. When I told her that I could offer some Renaissance tavern songs, she said:

Medieval? Scary!

At that juncture, Janie and I saw our opportunity to leave and have a much-needed early night.

If you want to see all the photos from that day, click this Flickr link or the picture one below:

WhatsApp Image 2025-10-02 at 13.50.41_8ecff92f

The First Week Of A Working Summer: The Joys Of Braintree & Wimbledon, 29 June to 4 July 1981

Rob Croes / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

In truth, any summer job would have seemed like an anti-climax after the last few weeks of my first summer term at Keele.

A Very Special Week, The Last Week Of My First Year At Keele, But There Was A Catch… 21 to 28 June 1981

Being sent out on audit to a furniture factory in Braintree just brought home the lifestyle contrast.

Travel broadens the mind…even a daily commute from Streatham to Braintree

Strangely, I remember rather liking the commute, as I had acquired a taste for reading on the move during my National BBYO period (1979-1980) and was reading voraciously by the summer of 1981.

Only one night out during the week that first week – the Tuesday – an evening with Jimmy (Bateman), a friend from Alleyn’s School. I have described a similar evening with Jimmy in an earlier piece, from my Easter holiday job:

Perseverance With Work & Meeting Up With Friends, 28 March To 10 April 1981

I say in the diary that I was summoned back to the office from Braintree before the end of the working day on the Friday. My mum had complained to “the authorities” (via my Uncle Michael no doubt) that my lengthy commute was too onerous a duty for her little one. Her motivation for this unwanted intervention was the delay my long commute caused to the family meal. Dad’s drive from the shop to the house only took 10-15 minutes.

I was really irritated when I discovered that mum had intervened, but the die was cast and I was back in the office for the rest of the summer, with only London-based clients in my auditing-orbit. That did enable me to socialise with my friends a bit more, I suppose, which I most certainly did that summer.

On the Saturday I spent much of the day watching Wimbledon finals day. In those days, the whole tournament was a week earlier than it is today and the men’s finals day was on the Saturday.

That Borg/McEnroe final was an absolute classic and I remember it well. I also remember watching the subsequent doubles matches too. In those days, my mum was keen to watch and probably watched much of it with me.

Below is David Irvine’s take on it all from The Guardian on the following Monday.

Wimbledon Finals Day 4 July 1981 Reviewed In GuardianWimbledon Finals Day 4 July 1981 Reviewed In Guardian 06 Jul 1981, Mon The Guardian (London, Greater London, England) Newspapers.com

I also mention taping charts and Paul (Deacon – also a friend from Alleyn’s) visiting in the evening. There’ll be some more playlists to follow in the fulness of time, but for now I shall sign off this piece, exactly forty years on.