Another one for the Park Bench Appreciation Society

Nature is encroaching on this bench on Unthank Road in Norwich.

Another snap for the Park Bench Appreciation Society's members to enjoy

The park is fairly near to the wonderful Eaton Park. Well worth a visit and also home to a number of benches. As well as a Crazy Golf course, Grass Putting, a Miniature Railway and a marvellous pavilion and bandstand.

Benches of New Brighton

Spotting an array of benches in the Wirral seaside resort.

We spotted a lot of different benches while visiting New Brighton at the weekend. I'm sure our friends at the Park Bench Appreciation Society and Dull Men's Club will have a passing and/or mild interest in them.

One of the first benches we saw was this example on King's Parade. It faces the sea. However, the view behind it is better as there's a 36-hole Adventure Golf course, Art Deco kiosk and Brutalist block of flats to look at

The Wirral Older Peoples Parliament have put these colourful benches in place along the promenade. They were certainly eyecatching

Not dull

There are benches all around the sewerage building on the front

This intriguing bench was on the Magazines Promenade

The benches put in by the Wirral Older Peoples Parliament fit perfectly in the space on the sea wall. As do the litter bins

They certainly brighten up the dull promenade

Near the model boating pond is a bench in the concrete wall

Two of the older benches in 'camouflage' on the sea wall

Links:
- Park Bench Appreciation Society
- Dull Men's Club

Related blog posts:
- Benches
- New Brighton

Lots happening this Saturday

'Three days in one' taking place this Saturday!

Saturday the 13th - anything but dull

So, this Saturday is National Miniature Golf Day, National Train Day AND National Windmill Day. Saturday 13th May will certainly be ticking a lot of my boxes!

'Driving' a little train at Falkirk High station

The floral train at Boscombe Chine Mini Golf course

  

The old Putting Course in Weston-super-Mare used to have a miniature railway running round the outside!

At one of the stations at the now defunct course in Weston-super-Mare

On the wrong side of the tracks!

The very BIG minigolf windmill at Oddballs Crazy Golf course in Cleethorpes

Playing the windmill hole at Prestatyn's Crazy Golf course

 

The old Windmill Theatre in Great Yarmouth is home to a very crazy minigolf course

Emily playing the windmill hole at Hastings Crazy Golf. The course is hosting the 14th annual World Crazy Golf Championships this June

End of the line...

Related blog posts:
- National Miniature Golf Day
- Trains
- Windmills
- Miniature Railways

Not sitting down in Stockport

Having a wander round Stockport at the weekend I quite fancied a sit down. Alas, it wasn't to be at this point of my amble.

No sitting down here

Check out the Park Bench Appreciation Society and the Dull Men's Club for more thrilling imagery and posts.

An interesting bench at Haigh Woodland Park in Wigan

On our recent visit to Haigh Woodland Park in Wigan we spotted this interesting park bench as we were walking towards the Miniature Railway. One for the Park Bench Appreciation Society to make a note of.

I wonder which of the two benches proves more popular...

Class 121 'Bubble Cars' at Aylesbury

Yesterday I noticed a post about an old type of train in the Dull Men's Club Facebook Group.

My fellow Dull Men's Club member had spotted a Class 121 'Bubble Car' at Princes Risborough railway station and it reminded me that I'd seen them before at Aylesbury station.

What a mixture of trains at Aylesbury Maintenance Depot back in July 2011

What I hadn't realised at the time was they are the longest serving DMUs in the UK, having started life in 1960. I thought they were en route to a heritage day or line, not that Chiltern Railways were still regularly using them in service!

Unfortunately the end of the line is nearing for the Class 121 'Bubble Cars' as spare parts are becoming more difficult to source and the engines are getting ever more frail.

The first and last bench in Cheadle Hulme

A look at a bench, and a view from it, in Cheadle Hulme.

While having a walk around my local park this morning I thought the views below may be of interest to my fellow members of the Dull Men's Club and the Park Bench Appreciation Society.

There are some nice flowers in Adswood Park

Adswood Park straddles the Cheadle Hulme and Cheadle border. It's also very close to Cheadle Heath. The park bench to the left of the photo is the first and last in Cheadle Hulme

A view of the park bench from the Cheadle Hulme side

Lidl - located in Cheadle - can be seen in the background of this photo

A closer look at the park bench. And a Stockport Council bin

As well as watching planes coming in to land at Manchester Airport you can also hear and see trains on the Cheadle Hulme to Stockport line while sat on the bench (trains not pictured)

Related blog posts:
- Dull Men's Club
- Park Bench Appreciation Society

Happy March

Find out about the Cumberland Pencil Museum in the Dull Men's Club 2017 Calendar.

The star of March in the Dull Men's Club 2017 Calendar is Dawn Walker, the Curator of the Cumberland Pencil Museum in Keswick.

March 2017

Back in 2012 we visited Keswick but didn't have time to visit the Cumberland Pencil Museum as we played the minigolf course at Hope Park instead.

Keswick was a wonderful spot for an afternoon of miniature golf

As well as being addicted to minigolf, we also run a museum dedicated to the world of Crazy Golf. We've got a lot of pencils in the archives. They've been an essential part of the game since it was invented in 1867.

Two of the many minigolf pencils stashed in the vaults of the Crazy Golf Museum

Our obsession with miniature golf has also got us included in the Dull Men's Club 2017 Calendar. You can see us in the month of July.

The Dull Men's Club is a place where dull men, and women who appreciate dull men, share thoughts and experiences about ordinary things

The Dull Men's Club 2017 calendar also features a cutlery sculptor, tombstone traveller, prefabricated buildings fan, lost glove spotter, a bubbleologist, giant pumpkin growers, a barbed wire enthusiast, a brown sign follower, village pump spotter, a vintage radio collector, and a couple who built a life-size railway station in their back garden.

Visit the Cumberland Pencil Museum website for more information.

Links:
- Dull Men's Club
- Cumberland Pencil Museum
- The Crazy Golf Museum

Related blog posts:
- Dull Men's Club
- Pencils
- Keswick

Happy February 3rd

Yesterday was Groundhog Day and the world famous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow and so predicted six more weeks of winter. Quite an interesting day.

Checking the Dull Men's Club's 2017 calendar today is free from any excitement.

Nothing to see here

Although this month's featured Dull Man has quite a story.

Village Water Pump Spotting is a thing

How Dick got started

Emily and I feature in the 2017 edition of the calendar for our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Visit the Dull Men's Club website for more information and details on where to buy the calendar.

Related blog posts:
- Dull Men's Club
- The Dull Men's Club 2017 Calendar

The UK's first Roundabout

Driving around the UK's first Roundabout.

The UK's first Roundabout as it was in 2010

While back down south at the weekend we visited Letchworth Garden City. It's home to the UK's first roundabout and I can never resist having a drive round it.



Kevin Beresford, a fellow member of the Dull Men's Club, runs the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society. Check out his website for more info.

Related blog posts:
- Letchworth Garden City
- Dull Men's Club

Links:
- UK Roundabout Appreciation Society
- Dull Men's Club website

A treat for dull men

A photographic treat for members of the Dull Men's Club.

There's a double-whammy treat for members of the Dull Men's Club in this photo I took while on a recent visit to the post box on Twining Brook Road in Cheadle Hulme.

A post box AND a lost glove

The Dull Men’s Club is a place where dull men (and women who like dull men) share thoughts and experiences, free from glitz and glamour, free from pressures to be in and trendy - free instead to enjoy simple, ordinary things. The club's mission statement is “It’s OK to be dull”.

One of my fellow DMC members has documented each and every post box in the UK on his travels, while another - who also features in the Dull Men's Club 2017 calendar - photographs lost gloves.

Related blog posts:
- Dull Men's Club

Link:
- Dull Men's Club website

Happy Underdog Day

Happy Underdog Day to ham and eggers, journeymen, jobbers, local competitors, enhancement talent, jabronis, wildcards, also rans, palookas, runners-up, Mr Nobodies, silver medalists, and Average Joes everywhere.

The third Friday in December is the day to celebrate and honour unsung heroes, the second best among us and life’s runners-up. Not to forget those people that have made a name for themselves against the odds.

Meeting Olympic underdog Emanuele Guidi of San Marino (left) at the London 2012 Games

Check out the Dull Men's Club website for more details of Underdog Day.

Related blog posts:
- Underdog Day
- Dull Men's Club
- Day

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.

A beachy bench

Looking through our photo archives for a blog post about Felixstowe Pier I noticed this great snap of a bench that had been somewhat swamped by the beach.

The seafront bench in Felixstowe as it was on the 15th December 2013

It may be of interest to the Dull Men's Club and the Park Bench Appreciation Society...

Related blog posts:
- Felixstowe
- Dull Men's Club
- Park Bench Appreciation Society

The Dull Men's Club 2017 Calendar at the Calendar Club

The Dull Men's Club Calendar for 2017 is available to buy now.

While having a wander around Manchester I popped into the Calendar Club shop to see if they had any of the Dull Men's Club Calendars in stock. They did, the first ones I've seen on the shelf.

The Dull Men's Club Calendar 2017

Mr July putting on the windmill hole at Skegness Crazy Golf

For a number of years the Dull Men's Club has published a calendar to help people mark how they're celebrating the ordinary throughout the year. As longstanding members of the Dull Men's Club, Emily and I were selected to appear in the 2017 edition of the calendar for our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

A dull pin up

The Dull Men's Club 2017 Calendar also features a pencil enthusiast, cutlery sculptor, tombstone traveller, prefabricated buildings fan, lost glove spotter, a bubbleologist, giant pumpkin growers, a barbed wire enthusiast, a brown sign follower, village pump spotter, a vintage radio collector, and a couple who built a life-size railway station in their back garden.

The calendar costs £9.99 and can be bought from the Calendar Club shops (although I haven't seen it in the Stockport branch, yet) and online.

For more information check out the blog post about the Dull Men's Club Calendar launch.

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.

The Dull Men's Club 2017 Calendar

Launch of the Dull Men's Club Calendar for 2017.

For a number of years the Dull Men's Club has published a calendar to help people mark how they're celebrating the ordinary throughout the year. As longstanding members of the Dull Men's Club, Emily and I were selected to appear in the 2017 edition of the calendar for our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The dullest people in the UK? You decide

The Dull Men’s Club is a place where dull men share thoughts and experiences, free from glitz and glamour, free from pressures to be in and trendy - free instead to enjoy simple, ordinary things. The club's mission statement is “It’s OK to be dull”.

The Dull Men's Club - where dull men, and women who appreciate dull men, share thoughts and experiences about ordinary things

Since we first found out there were so many miniature golf courses around the UK we've made it our mission to visit as many as possible on the 'tickable list'. Over the last ten years we've visited 716 courses - including some overseas - far exceeding the 600 or so there were initially believed to be in the country. With old courses left abandoned, or worse demolished, and new courses popping up all the time we don't quite know if we'll ever finally finish visiting all of them. But the journey we've had so far has been a lot of fun.

Enjoying a break from Crazy Golfing to have a nice sit down on a park bench at Canoe Lake in Southsea - the seaside town was where our Mini Golf adventures began in September 2006

The Dull Men's Club 2017 calendar also features a pencil enthusiast, cutlery sculptor, tombstone traveller, prefabricated buildings fan, lost glove spotter, a bubbleologist, giant pumpkin growers, a barbed wire enthusiast, a brown sign follower, village pump spotter, a vintage radio collector, and a couple who built a life-size railway station in their back garden.

The 2017 Dull Men’s Club calendar celebrates the men and women who were born to be mild

You can buy the Dull Men's Club 2017 Calendar from Stanford's website and shop for £9.99.

In advance of its publication the Dull Men's Club asked whether President Vladimir Putin's new calendar would be competing with its own and offered some comparisons - including me playing minigolf and Mr Putin enjoying some fishing.

Links:
- Dull Men's Club website
- Dull Men's Club Facebook Page
- Dull Men's Club Facebook Group
- Dull Men's Club on Twitter

Related blog posts:
- Dull Men's Club
- Crazy World of Minigolf Tour List

Give the Crazy World of Minigolf Tour a Like on Facebook, watch our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter @putting_gott and @Ems_Lems. Please do sign-up to receive our miniature golf newsletter too.

The Park Bench Appreciation Society

It's good to have a nice sit down.

We recently met up with Leland Carlson from the Dull Men's Club - Mission Statement: “It’s OK to be dull” - and had a nice day out in Stockport. Our first port of call was the Town Hall to visit a giant postcard fair, surprisingly the first Leland had visited.

It's quite possible he's now been hooked on collecting postcards as Emily managed to find a card depicting one of his areas of interest - park benches. In fact he ended up buying more than one.

Having a nice sit down on a bench in Stockport. Photo by Leland Carlson

On our travels Emily and I have also had a sit on the Longest Bench in the world. It's in Littlehampton.

Earlier this year we also had the opportunity to see the new bench at the excellent Splash Point Mini Golf course in Worthing.

The new addition to Splash Point Mini Golf

Visit the Dull Men's Club website to find out more.