Pretend to be a Time Traveller Day

It's Pretend to be a Time Traveller Day today. If you could go to any time period to play Miniature Golf when would it be?

Emily visited the Time Machine Minigolf course in Warsaw, Poland back in 2017.

My brother Christopher also visited a time travel themed GlowGolf minigolf course in Amsterdam in 2017.

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National Christmas Tree Day

Happy National Christmas Tree Day.

In Hyde

Today is National Christmas Tree Day.

Just got to make room in our ceiling for this tree

The first Christmas tree I saw this year was in Withington, Manchester. In July!

Do you have your Christmas Tree up yet?

I competed in a Christmas Tree Throwing Competition at a summer fete back in 2012. One of many obscure sports I've tried over the years

Pretending to be a Time Traveller

Today is Pretend to be a Time Traveller Day.

The closest I've been to time travel was when I saw this DeLorean Time Machine back in March this year.

Oregon Fried Chicken

We had planned to visit Oregon on holiday this year.

The closest we're getting to Oregon anytime soon is Oregon Fried Chicken in Rochdale

What's the most obscure US State you've seen used in a chicken shop name?

There's an Alaska Fried Chicken in Gatley, Stockport. That automatically makes me think of the cold.

Merry Christmas from Stockport

Merry Christmas to everyone from us here in sunny Stockport.

We're not sending any real cards this year as last year we posted out a hundred special Christmas minigolf postcards and only 5 arrived at their destination, and 2 of them were half destroyed, as the post box we put them in suffered some sort of incident.

Another "KFC"

 A look at Krispy Fried Chicken in Eccles.

Another KFC seen on our travels

Related blog posts:

- Chicken Shops

- KFC

Deane Video Centre - a lost video shop

A look at Deane Video Centre aka Valji's Convenience Store on Wigan Road in Deane, Bolton, Greater Manchester.

The Premier Express convenience shop isn't a video shop anymore.

Premier Stores is another convenience store brand owned by Tesco.

Last month we found a Video Box Office sign in a Happy Shopper shop in Ilkeston.

There is still a video shop - with lots of VHS tapes - operating in Bolton. You can find B.V.C - Bolton Video Centre in Little Lever. It's well worth a visit to step back in time.

Related blog posts:

- Video Shops

Hot tapes

You can't get burnt at that price.

Minigolf course visit 900 - a year ago today

We visited our 900th miniature golf course in the British Isles a year ago today.

The location was the indoor Pirate Adventure Golf course at the New York Thunderbowl tenpin bowling centre in Kettering, Northamptonshire.

We had a brilliant time at the New York Thunderbowl. The 9-hole adventure golf layout was a good challenge and we'd visit again 

Check out the New York Thunderbowl website for more information, opening times and prices for all of the activities at the centre.

Our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour

When our minigolfing adventures began in 2006 there were 600 miniature golf courses in the UK. We visited our 600th course at Goodrington Sands in Paignton, Devon. There are now well over a thousand places to play the game.

We've been to a total of 956 courses to date. In the last 14 years a number of new courses have come and gone, older courses have been updated or refurbished, while some layouts have been lost forever.

Our 900th course visit, including overseas venues, was at the North Bay Crazy Golf course in Scarborough in the summer of 2019.

We've been to 39 minigolf courses in eleven overseas countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden and the USA.

Our stop off at the Thunderbowl was en route to visit family and friends in Suffolk. Something we haven't been able to do this year.

Last year we hit 82 courses. This year we've been to 46 courses, including revisits, with 15 of the layouts being new courses to us. During the coronavirus pandemic we've been able to visit eight courses, playing two of them.

We had been on schedule to reach our 1,000th course this year and had a very strong start to 2020, visiting 20 courses in the first 20 days of January!

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Travel in 2020

I've barely travelled outside of Greater Manchester this year so it was nice to 'get away from it all' with a trip to Miami, California and Italy this afternoon.

Miami Sun Centre, California Wines Express and Little Italy on Wigan Road in Deane, Bolton

These shops are all on the Wigan Road in Deane, Bolton.

Related blog posts:

- Holidays at home - Stockport, 2020

- A postcard from Stockport

Toys R Us at the Riverside Retail Park in Nottingham

A look at a lost shop in Nottingham.

Many thanks to my friend and minigolf rival Jam Trubridge for sending over a snap of the old Toys R Us store at the Riverside Retail Park in Nottingham.

It's great to see the signage is still up.

It's another store for us to visit in the future as soon as it's safe to do so.

It'll be nice to meet up with Jam too as there are a lot of minigolf courses in Nottinghamshire we have yet to play on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Former Toys R Us stores

Sadly Toys R Us closed in the UK in April 2018. Luckily there are still remnants of the brand on some retail parks in the UK. I worked in the Gipsy Lane store in Luton, Bedfordshire back in the year 2000.

This year we've also been to the old Toys R Us stores at Gemini Retail Park in Warrington, the Festival retail park in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, Deepdale shopping centre in Preston and at the Wyvern Retail Park in Derby.

We took at look at the old Toys R Us store at the Central Retail Park in Ancoats, Manchester just prior to its demolition in March 2019.

Popeyes in Chesterfield

A look at Popeyes takeaway in Chesterfield.

We've seen other Popeyes takeaways in Blackpool, Southport and Edinburgh.

Chrizy Golf - Christmas Crazy Golf

A look back at the Chrizy Golf Masters crazy golf competition in Manchester.

I won the Chrizy Golf Masters miniature golf tournament in Manchester eight years ago today.

Time flies!

Back on the 30th November 2012 the first - and to date only - Chrizy Golf Masters minigolf tournament was held on a festive-themed pop-up crazy golf course at Piccadilly Place in Manchester.

The Chrizy Golf course was the 313th played on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The Chrizy Golf course was gone once the 2012 festive season was over and the building remained empty, or used for other pop-ups, until the team at Junkyard Golf made it their home for another minigolf course. That one was there for a couple of years. They have since moved on and can be found at a permanent venue at First Street in the city.

Related blog posts:

- Christmas Crazy Golf

- Christmas

Kansas Fried Chicken in Mauldeth Road

A look at the Kansas Fried Chicken shop in Mauldeth Road, Manchester.

Another of the 'KFCs' we've seen on our travels.

There's a lovely bit of brickwork outside the shop in Mauldeth Road

Related blog posts:

- Kansas Fried Chicken in Didsbury Village

- Kansas Fried Chicken in Handforth

- Chicken Shops

Grainger Games in Hyde

Another week and another Grainger Games.

Last week we spotted the old Grainger Games store at Stretford Mall in Manchester. This weekend we stumbled upon the old shop at the Clarendon Square shopping centre in Hyde, Tameside.

It's been an interesting year seeing social distancing signage alongside long lost shops

Grainger Games was founded in 1996 and ceased operations on the 28th March 2018.

A sad sign

It was a brand with shops in the North of England and Scotland, so I only became a regular shopper there when I moved to Stockport back in 2016.

While we were there the lights inside the shop came on!

Sea of Thieves on Xbox One are 'new' in

Let there be light!

Related blog posts:

- Abandoned

- Lost

- Retail

- Blockbuster Video

- Tandy

- RadioShack

- Toys R Us

- Kwik Save

- Woolworths

Make it a Blockbuster night

At my local (long closed) video store.

What are you watching tonight? Stranger Things for us.

The Dull Men's Club 2021 Calendar

A look ahead to the Dull Men's Club Calendar for 2021.

The new Dull Men's Club Calendar will be available shortly.

We featured in the club's 2017 calendar for our relentless mission to visit and document every miniature golf course in the UK.

You'll be able to find us somewhere in the 2021 edition too.

The Dull Men's Club celebrates the ordinary and the life-changing magic of simple, everyday, run-of-the-mill things.

Check out the Dull Men's Club website for more information.

Crazier Golf at Boom: Battle Bar in Cardiff

A look at the 'Crazier Golf' course at Boom: Battle Bar in Cardiff, Wales.

Many thanks to my friend and minigolf rival Simon Brown who sent me some photos from his visit to play the 'Crazier Golf' course at the new Boom: Battle Bar in Cardiff, Wales.

The course differs from 'normal' crazy or minigolf (whatever that may be) and some of the holes include time limits, while others don't require the use of a putter at all!

You have to use hand pumps on the final hole!

For more information on the 9-hole Crazier Golf course visit the Boom: Battle Bar website.

Boom: Battle Bar in Cardiff's Brewery Quarter is the second indoor competitive socialising venue from the brand. As well as the crazy golf course you can play darts, axe throwing, ping pong, shuffleboard, VR games, arcade games and more there. The first Boom: Battle Bar opened in Norwich.

Wonder Golf opening in Hastings

A new pop-up crazy golf course is opening in Hastings.

The seaside town of Hastings will be home to a new pop-up indoor crazy golf course next month.

Wonder Golf is planning to open in the old Hastings Observer newspaper offices in the town centre and will operate for a month between the 4th December 2020 and 3rd January 2021.

Each of the holes on the crazy golf course will pay tribute to the heritage and cultural events of the Hastings & St Leonards area.

Visit the Wonder Golf website and Facebook Page for more information.

Christmas Jumper 2020

I now declare that the festive season may begin.

Lidl's Christmas jumper for 2020