Dawn in Doncaster

I tried really really hard to find an attractive view of Doncaster. This is the one I found after about an hour's hard walking at around 6:45 in the morning. The pleasant aspect can be found by standing in one particular spot of about a metre square in the Town Fields park which isn't all that far from the RMT education centre.

Let's be frank about it, Doncaster is an armpit of a place. I've rarely been in a less attractive, scruffier flatland. The only place I can think of that I've disliked more is Crewe.

Here's a far more typical view of this godforsaken hole:

Yep, this is more or less what Doncaster looks like - I've walked around a fair bit of it and I know.

On the plus side, there's at least one very good pub: The Salutation which serves several very nice ales including one called Strongarm which I sampled in some quantity yesterday evening. And the course I'm on is a good one, plenty of excellent meaty stuff to get your teeth into and a couple of very interesting guest speakers so far.

Moral of this tale? Join a good union, attend branch meetings and pass resolutions to hold stimulating courses. But make sure they're somewhere worth visiting as well.