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HMV is a high street stalwart, hanging in against the impending threat of online retailers. And they’re doing a good job. The Chapelfield store is one of two in Norwich, both are sizeable. In Chapelfield you can find a good selection of game, as well as rack upon rack of CD, DVD and now Blu Ray discs… There’s a great kids selection to be had, and usually you can pick up some good bargains too. Sale time is excellent for DVD box sets (get in there early tho) but they always have a few good treat to pick up for not many pounds.

Independent shops can be intimidating places to go. Far easier to grab a pack of pork chops from the chiller or a bottle of plonk from the shelves of a supermarket than it is to go into a small shop and actually engage with people.

The Vineking, as an independent wine shop, is the very opposite of intimidating. Very friendly and extremely knowledgeable staff mean you can be confident that you’ll leave the shop carrying a bottle of something for the weekend that’s the price you wanted to pay and that’s also great quality. Each one is tasted and selected by the people that work there, and they won’t sell what they won’t drink themselves. Which is, I suspect, more than could be said for most supermarket buyers. They also run regular tasting sessions to help get people into understanding more about wine than just guzzling it down. Which, as a confirmed guzzler, even I found hugely interesting…

A must stop shop for cookie monsters. Just off the entrance to Chapelfield from St Stephens, the aroma of Millies cookies cooking is unmistakeable. And delicious. They cleverly price them too. Buying one is just uneconomical. Buying five or ten gets you a much better deal. Although your heart might not necessarily agree…
They always make good energy food, filling you full of sugar after you’ve tramped the halls of the mall and are getting ready to brave the outside world again. But don’t forget to stash some away for later as they go perfectly with a post shop cup of tea. Or a steaming hot chocolate.

Norwich Playhouse is a fine old Norwich institution, tucked away down cobbled lanes by the river, right near the art school. As a theatre venue it puts on the more arty plays that don’t fit so well in the main theatre royal, but you can also catch plenty of comedy events down there. It’s also a nice place to hang out. They have a bar, they have a beer garden, so it’s perfect for summertime drinks. It’s only a short hop back into the city centre too, so it makes a good place to start off the night before heading up into the bright lights of central Norwich. Ahem.

Of the big multiplexes in Norwich, the Vue chain is probably the best. For starters it’s a great location, right in the city centre with plenty of parking underneath it thanks to Castle Mall parking. And it plays all the latest films. Which is a pretty good thing for a cinema to do. One gripe about the place would be the way the make you buy tickets from the popcorn stand. I know it makes sense for them, 'here’s a ticket, isn’t it hard to resist the smell of that popcorn…’ but it also means annoying amounts of queuing when you only want a ticket and already have a bag of maltesers stashed in you jacket pocket. On the plus side, they do a kids club viewing on Sundays. 1 adult and a child = 78p. Which just about makes up for anything…

The York Tavern is a perennial student favourite haunt in the heart of the Golden Triangle. It serves good food and plenty of beer. It’s also surprisingly roomy, with a large section out the back and a beer garden for summertime drinking. They also, at weekends at least, don’t close the bar down until 1am. Which is just great. Because 11pm is far too early to be going back home. Be careful on leaving the premises at 1a.m though. Because all the streets around there look very much alike, and on a dark night, with a few beers under the belt and a slight squint, you might get lost.

The Belgian Monk is a great place to go for food, with pretty expansive menu. Lovely mussels as you’d expect. But the beer really is the prime reason for making a visit. They have an enormous range of different types of Belgian beer, ranging from the standard alcohol, slightly tiddled variety to the full blown, only served in half pints because it’ll send you screwy. Most times the taste won’t give it away either, so it’s never long before you’re stumbling out into Pottergate wondering what just happened. They do a great beer taster rack, a tipple of several types. That alone is enough to get a good night going…

This particular branch of WH Smiths can be a bit awkward. It’s a bit higgeldy piggeldy, and there never seems to be enough people on the tills. Obviously its excellent for grabbing the saturday paper and a bottle of lucozade from the chiller after a big night out. And it has racks and racks of mags to leaf through with greasy fingers. But the lotto machine is round the other side of the building, which you have to remember if you want a lotto ticket and a paper. Upstairs houses the books, CDs and DVDs. Usually it’s much quiter too, so it can be worth taking the paper and drink upstairs and paying for it there. It’s quite hard to think of things to say about WH Smiths…

Some shops aren’t built to actually buy things from, merely to browse in a perpetual state of wonder at the marvels and trinkets contained within. The BBC shop on Millennium Plain is one such store. Sure, its sells a massive range of DVD box sets going way, way back in the archives (to be fair, usually more expensive then you can get them for in other entertainment stores) But it’s the models and figurines that captivate. Scale models of the Tardis or the Enterprise. Dr Who and Star Wars figures, replicas of the 70s ones in the case of the latter. Homer Simpson talking beer cans. And to top it all, they host signing events that have every sci fi fan in Norfolk dribbling into their Dalek flakes. Tom Baker was there the other day. Awooga.

Gamestation in Norwich’s Castle Mall is a thoroughly recommendable place to get all your gaming paraphenalia. They do an excellent set of bundle deals on consoles and a decent stock of pre-owned games too. Best of all, their trade in price is guaranteed to be higher than any other games store. So when you’re ready to trade that battered old PS1 copy of Carmaggedon, stop by at the Game store on the way into the mall, check the price there, then carry on through to Gamestation and get a few pence more. Word to the wise though, don’t try this on a Saturday unless you have a lot of time on your hands. Both Game and Gamestations are absolutely rammed at weekends…