malumbu

A broader question. Why do I expect that both the Half Moon and Dog will not be an improvement? Am I just a grumpy old man? I'm not overly fond of Fullers, but was not impressed by the HM's quality of beers. Do I have a bias before I go in? Is this a reaction to me not liking the whole gastroisation/boutique hotel stuff or what I see as attracting 'shallow' clinetele or is it just that discerning punters don't bring the money in? Am I just being pompous?! (don't answer that one) Had lunch in a Fullers pub in Harrow, and the food was just as I expected. It really wasn't worth making a fuss. I don't dislike all Fullers places, and recognise that their Pie and alehouses in central London can deservedly charge a premium. On the opposite I used to be snooty about Wetherspoons, but now think that I can get 3 pints for a fiver, and have say a 70% success rate and that is fine. Similarly I don't expect anything from their food so can't be dissappointed. Sam Smiths, lovely lovely boozers but not the finest ale (but so cheap) but even there I am coming around to their beer and bought a meal in the Rising Sun in Smithfields for well under a tenner and was astonished how good it was coming across as home made and properly cooked. My usual view on pub food, no matter how up market is, is go to a restaurant if you want good food. Sorry to go off track but am I being objective??

Phew, fortunately I was picking in 79 before the snatch squads came in. Most of us were signing on.... and cash in hand. Allegedly

As a kid we used to go fruit picking. Lousy pay, and only worked because us kiddiwinks would accept this. The I discovered peas, on a more industrial, where although it was peace (peas) work, I could earn something more akin to today's minimum wage. Bought me a few nights out, books and other preparations for going to university. Thinking back some had probably done this all their working lives (casual farm labouring). I expect that mechanization replaced much of this need but still wonder why there is so little labour sourced locally. It wasn't that bad a job and ideal for a 17 year old before going to higher education. I suppose this is like asking my late mother if she went hop picking before the war. Oh no, we weren't that poor.

Oddly enough I don't like the current hipster fashion of showing 3 inches of ankle, and never liked those 3/4 shorts on blokes (seem OK on ladies, but not sure if this is an objective view). Remember going to womad 24 years ago and the fashion was for lycra shorts - often bright and longer than my cycling shorts. Urgghhhh.

Force 10. 20 years ago you could go to Blacks or the YHA shop and get great advice. Sadly they are no longer proper outdoors shops. Alternatively go to Decathlon or Halfords where you can buy a whole festival camping pack for two and six (pence) and then just leave them behind.

I've been known to from time to time but not sure whether the cut is right or I feel like a middle aged school boy. Then do you tuck your shirt in, wear a polo shirt or doss around an a t-shirt. Sandals? Oh it is so stressful. I like the look in Aus and NZ and other colonies where officials, cops etc can wear long shorts with long socks. Others in the UK seem to carry it off a lot better than me. I suppose there are two extremes, beach ware and taylored. I need to get into the latter. Planned to post this earlier before the kids in Exeter had their protest https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/23/exeter-schools-uniform-resolve-melts-after-boys-skirt-protest Always thought it unfair as ladies can wear a variety of office clothes where as the XY's normally have to wear trousers. What do you reckon?

Also my favourite bike shop in London. The Chandos was R as F, but not sure if I prefer it any more now. Ye Olde Honor Oak used to be the St Germains, hard core Irish, curtain windows and Gaelic sport. It was an experience, probably not best repeated. I think it may appeal now to those with ankle biters. Tapas place is decent, as with all Tapas you stil come out starving.

Don't listen to this lot. HOP has gone through a transformation in the last 5 years, a sort of mini Lordship Lane. If you go slightly further then you have one of the best restaurants in London, the Querce http://lequerce.co.uk/ Lovely walk over Blythe Hill to London's best pub http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/29/2991/Blythe_Hill_Tavern/Forest_Hill You should also try the Blythe Hill festival on 1 July If you want something more pretentious then the Chandos will probably suit you fine. Less pretentious hunt out the General Napier, a traditional back street boozer. I'm sure that they will welcome you (it needs a few punters). And one of the best curry houses in the country albeit you pay for it http://www.babur.info/ If you like formulaic Anglo Indian food then head back to the real LL! Om the down side HOP appears to have been ethnically cleansed - I am being provocative but all the diversity seems to have gone out of the area in the last few years as it has become more fashionable. Also it was a temperance area so no pubs near the station.

I'm thinking of 30 years ago. The tail end of cowpunk and the like - The Pogues and The Men They couldn't Hang The move of electro indie into mainstream - Depeche Mode Early days of grunge Indie Guitar Bands - Dinosaur Junior Jesus and Mary Chain and other stuff on Creation Records - long list at the back https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_Records But sometimes I find it difficult to try to listen to bands that many others rave about such as Sonic Youth or the Pixies - you had to be there at the time.

A once-great pub that never fails to disappoint these days. Staff hopeless, beer mediocre, clientele lamentable. Oh, sorry, that was a comment from 2011. But do please add to this further on my favourite old git's pub website http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/comments.shtml/536/ Brakes (aka Brake Brothers) eh? So home cooked food (not home made) and the same pub grub from Newquay to Newcastle Reminds me of the Woodlouse. Trouble is no doubt it will be packed and some of the more discerning views on this thread wont make the slightest difference. If you've got time go down to Borough andgo to a real pub or two - The Royal Oak, or the Lord Clyde

Hophead is a good measure. ?3.55 in the Blythe - a bit more in the Ivy, but better served in the Blythe which is one of the few places I drink Guinness and amazingly is still under ?4, Contrast that with ?4.30 for bog standard Youngs in the Woodlouse. I do occasionally drink in the Cherry Tree where I expect to pay a little more but that is my choice. Contrast this with other establishments where I question the bill to find out yes the fizzy drinks are all over a fiver and ?4.50 for ale. It is London they tell me. But I can drink for less in central London I say. Worst experience was being charged for a drink on the Embankment - The Rose - where I accused them of charging me for a pint when I'd had half (?4.50). No it was for half as it was artisan Belgium beer rolled om the thighs of young maidents. Nonsnese it is made in a beer factory and refused to pay.

Price does matter. It's called competition, market forces, informed consumers etc. Perversely it can drive down quality - think supermarket white bread. Beer price has gone up far quicker than the rate of inflation. Some of this could be explained by the improvement in establishments. But even this is a fine balance and if you go somewhere like the Woodhouse you will see all character airbrushed over and inflated prices (and plastic grass). Obviously many consumers aren't as discerning as me. Fortunately we have some good comparators - Wetherspoons for cheap as chips, the Blythe and to a lesser extent the Ivy, what a traditional pub should be like, and the EDT - quirky but not the one size fits all, Then the others such as the Clock, Herne, Woodlouse, FHT on how from my perspective things have gone to far, and I can simply exercise my choice and not go there.

Learn to swim young man learn to swim

I expect the Bolt and Farah tickets will go quickly but a 24 hour flash sale for the paras at ?9 (use FLASH as the discount code) is excellent. I've already got my tickets.

Either you haven't laid down the ground rules so she didn't know, or you are such a dictator that she was too frightened to tell you. It's all your fault (so get used to it) and it will continue to be your fault through the teenage years. She may thank you one day. Think back to your own childhood. I grew up in a fairly traditional family but I was pretty dozy and still lose things 40 years later!

I quite like this publication which comes across reasonably objective https://www.globalgovernmentforum.com/uk-election-surprise-leaves-brexit-talks-uncertain/ Final line So Britain is in a hole. And whilst it was David Cameron who carried out the early excavations, Theresa May has just made it a whole lot deeper.

Lost our one key and tried loads of places. Best quote was ?160, including breaking in http://marquisautolocksmiths.co.uk/, great bloke, fully recommended. Key cutters in Lewisham Market are from recollection even cheaper, they did explain about reprogramming (ie that the original keys would not work any more). Dealers were far more exspensive and I would have had to get the car towed to somewhere near the M25.

So the Chagossians can have a say too. Shame they don't have any representation, I'd probably prefer them to the DUP. Where do the tax avoidance/ havens - Channel Islands and IoM fit in. And Gibralter?

1-4 of the Telegraph article seems to be very much old Tory, with the likes of Nigel Lawson But 5 - 7 of the DUP 'facts' more progressive. Hmmm, interesting More interesting is the comments on the Telegraph website - it's like a more reasoned (but just as extreme) Daily Mail. I particularly enjoyed the one that thanked (genuinely) the PM. It's democracy damn you, if the young and so many others liked what JC said (irrespetive of pages of vile reporting from the right wing press) then good on them. I don't see the Mail or Telegraph having an article that many voteed to leave the EU due to misleading claims. But I am supposed to respect the will of the people too. Lordship 516 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/09/7-thing > s-didnt-know-dup/ >

Shame you didn't see JC on Andrew Marr. His body language was excellent, he spoke well, and from my perspective has come on leaps and bounds. I've close dealings with government. Cameron was a lightweight - and talk about being a chancer, what a silly chance he took in the first place which led to the mess we are in now. Then anther chancer TM. Definitely showed Cameron as the lightweight he was. When she announced the election it was an 'ohhh', then and 'ahh' from me, 'this makes perfect sense' (from her not from me). Which was the way I saw it until perhaps 3 weeks ago. But I've never seen anything like this in my life, and I expect that you haven't too. Wasn't and still am not JC's biggest fan, but you have to admire him UG? Try taking a step back and seeing a more objective view UG, and save yourself from ridicule. The motropolitan elite may not be representative of the rest of the country, but it wasn't just us and the young that led to the big swing in the capital. And after us oldies had screwed up the future of the young last Jume, its brilliant how they have fought back.

Had a gate valve once where the mechanism had dropped, so it appeared open but flow was severely restricted. When you say stopcock this is at the street, or in your house? That's all that I can think of but a plumber would have stopped that. There are lots of self help type websits and other sources of advice. https://www.thameswater.co.uk/Help-and-Advice/No-Water-or-low-pressure/What-to-do

Not all good news. My colleague stood someonewhere in the home counties. His increase in the party's support matched UKIP's vote last time. Majority relatively unaffected. He'll bc coming back to the office I expect. Respect though.

Whem they built the new library at Birmingham University they forgot to take into account the weight of the books so the foundations were not strong enough. The newly opened Olympic sized swimming pool, is not Olympic sized as they forgot to take into account the thickness of the tile lining. Guess where I have been today. I took time to thanks the youngsters for voting. Not the civil engineers though.

Give GG a break will you - clearly this post got delayed in the post as it was intended before the referendum where he is just predicting what would happen if we left the EU. Thought the Question Time the night before was more informative where Clegg, Barry Gardener and he SNP person were all talking about that damned elephant in the room, Brexit and better still actually defining it as a political rather than economic decision (ie we did not vote out to improve our overall wealth. Anyway the Breixteers like a week pound.

If the magic money tree is the same as the Singing Ringing Tree I'd happily vote for that. East German culture at its finest. Not everything was bas in the old communist bloc. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052199/