*Bob*

Rolo Tomasi Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > And sends you information on trading times and > special offers via text. Apparently. Sometimes you even get get the weather for the next few days thrown in. So I'm told.

Was the one with the windmill one of his as well?

Jah Lush Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It is. It had a twin (same owner?) - another house - on Upland - which also had a petrol pump out front. That one was taken away a couple of years back (the pump, not that house) It makes me so sad and angry. All the front gardens used to be filled with petrol pumps and life was great. But then they started taking the petrol pumps away and new people arrived and the new people weren't quite like the old people so now I just stay at home alone and cry into my dinner mostly.

Jah Lush Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Nostalgia ain't what it used to be. I'm happy > today as I've always been. Pubs were good and bad > in the past just as they are today. Life's what you make, not what's 'done to you'. Good on yer, Lush. I salute you!

hurray! These posts are useful for me though, because know I know that should I ever find myself melancholically harking back to some 'the way things were' golden age - instead of taking a look at my own life and what might have changed there - It's time to pack myself off to Switzerland.

One day I too dream up selling up, buying that melon farm on the Isle of Wight and laughing at all the idiots still in London.

I wish..

PD, I don't think theses places are confined to a particular geographical area. I'm pretty sure we ("the shitholers") all come from different parts of the country. But the story is the same all over. I wouldn't go as far as Wild West - I was just making a point about inclusivity / diversity within pubs in years gone by in these sort of places. I think Pibe has put it best: "stratified by age, social class and musical taste/subcultural affiliation" I don't get back much (strangely) but on the few occasions I do I still find it a depressing experience. It's still a shithole, but now the town centre is like a morgue - even at the weekend.

Desire for continued anonymity on here prevents full disclosure! Think of somewhere you don't want to live. It's probably that one.

Parkdrive Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Where were these places you refer to, local or > from where you originally come from? I don't > recognise your description at all. Sounds as if > you're describing a saloon from a wild west movie. I'm not originally from London, no. It's my experience of the small/mid-sized-shithole-town-somewhere-in-england-you-can't-wait-to-leave scenario.

Doesn't ring true for me at all, but then I'm not from around eeeeere originally. Pubs from what I remember were 'specifically' niche and non-inclusive. The one you didn't go in if you were over 20, the one you didn't go in if you were a student, the one you didn't go in if you were an unaccompanied female, the one you didn't go in unless you knew someone who was a regular, the one you didn't go in if you had long hair.. and the one you just didn't go in.

I still missed the shawarma en route home from Tooting Broadway, many years back. The other doner thing, whatever it is, should be avoided (unless you've got to the point where you can't see your own hand in front of your face). My only probably is there isn't much to 'come back' from past Ash at the moment - not while The Rose still flails around with limbo dancing competitions, ceilidh nights, jam tart tuesdays etc etc.

Hairy Bikers are great (for repeats on The Beeb.. ker-ching!) 'Not guilty' on this one though. They churn out a hell of a lot of stuff - someone in The Corp likes them a lot. Or maybe they're like the Ben & Jerry of the TV culinary world. Cuddly on the outside, cut-throat in the board room.

What's the qualification for being a 'biker' - other than riding a motorcycle?

Millhaven Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Clarkson Arms does sound familiar. I think I went > in there just the once. As a part of a visiting > darts team. My recollection is that we were made > so unwelcome we all departed about 15 seconds > after the last dart was thrown. You forget, so many proppa 'boozers' were like this. Territorial and tribal, with a malevolent air. And people wonder why many aren't around any more. Personality and character I'm all for, but now, seriously, who wants to pay a fiver to sit with a drink, scanning the room and wondering if you're going to get out the door alive?

Disappointing not to get the debate on a channel here in Westminster.. I mean, England. We get to 'enjoy' Question Time on a regular basis from Scotland and Wales; why not this when it's proper big stuff? I predict quite close but 'no'.

"Dear sirs and Madams.." I think I'm developing a crush.

Totally wringled

The only thing I can find is this image of a copper wringle - only you have to register with 'plumbing zone' to see it. Which is a step too far, even for me. http://www.plumbingzone.com/f22/copper-wrinkle-15131/

How much? I'll give you 5 Squelps for one. And not a plok more.

'wringle' One of the few word with absolutely no google results. Whatever it is - I want one.

I can't decide. We've got the 'thumbs up' thread and the 'thumbs down' thread. Surely we need an 'Niko - uncertain wavery hand' thread - for everyone else. Say, if he unblocked a bog - but the u-bend was backed-up within a couple of weeks or something.

Not the food thing, Jez. More the sitting-around-in-a-pub-all-day thing. I remember the food thing exactly as you do: the family went down the pub on a Saturday for a meal, no change to now. The main change was that - back then - the men would also often go down the pub just with each other three (or four) other nights of the week as well.

Isn't it less a case of 'being old enough to remember' and more a case of 'being older and remembering what you did when you were young'?

If I lived there I'd pray for abduction.