Tag: London

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I’d accumulated a fair bit of unused leave from last year, so I was kept being given various odd days off from work. As a result, I managed a few barely planned away days, including:

  • A mistimed visit to Newark: we were intending to go to the Triangle Beer Festival, but got there a week early.
  • Wakefield: where we managed to get into the Red Shed.
  • London: where Verdant were having a tap takeover at the Shirker’s Rest, so of course I got my fill of Putty.
  • Doncaster: where a day of easy drinking began with a 17% abv American stout and an 11% Italian stout.
    • Whilst I successfully made it back and was fairly fine in the morning, Rich was less so given the text I received from him the following morning where he had fallen asleep on the bus and then had to walk across Leeds to get home.
  • Skegness: where I wouldn’t ordinarily choose to go, but needs must for a stag do.
    • There was no cask at Butlin’s, as was to be expected, but they had bottles of Doom Bar available. Some bars also had it on keg – abomination! Needless to say, a lot of lager was consumed.
    • Considering the captive market, the beer pricing was not as excessive as I may have expected

I somehow managed to corrupt the memory card in the camera, so I annoying lost a batch of pictures that I hadn’t got around to copying onto the computer. I don’t think there were any of great importance, so I’ll just carry on as usual.

 

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This would have been two weekly posts, but as I had difficulty changing the original post setting from ‘draft’ to ‘published’, you can cope with a combined fortnightly post instead.

The presence of a long weekend along with a desire to do something that wasn’t sleeping lead to a hastily arranged trip to that there London. Hastily arranged as in all planned at 2300 the day before whilst at work. A cheapo hotel room was obtained in Kingston-upon-Thames so that became the focus of drinking activities. I managed to collect a few more Spoons for the collection, and also some other pubs for the purists. Highlight location was probably Surbiton, which I had unfortunately left until late on, so didn’t make it around everywhere I had my eye on. A return visit will be in order, along with Tolworth which also had some interesting looking establishments that I saw going past on the bus.

A more local drinking session took place in Wakefield with Rich. As a result, I am now in possession of a deerstalker.

I came across a heavily discounted parka-type coat that I purchased, which came in handy for a period of unusually cold weather. The heating in the flat has now been switched on too. There was also a heavy dumping of snow that made getting home from a late pub shift, that would normally take around 35 minutes, take around three hours instead.

Also picked up on the cheap was a pod coffee machine. Teach me not to proof read, I got this last week. Anyway, the following still stands: Now, I fully appreciate that coffee pods work out more expensive per cup and have a potentially dubious environmental record, however the convenience of not having to grind beans, warm up the espresso machine and then clean it up afterwards when I just want a quick shot to go wins out overall. Fellow pod machine owners have also pointed me towards some alternative avenues to pick up pods at a lower price point that I shall investigate.

The coffee machine at the church kitchen had been playing up for the past couple of weeks. It was ascertained that perhaps reassembling the filter bowl completely – i.e. putting the spring mount back in – after cleaning it would stop it flooding the counter with coffee.

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As usual, I’ve been rather slack in keeping up to date with events and happenings. I’ll try and remember what I’ve done since May.

The main change has been a change of employment, having gone from bus to train. Where I used to log various delays and cancellations, I can now be a cause of them. Also: better pay, benefits, conditions and such.

An earlier post was seeking suggestions for areas of outer London for pub based investigations. I managed two of those with calls at Penge and Eltham, plus Bromley and Stoke Newington as well.

This year’s Loony Party conference took place in Wales (specifically, let me check the spelling here, Llanwrtyd Wells). Beer options were a bit suspect and for the first time it rained during the cabinet reshuffle. Hopefully, that isn’t a bad omen. I was also roped in as an election agent in the Tamworth by-election. First count I’ve been to for a few years and completed relatively quickly too, as I was in bed by 3am.

Space idiot decided that not posting on Twitter was spamming, so that account got suspended. I got a Bluesky invite code around the same time though, so I have a new social network account to neglect instead. Mastodon continues to be my preferred waste of time, however a full range of options can be found in link-me-do corner.

That’s about everything of note, unless I remember something else later and add it into the small space above this paragraph. I’m off to the pub to celebrate one crap year ending and another beginning. Cheers/Sláinte/Iechyd da/Prost/As you are!

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I’ve been to London more times than I care to imagine. The problem is I’ve done all the tourist stuff I want to see, so any visits I make have turned into “which suburb have I not been to yet?”. I’ve got a forthcoming visit to go to a gig, so need to kill time in the day. For no particular reasons, I’m considering one of these random locations to drop into:

  • Dagenham
  • Eltham
  • Penge

Other suggestions (to go to or to avoid) would be entertained, comment away!