Statistically four British Pubs are closing per DAY.
The pub used to be a wonderful place, a hive of activity, almost like a second home. For a couple of pounds you were guaranteed (in most cases) a decent pint, a warm welcome and some banter with the landlord. All were welcome at the local Public House.
I always found it quite quaint walking into the smoky atmosphere of a pub, as a smoker it felt comfortable and for me it was part of the charm. That is not to say I was unaware that others felt differently and that it would be fair to make a pub welcoming to those who did want a ciggie and those that did not. The perefect way to keep everyone happy would have been to have a SMOKING room and a NON SMOKING room. To me that seems obvious but living in a nanny state like we do, something that suited every one and made good sense was never going to be allowed. July 1st 2007 cometh and the big smoking BAN arrived. I reacted with my feet and my wallet. I refused point blank to go to an establishment hand over my hard earned to have to stand outside like a leper.
Fast forward two years and I have become accustomed to sitting in my own comfortable front room, where I can drink cheaper booze, light up when I want and have complete control of the Juke Box (which incidentally has near enough any tune I could ever want thanks to the power of YouTube).
I can count on one hand the times I have visited a public house since the smoking ban and last night was one of them. It was not my idea in fact I was wholly against it but I succumbed to the constant badgerings of Andy and a friend and off I walked under duress and making sure my feelings where fully known.
I did explain to my over eager drinking partners that since the millenium where pubs took it upon themselves to charge an entrance fee, the idea of being charged for the privilege of being a customer has become the norm. I was assured this would not be the case and we walked into the pub and ordered a Pint of lager for Andy, A pint of Guinness for my good self and a Vodka with lime and lemonade for my friend.
Shortly after some burly man approaches us saying he has been informed that we have not paid for tickets and therefore we are not able to remain in this side of the pub. Our options being drink this drink and leave or move to the empty tap room. we could of course hand 15 quid over to give us permission to be a customer in the lounge room. Having only ever wanted to go for a couple of drinks we had taken a grand total of 20 pounds with us and even if we were desperate enough to be their customers I'm sure the big burly man would not appreciate us sat there with tickets but without buying drinks!
We decided to finish our drinks on our own in the tap room, where we felt like outcasts, unwelcome and miserly . We downed in one and buggared off home. We shall not return, another pub has just lost another customer.
At least this morning I have a clear head and I am hang over free, so I am starting 2010 as I mean to go on a full day doing some Uni work. Enjoying the Javascript so far, more fun than a new years eve night in the local pub...Now that is bad!
About Me
Friday, 1 January 2010
Thursday, 31 December 2009
The New Years Honours List 2010
Some people might be suprised to know that the full honours list comprises of persons who are acknowledged for their services to science, healthcare, academia, research etc, you know the ones, those individuals who have made a difference to finding cures for cancer, Aids, erradicating things that damage and harm society . Yes thats right people that are working and changing society for the better.
As usual the only persons the media are quick to promote as being on that lucky list are those wonderful "celebs". Yes actors and actresses, sports "personalities", they are all announced as being the great and the good leaving all the other hard working souls to be found on the Government created PDF
http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_183669.pdf
Suprisingly there is a distinct lack of MPs listed I would have thought this year there would have been an extensive list "for services to the fraud industry".
James Joseph Caulfield must be elated in receiving an honour for his voluntary services to Disadvantaged People in Kenya. I will requote "voluntary". Yes a man that through his want to help others less fortunate in lands less affluent has been deservedly given recognition. A little further down the list is Jenson Alexander Lyons Button, For services to Motorsport. Now hang on a minute this guy earns millions for driving A fast car in cricles going nowhere fast! I will happily drive around the M25 for FREE if I can have an MBE! I do feel this kind of makes a mockery of the whole thing.
I did do a search on the Government PDF but alas nowhere to be found was "Sarah Davis for services to the Call Centre Sector"
Buggar, Damn and Blast. Maybe next year!
As usual the only persons the media are quick to promote as being on that lucky list are those wonderful "celebs". Yes actors and actresses, sports "personalities", they are all announced as being the great and the good leaving all the other hard working souls to be found on the Government created PDF
http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_183669.pdf
Suprisingly there is a distinct lack of MPs listed I would have thought this year there would have been an extensive list "for services to the fraud industry".
James Joseph Caulfield must be elated in receiving an honour for his voluntary services to Disadvantaged People in Kenya. I will requote "voluntary". Yes a man that through his want to help others less fortunate in lands less affluent has been deservedly given recognition. A little further down the list is Jenson Alexander Lyons Button, For services to Motorsport. Now hang on a minute this guy earns millions for driving A fast car in cricles going nowhere fast! I will happily drive around the M25 for FREE if I can have an MBE! I do feel this kind of makes a mockery of the whole thing.
I did do a search on the Government PDF but alas nowhere to be found was "Sarah Davis for services to the Call Centre Sector"
Buggar, Damn and Blast. Maybe next year!
The Price of Books
The price of books is nothing short of incredulous!
If you are after a publication other than the inane and shallow ramblings of Katie Price or other non entities who churn out uninteresting "celebrity" autobiographies on the back of appearing in the Daily Star once, it would appear you have to be prepared to suck your teeth and re-mortgage the house.
I would not mind if the book was concerning a popular topic but "Building the Post War World" is hardly going to be appearing on the top of everyones "must read" list!
So refusing to hand over 35 quid to invest in this riveting read, I have decided to borrow The Tardis take my 35 quid to post war Britain and rebuild it myself. the added benefit of this being I will probably still have some monies left over for a Big Mac on my way back to 2010!
Happy Days and a Happy New Year!
If you are after a publication other than the inane and shallow ramblings of Katie Price or other non entities who churn out uninteresting "celebrity" autobiographies on the back of appearing in the Daily Star once, it would appear you have to be prepared to suck your teeth and re-mortgage the house.
I would not mind if the book was concerning a popular topic but "Building the Post War World" is hardly going to be appearing on the top of everyones "must read" list!
So refusing to hand over 35 quid to invest in this riveting read, I have decided to borrow The Tardis take my 35 quid to post war Britain and rebuild it myself. the added benefit of this being I will probably still have some monies left over for a Big Mac on my way back to 2010!
Happy Days and a Happy New Year!
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
British man said to be mentally ill executed in China
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8433285.stm
The death penalty: I am totally opposed to it no matter what the crime committed is. A British man being put to death over some bloody drugs to me is quite sickening really. Other henious crimes the Chinese feel worthy of execution, totalling 60 offences include non-violent crimes such as tax fraud and embezzlement.
Good Lord we would have no MPs left if we lived in China! Maybe that might be a good thing, maybe the death penalty isn't quite so unthinkable after all!
On a lighter note singer Van Morrison has become a daddy at the age of 64, bless.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8433453.stm
His website claims the new offspring is: "the spitting image of his daddy". So thats wrinkly, saggy and akin to a bulldog chewing a wasp.
Ciao!
The death penalty: I am totally opposed to it no matter what the crime committed is. A British man being put to death over some bloody drugs to me is quite sickening really. Other henious crimes the Chinese feel worthy of execution, totalling 60 offences include non-violent crimes such as tax fraud and embezzlement.
Good Lord we would have no MPs left if we lived in China! Maybe that might be a good thing, maybe the death penalty isn't quite so unthinkable after all!
On a lighter note singer Van Morrison has become a daddy at the age of 64, bless.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8433453.stm
His website claims the new offspring is: "the spitting image of his daddy". So thats wrinkly, saggy and akin to a bulldog chewing a wasp.
Ciao!
Saturday, 12 December 2009
Buggar, Damn and Blast!
My inflated foot has prevented me from attending my OU tutorial, my head start is now a distant memory as I try and keep on track between gallons of tea and Co-Codamols.
Always a glutton for punishment and my own worst enemy I have enrolled for yet another course starting in February 2010 which will overlap my current one.
As for the news there has not been anything that is suitable for me to piss and whinge about, I could have had a blast at the unscrupulous MPs again and their floating duck houses but I have been there and need some new fodder to get my teeth stuck into.
I think it is going to be the Broadband tax but I must not digress I have work to catch up on! Nothing finer that Program Controlled input and Output on a Saturday morning! How I long for a big wad of Purple and a trip to Murderhell (and a new foot)
Keep ya pecker up people!
Always a glutton for punishment and my own worst enemy I have enrolled for yet another course starting in February 2010 which will overlap my current one.
As for the news there has not been anything that is suitable for me to piss and whinge about, I could have had a blast at the unscrupulous MPs again and their floating duck houses but I have been there and need some new fodder to get my teeth stuck into.
I think it is going to be the Broadband tax but I must not digress I have work to catch up on! Nothing finer that Program Controlled input and Output on a Saturday morning! How I long for a big wad of Purple and a trip to Murderhell (and a new foot)
Keep ya pecker up people!
Monday, 7 December 2009
M150 Assignment Result In!
Who needs the Xfactor for finger biting stuff??
I have been waiting with great anticipation for my M150 first assignment result and check it out... 97%!!
Now that is worth a glass of the bubbly stuff! So cracked open the Jacobs Crack Sparkilng Rose (no Krug this week!) Gulp, Gulp.. but what is this?? OH NO, these meds I am taking from having my foot hacked at meant the bubbly did not have the desired effect.
It is not very often I actually have a worthwhile reason to get wasted and the one time I did it was an Epic Fail!!!
Oh well tonight I will just have to try again, using the excuse it is a Monday and I am not at work now until Jan 4th 2010!!
I have been waiting with great anticipation for my M150 first assignment result and check it out... 97%!!
Now that is worth a glass of the bubbly stuff! So cracked open the Jacobs Crack Sparkilng Rose (no Krug this week!) Gulp, Gulp.. but what is this?? OH NO, these meds I am taking from having my foot hacked at meant the bubbly did not have the desired effect.
It is not very often I actually have a worthwhile reason to get wasted and the one time I did it was an Epic Fail!!!
Oh well tonight I will just have to try again, using the excuse it is a Monday and I am not at work now until Jan 4th 2010!!
Sunday, 8 November 2009
Bonfire Night is Gonefire Night, someone tell the Local Numpties!
Sunday November the 8th, The day we all lower our heads in respect for those brave souls who made the ultimate sacrifice so we can have the right to sit square eyed at our screens and so I can have my opinionated ramblings posted for the world to see from the comfort of my own home. The right to freedom, that is unless you enjoy puffing away on the evil weed (the legal variety I might add) in which case you are less deserving of rights than a machete holding psycho maniac... but I digress.
Rewind back to the 5th November, Gun Powder, Treason and Plot. Sat in my office trying to make the final amendments to my Open University Assignment I find my self in what sounds like an Afghanistan war Zone. Bangs, squeals, crackles and even bigger bangs. The atmosphere all hazy with the airborn particulates emitted from the cremating of stolen crates and numerous old Ikea flat packs. It was of course Bonfire night. A highly pointless symbol of Britishness, unless you have not yet reached puberty.
Old Guy Fawkes has a lot to answer for. I do not know what is worse, the fact his plan to bomb the International Hub of Expenses fraud was foiled or the fact that some 400 years later the Great British Public are still trying to reinact it in their back gardens. I certainly hope all those revlling in the festivities not once criticised those creepy, thieving buggars that supposedly look out for the tax payer.
Fast forward again to November 8th. I am still sat here square eyed and I am now being subjected to all the cheapscapes that have made the most of the local firework dealers that spring up in the last quarter of the year to make a quick quid, trying to be rid of stock so they can move on and set up some other seasonal, temporary enterprise.
In a world that has gone absolutely crackers with laughable health and safety laws (you can not have barbed wires around your house, as you have a duty of care to potential burglars) where persons are now exempt from applying common sense, I find it more than alarming that any Tom, Dick or Harry can buy a shed load of GunPowder and explosives and be given free reign to ignite it where ever they see fit.
Three days later they are continuing with this childish noise pollution. Grown men eyes wide open, heads tilted and mouths catching flies. Grown men mesmorised by the pretty colours and loud noises, without any consideration for those around them.
Please hurry up and banish these things from Suburbia, confine them to once a year, put them in the hands of trained Pyrotechnics. Right now there is one place I would love to stick The Numpty at No.22's Roman Candle.. and it is right up his f****ing arse!
Rewind back to the 5th November, Gun Powder, Treason and Plot. Sat in my office trying to make the final amendments to my Open University Assignment I find my self in what sounds like an Afghanistan war Zone. Bangs, squeals, crackles and even bigger bangs. The atmosphere all hazy with the airborn particulates emitted from the cremating of stolen crates and numerous old Ikea flat packs. It was of course Bonfire night. A highly pointless symbol of Britishness, unless you have not yet reached puberty.
Old Guy Fawkes has a lot to answer for. I do not know what is worse, the fact his plan to bomb the International Hub of Expenses fraud was foiled or the fact that some 400 years later the Great British Public are still trying to reinact it in their back gardens. I certainly hope all those revlling in the festivities not once criticised those creepy, thieving buggars that supposedly look out for the tax payer.
Fast forward again to November 8th. I am still sat here square eyed and I am now being subjected to all the cheapscapes that have made the most of the local firework dealers that spring up in the last quarter of the year to make a quick quid, trying to be rid of stock so they can move on and set up some other seasonal, temporary enterprise.
In a world that has gone absolutely crackers with laughable health and safety laws (you can not have barbed wires around your house, as you have a duty of care to potential burglars) where persons are now exempt from applying common sense, I find it more than alarming that any Tom, Dick or Harry can buy a shed load of GunPowder and explosives and be given free reign to ignite it where ever they see fit.
Three days later they are continuing with this childish noise pollution. Grown men eyes wide open, heads tilted and mouths catching flies. Grown men mesmorised by the pretty colours and loud noises, without any consideration for those around them.
Please hurry up and banish these things from Suburbia, confine them to once a year, put them in the hands of trained Pyrotechnics. Right now there is one place I would love to stick The Numpty at No.22's Roman Candle.. and it is right up his f****ing arse!
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