Was in Leatherhead Spoons for Saltaire Triple Choc. It's an excellent beer. I have visited Saltaire which was set up by paternalistic Victorian Titus Salt. He was a temperance man so there were no pubs in the town originally. The brewery is actually in Shipley. I walked there in the rain to find it was not fully open but they were decent enough to let me have a beer on the premises.

A pal walked into Spoons. He had been on a walk with Elmbridge 'wellbeing' it's connected to the Ramblers but you don't have to join anything and the walks are easy enough. I may give it a go. I have been on tracks same pal has told me of and enjoyed them.

I went to that David Hockney exhibition too.

You may need to look on Spoons app to find Triple Choc. They don't all have it on

In the last week I've visited the Peterboat pub in old Leigh a couple of times. Tasted local beers from St George's brewery. Old Southendian Porter and HildaB ale. The porter was so so but got better the more I drank but the StHildaB was very acceptable. Good to see the local pubs supporting the local breweries.

Last edited by RobbieB (2023-05-04 09:21:37)

I will have to keep my eye open for the Rochford beer festival. The Peterboat had a beer festival a few years back which was very good. I think COVID killed it off before it became a regular event

Spent some of yesterday afternoon at the The Bulls Head, Barnes Bridge listening to The Big Swing Band. They were a 15 piece outfit playing stuff from Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Woody Herman etc. Not my normal listening but I really enjoyed them and it was interesting to watch the band working together, I would certainly recommend them if they play a date near you. Sadly the band nearly outnumbered the audience, I concluded that they definitely weren’t in it for the money, more the enjoyment of playing together. My afternoon’s enjoyment was assisted by partaking of four pints of Youngs Original before hopping back on the train.

For this deployment I wore a stone coloured J Keydge cotton jacket, J Press mainly green madras shirt, navy blue JS linen trousers and white Sanders bucks.

Last edited by FlatSixC (2023-05-23 02:38:59)

Visited a famous Spitalfields house at 4 Princelet street. It had an exhibition by a bloke called Christo. Various bits of shit wrapped up in plastic and tied up. Money for old rope quite literally. The exhibition was free though.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12601375/Londons-instagrammed-house-Georgian-Spitalfields-Luther-Ralph-Fiennes-film-Invisible-Woman.html

Afterwards it was one street away from The Pride of Spitalfields. Crouch Vale Gold was in good order but sadly the lunchtime k**ch**  is gone. So no ham egg and chips at reasonable prices.

However, they do offer wonderful hot salt beef sandwiches with gherkin, salad etc for £4. These are far better than what the 24 hour Bagel shop at the top of Brick Lane offer. I never did get on with bagels either too sweet for me. Tried them a few times when I was playing bridge in the East End.

On a more clothing related topic, I note Blackman's shoes has closed its shop and is now online only. Online offerings do not reveal anything I would want to buy.

Last edited by Kingston1an (2023-10-27 09:16:23)

Amazingly the bar staff in my local claim they took £50,000 in the second week of Jan. Second highest in country for the pub group.The pub does not offer food so wet sales only. The next week they only had 3 people in the pub one night! Their prices almost match Spoons and plenty of 'functioning alcoholics' use the place.