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.

Robbie - when we lived in Essex we used to like the two pubs at Heybridge Basin. One of them did the most amazing home made pie. But this was  over 18 years ago so the information may be out of date ha-ha.

Last edited by FlatSixC (2024-07-15 15:46:37)

Might need to add to the topics title 'landlubbers and old sea dogs'

A visit to the Marylebone area today with Mrs Flat6 who treated me to a birthday present of one of the new bucket hats from John Simons, which I’m very happy with.
Chiltern Street was lively, the system seems to be that the more a place charges for coffee the bigger the queue is. We went around the corner to the excellent bakers shop in Thayer St for one of their titanic rock cakes and two Americanos at more sensible prices.
Old habits die hard, so when in these well-heeled areas, I always carry out a check of the local charity shops. One place yielded up a Gitman Brothers Chambray shirt and, unbelievably, a pair of JM Weston suede loafers. In my size and neither appearing to have been worn.
We then repaired to the Barley Mow for a celebratory drink. Being nominated driver I partook of half of a non-alcoholic lager they had on draft. 0% beers have improved a lot since they came out, but this was truly gopping and I had to wash the taste away with a pint of bitter shandy.
We then took a gentle stroll back to Piccadilly tube.
I was decked out in a JS navy blue seersucker jacket, white polo, khaki Cordings linen trousers, white Sanders bucks and the aforementioned hat. In Beak Street we were stopped by two young German guys who explained that they were making a video about the London menswear scene. They asked me if I would be filmed for it as what I was wearing stood out and was interesting. Being somewhat reticent and camera-shy, I thanked them but declined and we went on our way.

Last edited by FlatSixC (2024-08-03 15:30:52)

Thursday evening I relived my youth. I saw the highly underrated, Jazz-Funksters Shakatak.

Back in '81 they were one of the first gigs I attended at the sadly missed Odeon New Street.

They played a wonderful hour and a quarter's worth of smooth, jazzy sounds, that mixed old hits with some of their more recent stuff. The quality of their musicianship is outstanding.

It was an exceptionally warm evening out so I was wearing the John Simons Bleu linen shirt with stone chinos and wine loafers. A simple look.

It was an older crowd with quite a few chaps making an effort.

Around about '82 Peter Powell had a segment on his Monday night show called Steppin' Out.

It was about 15-20 minutes of the latest soul, funk and Jazz Funk.

Froggy and Pete Tong would alternate doing a guest spot of what was the hot tune of the moment on the South East soul scene.

It's hard to think that at the time this was the only exposure the music got on National radio.

I do stress "at the time" as no doubt I'll be jumped on by older posters who recall presenters in the Seventies playing soul music.

It was a different world back then. Club favourites would mysteriously get chart positions much to the chagrin of the rock DJ's who just didn't get what was going on.

Azymuth's Jazz Carnival being played on Top of The Pops was another strange event. It originally got played the clubs as US import album track. The record company were quick to respond and got a single version out as both 7" &12". Obviously they couldn't get the band over from Brazil so we had to make do with their bizarre dancers.