Plans for today (2024)

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

It is a 'village pub' the landlord and lady have invested heavily over the years to make it as family friendly and community supportive as possible, comedy shows throughout the year and so many other different events. No games machines, no tv, 11pm curfew.

I was just discussing our local pub with Mr SSOAP!
Ours is a disappointment. We walk past it to the pub further on.
It's such a shame, there's no reason for it to be so bad (bad food, flat atmosphere, miserable staff) because it has access to a demographic with a reasonable expendable income - that all walk past it to the pub further on, even though that one is overpriced.

They are currently closed for a refurb so there's an outside chance it will improve. It hasn't the last two times it's been refurbed because they've never addressed the underlying issues that make it so gawd awful, lipstick on a pig springs to mind.

It's great you have good landlords, ours is owned by a crap chain that use it for training so it never has anyone there who knows what they're doing

It's ok though, when I win the lottery it will be purchased and turned into a gastro pub

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

It’s only 260 days when you start in November!

I thought your tree went up in September?

 

[Lullabelle]

I was just discussing our local pub with Mr SSOAP!
Ours is a disappointment. We walk past it to the pub further on.
It's such a shame, there's no reason for it to be so bad (bad food, flat atmosphere, miserable staff) because it has access to a demographic with a reasonable expendable income - that all walk past it to the pub further on, even though that one is overpriced.

They are currently closed for a refurb so there's an outside chance it will improve. It hasn't the last two times it's been refurbed because they've never addressed the underlying issues that make it so gawd awful, lipstick on a pig springs to mind.

It's great you have good landlords, ours is owned by a crap chain that use it for training so it never has anyone there who knows what they're doing

It's ok though, when I win the lottery it will be purchased and turned into a gastro pub

Ours is owned by Everards who are generally good. The last tenants dragged it way down to the point of repeated complaints and police visits as they served very cheap lager and drugs were involved so Everards were told to 'sort it out', they got rid of them and let these 2 in and they have turned it back around, cleaned the place up, reopened the kitchen and just generally refurbed the place.

 

[TastyReuben]

Bought some Easter decs today. Have new little Easter tree that I can put away fully decorated and save me any Easter decorating hassle!
So what happens decorating event wise between Easter and Christmas?

Well, there’s Memorial Day tree, Trooping the Colour tree, Independence Day tree, Labor Day tree, and Halloween tree!

I thought your tree went up in September?

I think the earliest it ever went up was mid-October one year.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Ours is owned by Everards who are generally good. The last tenants dragged it way down to the point of repeated complaints and police visits as they served very cheap lager and drugs were involved so Everards were told to 'sort it out', they got rid of them and let these 2 in and they have turned it back around, cleaned the place up, reopened the kitchen and just generally refurbed the place.

That's so nice when all the pub stories you hear now are about how many pubs are closing down.
Mr SSOAP and I have talked about buying the pub and fixing it, particularly as it was his childhood home before a compulsory purchase order performed daylight robbery and took it.

But it would require far far more input than either I or Mr SSOAP could give it for nowhere near enough return. That job is a way of life!

 

[karadekoolaid]

I was just discussing our local pub with Mr SSOAP!
Ours is a disappointment. We walk past it to the pub further on.
It's such a shame, there's no reason for it to be so bad (bad food, flat atmosphere, miserable staff) because it has access to a demographic with a reasonable expendable income - that all walk past it to the pub further on, even though that one is overpriced.

What a shame. I saw a lot of that last year. The UK finally got to break the stranglehold of crummy beer (Watneys, Whitbreads, Courage, etc.) and now the stranglehold is crummy food (especially Greene King, Marstons, Shepherd Neame, Nicholsons, etc). No local food any more in those places; just a dull, centrally drawn up "menu" of the same old, same old. There's no atmosphere because the Managers don't seem to engage (or want to engage) and the bar staff are all youngsters who are just there for cash. Plus the lack of bar stools...

It is a 'village pub' the landlord and lady have invested heavily over the years to make it as family friendly and community supportive as possible, comedy shows throughout the year and so many other different events. No games machines, no tv, 11pm curfew.

How wonderful! When I was back in the UK last year, I scoured all my old haunts and, mostly, came up wanting. Those that hadn't been converted into gastropubs (ie. no barstools, just tables covered with cutlery) often had good food, but no atmosphere whatsoever. Then there were two Wetherspoons, filled with ugly people and snotty uncontrollable kids running all over the place. The two oldest pubs in town were mostly empty; rather sad, really. The place I eventually settled on was a sports pub - mostly football, rugby, cricket, horse-racing - but with the most delightful bar staff and people who would actually speak to you when you came in.

 

[karadekoolaid]

Well, there’s Memorial Day tree, Trooping the Colour tree, Independence Day tree, Labor Day tree, and Halloween tree!

You've forgotten the Lava-tree...

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

Well, there’s Memorial Day tree, Trooping the Colour tree, Independence Day tree, Labor Day tree, and Halloween tree!

Hmm I need a couple more trees but I don't think any of those suit.
I have May the 4th Be With You day as a Star Wars themed food day, which I do, do on other days but there's currently no tree

But in the West Country paganism never disappeared.
Wassailing still happens in Somerset but thats a bit too odd for me and January isn't much of a celebratory month.
Glastonbury being just down the road means the Summer Solstice is still very much alive and kicking but that still it's a bit too far out man for my lot.

However Harvest Festival has been celebrated here since the beginning of time (ish) so I could easily do a harvest festival tree.
Assuming I can remember to check when the Sunday nearest the full moon of the autumn equinox is or I could just do it in August when the Harvest Home is on cos they decided to conveniently move it to 'Lammas' in the summer when it was more comfortable to convene in a field drink cider and sit on hay bales

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

What a shame. I saw a lot of that last year. The UK finally got to break the stranglehold of crummy beer (Watneys, Whitbreads, Courage, etc.) and now the stranglehold is crummy food (especially Greene King, Marstons, Shepherd Neame, Nicholsons, etc). No local food any more in those places; just a dull, centrally drawn up "menu" of the same old, same old. There's no atmosphere because the Managers don't seem to engage (or want to engage) and the bar staff are all youngsters who are just there for cash. Plus the lack of bar stools...

How wonderful! When I was back in the UK last year, I scoured all my old haunts and, mostly, came up wanting. Those that hadn't been converted into gastropubs (ie. no barstools, just tables covered with cutlery) often had good food, but no atmosphere whatsoever. Then there were two Wetherspoons, filled with ugly people and snotty uncontrollable kids running all over the place. The two oldest pubs in town were mostly empty; rather sad, really. The place I eventually settled on was a sports pub - mostly football, rugby, cricket, horse-racing - but with the most delightful bar staff and people who would actually speak to you when you came in.

Yep that sums it up. It is a crying shame.
The Cotswolds still has a very strong pub culture with the whole welly boot and dog walking brigade propping things up but everywhere else it's disappearing at a rate of knots.

I love a gastro pub, but not at the expense of the pub part of the pub suffering.

 

[karadekoolaid]

There's a big difference between a countryside local (ie. rural Kent, where I'm from) and a London pub, but all the same, I got the same impression. My son lives in SW London, and there are at least a dozen boozers close by. The one in front is awfully posh, but they do their own food and the nippers behind the bar at least have some conversation. The two round the corner are awful. We found the best, but very best place to be was the Fox & Hounds on the corner.Basically a Sports pub, but lots of locals. Football games means the place is packed, but Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Crystal Palace and Spurs fans all get on together. the locals will strike up a conversation with you about nothing in particular, and then you're mates for life. Gets a bit rowdy at times, but all in good spirit. Plus the two 6ft 4in bouncers tend to help...

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

There's a big difference between a countryside local (ie. rural Kent, where I'm from) and a London pub, but all the same, I got the same impression. My son lives in SW London, and there are at least a dozen boozers close by. The one in front is awfully posh, but they do their own food and the nippers behind the bar at least have some conversation. The two round the corner are awful. We found the best, but very best place to be was the Fox & Hounds on the corner.Basically a Sports pub, but lots of locals. Football games means the place is packed, but Arsenal, Chelsea, Fulham, Crystal Palace and Spurs fans all get on together. the locals will strike up a conversation with you about nothing in particular, and then you're mates for life. Gets a bit rowdy at times, but all in good spirit. Plus the two 6ft 4in bouncers tend to help...

Our awful pub was good once. It was so popular they opened a second bar behind the first one in what were the stables to deal with the over flow.
But then it went from being owned by the landlord and lady to a chain and they have the most amazing ability to strip the heart out of anything they touch with their identikit approach and lack of care over their staff. It just killed it.

Everyone used to go there after work on a Friday to have a couple of drinks together and it would be packed. It was good for everyone to mix socially after work. Weekday work grievances with a bit of alcohol poured on top sounds like a disaster but it was more like it was either a balm or a boil bursting, everything got resolved one way or another!

 

[Backbay]

Yeah, sure. Stylist has agreed to take her on as a client, MrsT left with a buttload of instructions on how to prepare for her next appointment. It’s like a doc’s prep order.

She was in there for 2-1/2 hours!

And thank you on behalf of MrsT for that compliment - she’s very self-conscious about her wiry locks, even though every stylist tells her, “I have clients who’d murder someone for hair like that.”

Thanks for responding!
It does sound like a Dr. appt. Never knew there was a level of stylist that had to “accept” you. I am going to have google for that in my area. Of course, I am not always consistent at following rules set by others so maybe I am better off to live vicariously through Mrs. T’s experience!

Hope Mrs. T gets the results she desires!

 

[TastyReuben]

I am going to have google for that in my area.

Is your hair like MrsT’s (thick, wiry, kinky, curly)? If so, let me know and I can point you to a website that lists these specially-certified stylists. They apparently go through some specific school or track for hair like that. Maybe it’s a landscaping course, idk.

There’s one in Cincy, one in Dayton, so I’m assuming there’s at least one in Columbus and Cleveland.

She did get complimented that very day, as we were leaving the lunch spot, so she’s happy so far.

 

[Backbay]

Is your hair like MrsT’s (thick, wiry, kinky, curly)? If so, let me know and I can point you to a website that lists these specially-certified stylists. They apparently go through some specific school or track for hair like that. Maybe it’s a landscaping course, idk.

There’s one in Cincy, one in Dayton, so I’m assuming there’s at least one in Columbus and Cleveland.

She did get complimented that very day, as we were leaving the lunch spot, so she’s happy so far.

No, my hair is not like Mrs. T’s. It is past shoulder length and fine but, I have a ton of hair that has different texture depending on the area of the scalp. Add that to my age, getting a little long in the tooth so to speak, which brings its own set of problems with my hair (or so it seems).
Thanks!

 

[rascal]

Wifes getting hair done the home for scrambled eggs bacon.
1). Butchers sausages chop for bbq tomorrow.
2) supermarket supplies
3) take dood out freezer for tomorrow
4).bets on for races.
5) marinating chops
6) learn a bit more French for tomorrow via giggle.
Then see how it goes from there

Russ