After British Gas cleaned me out leaving me with less than the price of a bus ride into town and back, Charlie Chalk zapped me a tenner over electronically.
So I plodded up over Church Hill this morning and down to Asda for top up stuff like bread and milk. Got some Taylors espresso ground coffee. Just fired up the cappuccino maker and it's very good, but hasn't got the edge of the Tesco own brand. I want to try Lavazza, but that's a bit expensive and will have to wait until I get my wedge back off those jackals British Gas.
Two cups of cappuccino have lifted my mood from Grrr to hmm, but we'll stay on 2 cups, or else I'll end up with a caffeine buzz and go all wobbly. I gave my frothing (especially on the first cup) an 8/10 this morning, but I still lack volume and staying power.
I didn't post much last week, as I just wasn't feeling well. The one day I had a real bad bronchial cough and thought that was a pre amble to a good cold or bout of flu, but it wasn't.
Saw my brother on Tuesday, he took me over to Wolverhampton to photograph this visitor centre he's trying to save from closure. Last week, he was on Radio WM in the morning and BBC Midlands TV news at luncthime, but was crestfallen when he was cut from the teatime report, giving way to the Cadbury's chocolate takeover by Kraft. Message to CEO of Kraft it's pronounce Cad Burie not Cad Berry you clown !
I also had to set up Bro's Facebook page and group for his campaign and generally act as liaison for his media enquiries as local well knowns like Ed Doolan, Phil Upton and Adrian Goldberg are lending his campaign a hand.
Here's the link to his Facebook group
A week Monday gone, I went up to Darlaston to meet up with Charlie Chalk at a pub I've not been in for over 2 years, but always got on with the people who keep it. When I used it on a regular basis, it was a pub with a steady turnover of customers throughout the day. I met the Chalk Master at just after one and there was one other guy in the bar, no one in the lounge. I stayed til about three thirty and the only other people to come in were two young lads.
Big Jim at the Horse & Jockey
It's only a matter of time before proper pubs disappear for good in this country. At the moment it's reported thirty a week are closing, many of these have history and architecture and are being vandalised then demolished. It's a long story going back to the previous Conservative government forcing the breweries to sell off many of their "tied" houses to prevent what it called a monopoly. This gave rise to the concept of the pub management company, who bought these properties, hiked up the rents and forced the landlords to buy beer from them rather than directly from the brewery (at their inflated prices).
My old local the Forge Hammer saw the rent rise from £ 190 a week to £ 430 in one stroke. That's an awful lot of beer needs selling to make up the difference.
The Forge Hammer (a former coaching house) now stands a vandalised shell. It will never open as a pub again and it's highly unlikely the Duke of Wellington just up the road from here by the church will either. Closed for the last three or more years, it was vandalised somewhat, but was then well boarded up. So I hear, it was sold by auction in December and when I walked past this morning there were men inside cleaning out debris, but I doubt it will be a pub again.
It too for many years was a cracking pub attracting a good cross section of the community from road construction workers to high church (honest) ! I would regularly have a chat with a guy named Roger who was high church. Linn and Gordon kept the place for about three years in the nineties and I've never seen anyone work so hard to keep a good pub. Linn did superb pub food at a good price, but even they caved in and the pub then saw a succession of amateurs who were unable to earn a living or keep out the local scum (drug dealing) out, which forced the regular trade away.
On the main road into Birmingham about six miles from here, is a literal gin palace of a pub, an architectural magnificence called the Bartons Arms. In the lounge part there are snob screens at the bar, which prevent the duffers in the bar saloon from seeing the toffs drinking in the lounge.
Unfortunately, the pub is situated in Newtown, the very place that if God wanted to give the city of Birmingham an enema, that's where he'd stick the tube ! Over the years, it's been a struggle for those running the place to attract the right sort of customer, with drug dealing going on almost blatantly in the toilets and being in the sort of area that when you return to your car, you count yourself luck if you still have one.
Some of us have given the best years of our livers to pubs like this and do we get any thanks ?
If you have a friendly local, I suggest you value it, support it and treasure it, because it's only a matter of time before greed disguised as progress closes it and knocks it down.
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