I had luck with the Yates’s on the way to the supermarket, so I tried out the Revolution on my way back past.  It was a little more like the chain-bar experience I expected (prefabricated set-up, soulless) but the back garden was pleasant enough and the menu looks good if standard (I had some pasta [...]

I generally swear off the chains (All Bar One, for instance) but I go to any Wetherspoons I have never been into before so I decided to suck it up on my way to the grocery shop Sunday and give the Yates’s a shot, or rather to get a shot in the Yates’s.  Nice house, [...]

If you haven’t been in a headshop in 10 years let me assure you they haven’t changed in the last 40.  And, if you’ve never explored one outside your hometown, county, district, state, etc I can also assure you that they are the same the world over. That said, The Lazy Frog is a pleasant [...]

After my successful shopping trip (I got a nice Quintera Habana that should last me the final couple miles of the Marathon plus the bag pick-up and finding Jackie afterward),  I caught up on my Carling’s and on leaving the Pig on the Hill was heading down to the betting parlor to put in my [...]

Baker Street has never been open when I’ve been in Old Town so I was surprised to find it so on a trip to the cigar shop to get a Cuban for the Marathon.  Still, it was a welcome break with the young (and with the hot looks vaguely reminiscent of a young Shirley Bassey) [...]

Some folks never learn.  If I were an athlete I would stretch but as a running enthusiast I skip it to my detriment.  This time, as happens every 1-1½ years, I’ve got pressure on my Sciatic nerve causing continuous pain down my leg and muscle spasms in my lower back.  I have prescribed beer, codeine [...]

The Beefeater chain is pretty standard fare, but generally the places are big, clean (but not prefabricated looking or sterile), and often attached to Premier Inns (a budget business motel chain here).  The Lydiard ticks all these boxes and although it had two ales on neither called my name and I took another step toward [...]

Nothing says revolutionary Cuba (or even Xavier Cugat and Ricky Riccardo) more than a hotel bar in North Wiltshire run by some Chinese serving north European lagers.  I asked for a Grolsch as I had been in a sort of dutch mood since buying the Bruce Springsteen tickets for his concert in Landgraaf, but the [...]

Update 29 March 2012: Still no proper sign but they are still working on the place (ever improving, it’s going to be quite nice).  Here’s today’s picture, the sign doesn’t really float mid air like that for you literalists: Note: I’ll add some photos of the place once they get a sign up…it is early [...]

You go into these prefabricated places expecting (and rarely disappointed in that expectation) to find prefabricated people.  Such was Rudi’s, so I assumed that this airport bar-esque joint would be populated by folks that at least would understand the airport bar etiquette wherein dude-that-goes-off-by-self isn’t looking to make friends with anyone but his beer.  But, [...]