Bloatermog Birthday Wishes: Thank you to those happy to remind me another year has passed and sent a greeting, very much appreciated. Spent the day gardening, which is boring to many, I know, but with the first of our Summer sunshine blazing down for most of it at around 20 degrees, well...
And it's not as if it could have been spent sitting outside the Pub, as our local, The Greenridge at Upton Crossroads, has recently closed; yet another casualty of the smoking ban. There will not be many Pub's left at this rate, and other leisure industries, like the Bingo Halls, are also suffering to on-line playing where a fag can be enjoyed at the same time; (TV ad's for on-line gaming are more than freqent these recent weeks).
My last pint, (and 2 or 3 cups of tea), were imbibed at The Greenridge on April 7th, the day the 'Sheep In Wolves' Clothing' CD was released, as an informal 'Launch Party' where I was joined, at their resoundingly knockout suggestion, by Mad Dog's Tim, Andrew and Steve.
It is crazy how many UK pubs are closing as a knock-on effect of last July's smoking ban, causing the very structure of the UK to change. And the lager-lout / underage kids drinking problem could have easily been solved had the pubs been able to stay around, as when I was a kid, the only place you could get a drink, other than over the bar, was from the pub's off-sales. Now, it's available virtually everywhere, and much like they're on about "hiding the fags under the shop counter," they're going to have to do much the same with the booze. George Orwell's theory will be with us eventually, maybe not in my lifetime, but there again, the way things are going...perhaps...