The Warwick Hotel, New Barnet
Before I went to university, when I was still living at home, I used to go drinking in this pub, with an old school friend called Pete.
The Warwick Hotel, New Barnet
In those days in the 1960s, it was called the Warwick Hotel and although it is now closed its last name seems to have been The Bell And Buck.
I really don’t know why we went there. it might have been, because I looked under-age and they would accept any customer with money. But we’d usually have some beer and a couple of games of cribbage.
Little did I realise that my future wife was probably tucked up in bed, just round the corner.
Let’s Tax Fizzy Drinks!
There has been a call this morning, for a tax to be put on fizzy sugary drinks. It’s reported here on the BBC.
I would not be affected by such a tax, as I suppose the only high sugar drink, I take is the odd smoothie, when I need to take my pills out.
I did however chat to someone yesterday, who has retired from a job, where they looked after obesity and diabetes in the community. Judging by that pair of jobs, there is a serious connection between being overweight and getting diabetes.
So perhaps, it would be a good idea to try to cut down on all that sugar! On the other hand, we perhaps shouldn’t go for artificial sweeteners, as many like the outspoken, DogtorJ, believe them to be a problem. He incidentally is a vet, who is a coeliac, and has come to some interesting research-based conclusions.
I doubt we’ll ever see a tax on fizzy drinks, as the industry wouldn’t allow it and I suspect, it would be a vote loser.
Government To Set A Minimum Price For Alcohol
The Times is saying that the Government will be consulting on this. What I noticed was that the article was accompanied by a picture of a plastic bottle of own brand supermarket cider, which it said could treble in price.
If it increased in price by ten times, it wouldn’t bother me, as that is the sort of drink, that would make me ill, as I’m allergy to gluten, which those drinks often contain.
My preferred long drink is actually Aspall’s cyder, which is generally about a couple of pounds for a half litre. The muck shown in the article is quoted as costing about £1.20 and that’s for four times as much.
I prefer to enjoy my drinking, rather than drink to oblivion.
So I’m very much in favour of a minimum price for a unit of alcohol. It might cost me a couple of quid a week at most.
A Pub For Coeliacs?
Yesterday, A pub manager from Islington added a comment to one of my posts. said he’d got a good selection of gluten free beers in his pub called the Florence in Florence Street, Islington.
I went for a drink yesterday and it would appear he’s going to make very good provision for coeliacs with both food and drink. I just had half of Aspalls. And very good it was too!
France Might Tax Energy Drinks
France seems to be planning to tax energy drinks according to reports like this, this morning.
I’ve never drunk one, but judging by the number of cans you see strewn all over place, many do.
A North South Divide
I went into a branch of a well-known restaurant chain in Liverpool today and asked for a lemonade with my lunch.
The waitress brought a fizzy one, whereas in their London or Cambridge branches, they usually assume that you want a still one! In some places they do ask, which is probably the right thing to do. Just as most places do with water!
So does the north want fizz in their lemonade? And the south doesn’t!
I mst say that some things don’t seem to change in Liverpool though. The waitress was bright, keen and chatty, even if she only scored a small bit less than perfect. I can remember them like that in the 1960s. Although they were much worse trained then!
One in particular brought meals for C and myself on a tray, which she placed on the table, so that one meal was over the table and the other was hanging over the edge. She then took the meal over the table and placed it for C, which meant the other meal upturned the tray onto the floor. To make it worse, it was her first night. So she burst into floods of tears.
Booze Cruises Return
The Times is reporting today, that booze cruises are returning due to the low level of the Euro.
It Was The Scousers That Nicked It!
Congratulations all round to Vauxhall’s Ellesmere Port fsctory for getting the nod to manufacture the new Astra, as reported here.
Duncan Aldred, the chairman of Vauxhall, who had a lot of say in the decision, is not exactly a scouser, as he was born in Bolton, but then Aldred is quite a common surname in Liverpool and one of the Senior Lecturers in Engineering at Liverpool University in the 1960s was another of the clan. So one way or another the man who took the decision was on the payroll of the Scouse Army.
I suspect though, that one drink in the Phil was enough to get the Americans on his side, as who could resist a city and its workforce after seeing some of the best pub toilets in the world.
The Perils of Alcohol
The Old Queen’s Head in the Essex Road, often chalks up a humorous message.
Notice Outside The Old Queen’s Head
This was yesterday’s philosophy.
The Anonymous Widower 