Only two weeks till Simon “BRAPA” Everitt will be donning his pixie outfit (above) and riding his silver reindeer into rural village pubs on Christmas Day, demanding a pint at 11.57am.
Pubs are certainly in the middle of festive season meltdown (these posts are so far behind the Halloween decs are still up), which (touch wood) hasn’t completely ruined pub-going for me yet.
Our brave barpersons are holding their nerves in the face of folk without a clue what to do in a pub on their annual trip, a bit like the drunks in our parish church on Christmas Eve.
In Walthamstow, where I concluded a day that had started with that Imperial Stout in Battersea, the Chequers also had to contend with folk leaving the High Street market.
I love Walthamstow, one of London’s most diverse and lively districts, with some of the best calorific food in the UK, and possibly my most consistent pubs and beers over the years.
Here’s a little spreadsheet extract for spreadsheet fans;
You’ll see I’ve scored the 5 Points Porter in the Chequers a 3, which is basically NBSS 4 or better. I wouldn’t have guessed that from the outside.
Inside, a large rambling pub in the E17/E11 style has a great mix of local life, including a fair number of well-behaved children who are clearly observing The Rules. Because that’s what children do.
But the little sods severely cramp my photographic style, so you only get a picture of a handled jug that only hints at the buzz created by the playing of “Good Vibrations” at 5pm when people have been shopping for tat all day.
A pub for everyone, seemingly, just like the other GBG entries in town. And doesn’t that bloke below look like Tom ?
retiredmartin 
I’ve seen ‘crow and rose’ as a tattoo design, probably on a high street barn barmaid, but never known a pub named the Rose and Crow.
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Not as bad as “Maud” being reduced to “Ma” by the constraints of spreadsheet cell widths !
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Far be it from me to suggest that many a barmaid who started out as a Rose turned into a crow.
Possibly the other direction after 8 pints.
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and after a working life behind the bar into a crone.
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You’ve got a right shake on there Mr – too much or not enough?
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Imperial Stout Wobble
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Is that a traditional Walthmastow pub game?
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I agree with you that the shaky photo is atmospheric. Maybe the trick to good photography is shaking the camera / drinking Imperial Stout until you wobble. (Only one way to find out!)
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Good advice from an artist. ;-0
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I love the mirror-image, of the implied reference to Leonard Cohen’s Bird On A Wire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmPUu-rMpWA
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Bastard quarter to four again.
This is going to be a long day.
Might just mosey on out for a sharpener.
There’s sod all else to do except watch the news on telly and even I can’t bear to watch our Prime Minister make a complete tool of herself again.
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– like a twenty-first century Oliver Twist saying to the EU “Please, sir, I want some more” .
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Yeah, but he was at least sensible enough not to have any idiotically incompatible Red Lines. Not that it did him much good, mind.
Maybe we need another analogy? Or do I feel an anagram coming on instead? I like anagrams.
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Make an anagram out of “anagram”. It’ll keep you out of trouble ’till it’s all over.
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Here’s one:
“This is Tribe X”
(Nothing contentious there…)
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