Does it ever end ?
This report on Wales, I mean, not EVERYTHING (that’s later).
The bus from Caerleon dropped me off in a sodden Newport at 3.30pm, and I suddenly felt wiped out. Dunno why, it’s not as if I ever do anything.
So, with apologies to Mr Murenger, I saved your pub for next time.
Instead, I bought some jeans from Next, snapped some more Newport art,
and trudged back to my digs with a bag of bread and Oud Amsterdam, having failed to find Welsh cheese.
Four hours later, I’d written two posts and read three back issues of the Economist. But you can’t come to Newport and not explore the local wildlife nightlife, can you ?
So at 9pm I crossed the bridge in high winds and made what is known in the ticking trade as a pointless trip, a return to the Godfrey Morgan in manic Maindee. You can’t miss it; it’s the only building that’s not a takeaway.
Lovely and full, apart from the one table they’ve saved especially for me, apparently.
Not much evidence of cask, even at £1.49 (99p with voucher ?) for our premier pint.
All human life is here, as per usual. This is the only Spoons in the Beer Guide for Newport (it used to have four) and I love it. Lively but not rowdy, a civilised drinking place with no obvious food trade.
(The only reason that other pubs survive round here is due to the absence of music; the pubs across the road are all booming out karaoke versions of “Up Where We Belong“).
Shots, Bud and cocktail jugs rule on Saturday night. My Brains SA is the epitome of NBSS 3, which is fine.
Then a chap with a chicken on his head came and sat at my table.
And started taking his clothes out of his suitcase. I thought that only happened to BRAPA. Luckily he wasn’t singing the Chicken Song.
Anyway, that was me done for the night.
In the morning, on the way for the train to meet Sis in Brizzle, the drizzle persisted.
retiredmartin 
Spoons have their role, even if they are more like places to buy beer rather than proper pubs. But clearly, people don’t come there for the charming interior, the open fireplace, the banter or the atmosphere. They come there for the low prices (and, admittetly – some of us, for the range of beers). Price matters. Beer duty kills pubs.
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People clearly DO go there for the banter and atmosphere, Morten. Otherwise they’d get their lager and cider from Tesco and drink at home !
I know we like our pint by the fire in the Royal Oak or Kings Head, but Spoons are much more than drinking sheds.
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Some are good, some aren’t. Just like most large pub chains.
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Indeed Scott. The Bishop Blaize, in Old Trafford, for instance, I found to be cracking on non-match days, yet the Barking Dog in Barking was, well, as you’d expect, on the other hand.
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Brains SA was on in the Bangor hotel where we stayed last night and only right that I should have a couple of pints of it in its sixtieth anniversary year.
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Murenger: one who had control of the wall of a town, and who carried out its repairs.
Not a lot of people know that.
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– or that murenger is an anagram of Green Rum.
Now wasn’t that the name of a race horse ?
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Wetherspoons is an anagram of Spew ‘n’ Hooters.
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“having failed to find Welsh cheese” –Is Welsh cheese exceptional? You’ve got me wanting to try it, but I expect my search would take much longer than yours, and still fail!
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Carefully Mark, Cairphily
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“This report on Wales, I mean, not EVERYTHING (that’s later).”
Douglas Adams beat you to it. 🙂
“Spells something rude. In Welsh”
That hardly narrows it down.
“Very ex-cinema”
Or, as we say, ‘bijou’.
“apart from the one table they’ve saved especially for me, apparently.”
The one with the suitcase on it?
“Shots, Bud and cocktail jugs rule on Saturday night. ”
Wait, I thought you said just above that this was a civilised drinking place? 😉
“It’s this big !”
And we won’t ask what ‘it’ is. 🙂
“A worrying moment”
Good lord yes! Between Thanksgiving and Christmas it should be a turkey!
(shades of Bluebottle and the boot of porridge on his head)
“And started taking his clothes out of his suitcase. ”
He already had some on I hope!
“on the way for the train to meet Sis in Brizzle, the drizzle persisted.”
I see the Christmas season brings out the poet in you. 🙂
Cheers
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More limerick that poetry, Russ !
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They won’t give you a discount on a product that’s already been discounted, so No. You wouldn’t get a 99p pint. Mind you, I wouldn’t even give 99p for a pint of Doom Bar, not even for a barrel.
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Correct. But £1.49 was normal price. I paid 99p a pint with voucher in north-east recently.
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That branch is not conforming to company rules, unless that is the standard price – dressed it with spoons directly previously. Unless it’s in a lower priced area? E.G. spoons brekky in Liverpool cheaper than in Leeds.
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It was Peterlee from memory, so yes, very lower priced.
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But Tim doesn’t have a “standard price”.
This article reports that Prices at Wetherspoons vary by up to 60% at pubs just 6 min walk apart ;
https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/6693170/prices-at-wetherspoons-vary-by-up-to-60-at-pubs-just-6-min-walk-apart/
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Carpets and the interpretation of discount rules are the two main ways in which Tim’s venues aren’t quite identical !
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Defo.
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