Baa Baa Toure awoke refreshed from a night at the Stonehouse canal (this is before his annual wash).
Mrs RM and I are are only refreshed after 6 gallons of coffee, so did the chicken run across the road to the WORST Starbucks in Gloucestershire (unless you have better information).
No filter coffee, cheese toasties so soggy they were clearly microwaved, both served in paper because there’s no crockery (still blaming Covid) and no wooden forks supplied unless you ask for them because Mrs RM might stab me. Oh, and no toilet. Take that as a zero star review.
Things picked up 20 minutes later in Thrupp, which I bet you’ve never heard of. I hadn’t till GBG22.
The geography of Greater Stroud continues to confound and delight. Local football team Forest Green Rovers, who’ll be competing with the giants of League 1 next season (Northampton Brizzle Rovers), are in Nailsworth, a Clarkson hoof across wonderful Minchinhampton Common.
Stroud is the western home of the vegan woke scene, you even get vegan ferret pasty at the football, and there’s art to match around the renovated industrial wastelands.
Great coffee at FELT in Brimscombe, great art along the river walkway to Stroud Brewery. That Crilley fella would be proud of this;
Stroud Brewery Tap has the massive advantage for tickers that it opens at ten (10) AM.
Honest. And on time, too.
And serving beer, not just coffee and cakes.
OK, OK, it’s a bit industrial, but the welcome was warm,
the sofas not too unencumbered by cushions,
and their stock beer Tom Long was, while lacking in sturgeon bladder (not an SNP reference), a rather tasty way to start a momentous day. And I took Mrs RM a can of the strong IPA to enjoy at her leisure. She drank it that night in 37 seconds.
retiredmartin 
You’re gonna be sold on the tap rooms when you realize they stick to their posted hours.
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Yes, and they also have those cheerful young people that Old Codgers moan about.
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We really should ban young people and children.
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Is that you, Mudgie ?
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The topography is as unsettling as anything else about the place I’d say.
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The vegan supermarket in Amsterdam used to punt their bottles.
Wasn’t Thrupp in 2000AD?
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Might I be so bold as to mention that the singular of “thrips” is also “thrips”?
They fly only weakly, and their feathery wings are unsuitable for conventional flight. instead, thrips exploit an unusual mechanism, clap and fling, to create lift using an unsteady circulation pattern with transient vortices near the wings.
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I read that as “fly only weekly” for some reason, Reg.
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I thought the point of places like Starbucks you could count on them all to be exactly the same. A shame that when one is finally different it’s by way of being awful!
We can add Thrupp to the list of towns that sound like comic book sound effects.
Thanks for the shout out. Very pleased that someone has made a mural celebrating those who shave as infrequently as I do!
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Kapow ! Is actually a town in East Staffs, Mark. Good Bass pub there.
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Do you shave less since the pandemic.
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Belfast must have really lousy internet.
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Indeed, Dave.
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Or really strong beer !
I was taking bets on how long till your patience snapped.
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