February 2025. Worksop.
The last thing you want on the morning of your mum’s funeral is an e-mail deleting your social media account.
“A Bluesky account you control has been assessed as a spammy, fake, or inauthentic account.“
Me, “inauthentic” !!!
ChatGPT reckoned I’d broke their community guidelines by promoting Doom Bar or something, so I apologised to the BlueSky police and am being extra cautious about blog titles now.
No “Killing 22 minutes in ...”, no “1,001 pubs to eat cheese and onion cobs in before you die“, and definitely no featured images of sexist signs in the Gents, oh no.
I’m sure someone in my new (and rather dull, tbh) BlueSky world will find offence in Worksop’s Mallard, where I awaited a connection on the return from Mansfield to Sheffield.
I’m not a big fan of small station pubs like the R*t R**ee, bit clicky as they say on MumsNet and you can’t avoid conversation if you want to.
But I’d turned down a Chinese takeaway in Mansfield, and that sausage roll was calling me.
Since completing the Guide I’ve been targeting returns to the “pubs everyone agrees are classics“, and the Mallard is probably THE classic pub in the whole of North Notts.
I didn’t remember it being that great in (let’s guess) 2012, so this cool, crisp, chewy pint of Hawkshead Stout (NBSS 4) was a joy.
“Those sausage rolls are good, aren’t they ?” says the chap on the bench next to me.
It was sensational. Worth a special trip for.
That, and the lacings, which NEVER lie.
“I feel like she might have an elastic tape measure” was the banter of the day.
I fear it may get me banned from BlueSky, you know.
retiredmartin 
“I’m not a big fan of small station pubs like the R*t R**ee” and you’ll like it less when you get to my age and think every pub should have a toilet, even just one, even upstairs or downstairs.
For sausage rolls I’ve done well in Penkridge’s Star this year. Rare for a Marstons pub, they’ve also had Holdens Golden Glow on all three visits and Holdens Special too once.
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“But I’d turned down a Chinese takeaway in Mansfield, and that sausage roll was calling me.”
So much for eating better 🙂
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BlueSky sounds almost as bad as the Guardian’s comments moderator.
Love the tape measure overhear. It sits well with “Did that dress make my bum look big?” “No. your bum made the dress look big”
Etu
(Can’t seem to enter any ID atm, WordPress, thanks)
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You are Etu and I claim my half of keg Brains Dark.
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WordPress has taken to identifying all my recent posts as duplicates. It seems like it knows what I’m going to say, and posts the comment a nanosecond before I press the button.
It’s been spookily accurate so far. Let’s see how it gets on with this one.
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Yep. “Duplicate detected. You’ve already said that!”
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There’s a duplicate Will.
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And now the *like* button doesn’t work.
I’m not sure I could cope with a duplicate Will. It’s bad enough that you lot have to put up with me. Imagine if I had to put up with me too.
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No, the “like” button doesn’t work for anyone on my WP site either.
It’s “open source”, you know…
Etu
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Only I am allowed to like your comments. It’s like Davros with the big finger in 1970s Doctor Who.
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After Christmas, and out of sheer curiosity, I opened a BlueSky account without giving any serious thought as to what to do with it.
I might take a look back at it to see whether anyone has posted something of interest on it, ot am I likely to be disappointed?
(Kentish Paul – Word Press isn’t allowing me to log in!)
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What’s your user name Paul ?
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Found you @paulkentishman
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It’s all gone billies.
Sometimes the log in box doesn’t appear at all.
Sometimes it does, but if you don’t enter your log in first, but start to write a comment then you’re locked out of it.
Sometimes again, it doesn’t appear, but if you start to write a comment and then delete it, then the log in box appears…
We never get bored with WP
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It’s there to make your life interesting!
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Oh life can so easily be interesting.
Especially in the Chinese sense,
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