After a rather good
night's sleep I read something over brekkie which
made me smile. Basically big breweries are getting the hump with
smaller breweries because the smaller ones get tax breaks which makes
a pint of (say) Timothy Taylor unable to compete price-wise
with a pint from a small artisan brewer.
I've been saying for
years that I can make a pint of half-decent ale in my kitchen for
less than twenty five pence whereas in the pub I'm paying nearly four
quid for something which (quite frankly) isn't as good.
I took "Furry
Face TM" for a walk round the park. On
the way he fought with a Labrador and waved his "lipstick"
at two other dogs. I wish he wouldn't. As we walked I saw the scout
group's paper collection was happening today. And for all that I've
not been a part of that grop for over six years my piss boiled. I had
to stop myself from going over to the young mother struggling with
bags of newspapers (and two small children and a push chair)
and having a rant.
In theory the paper
collection is a good plan; the entire scout group is asked to go and
collect and recycle newspapers to raise money for the scout group. In
practice most of the parents refuse to get involved because they
would rather just pay more subs money. When I was a leader we charged
£1.50 per week when all other local activities were asking for over
a fiver.
And as for the paper
collection itself... a handful of young mothers with small children
and three or four pensioners break their backs all day long moving
several tons of newspaper to subsidise people with far more money
than they have got.
I ranted about it for ten
years but still the thing goes on. They must love it.
I then went over the
astro club's accounts. They agreed to the penny; a couple of days ago
I had over one hundred pounds too much. I also had a look at the
household accounts. They could be better; they have certainly been
worse.
I then decided to
actually finalise a venue for the New Year geo-event. Having emailed
and phoned the Farrier's Arms daily for three weeks I have decided
they clearly don't want our money. I thought about the Queens Head in
Kingsnorth; we went down there. They didn't actually say "Get
Knotted Baldy" but from their attitude they didn't really
need to.
Bearing in mind I needed
a pub from where I can stage a three to five mile new geo-series, my
options were rather limited. In desperation I tried... well, I won't
say where I tried yet. I don't want to give anyone else ideas for
where they might get in first. But I could have kissed the girl
behind the bar. Friendly, welcoming... we chatted for a bit and she
called over the boss.
A venue is finally
sorted.
We then drove down to
Folkestone to see the littlun. He's not well at the moment, so after
a little shopping we took him for a McFlurry. McFlurry cheers
everyone up.
Once back home we had a
rather good bit of scoff watching this week's episode of "Big
Bang Theory" and I then spent an hour or so sending my
ideas for New Years Day to the geo-Feds. Here's hoping for a
thumbs-up from them too.
Now to program "Hannah"
for tomorrow...
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