Small World Spring Barrel at the Tap 'n' Barrel, Wigan

From the outside, this is a very interesting building. There’s a modern-style rotunda tower that you can actually climb up to have a pint in. Its wooden tables gives it a bit of a classroom look though so perhaps it’s better off using it as a private meeting room. The small bar spans just enough room to sport four handpumps with a breakfast bar which sports seats opposite. There’s very little room to prop oneself up here. I’m not a fan of the green wall though. The outside space is very inventive with its Astroturf, greenery and wooden fencing. You might be mistaken for hanging out in someone’s garden. The locals are friendly enough to chat to but the barman was a bit of a miser on my visit. Maybe he’d had enough of people passing through for a quick one to fill up his pub without stopping for a session.

 

Lost Lines #dreamdiary 117

I used to dabble in a spot of acting. There would be six of us that met once a week and do improvised exercises and occasionally we’d do a low-key show in a community hall. One year we decided to do a production like Miss Saigon and I’d be cast as a narrative character. I got given a script and we began read-through rehearsals. Then the pandemic came along and everything had to stop for the lockdown but it was agreed that we’d all commit to learning our lines. Then before I knew it, the lockdown had lifted and a performance date had been agreed without any further rehearsals, or at least I hadn’t been invited to any. I hadn’t learnt my lines and wondered if I’d been replaced. Then came opening night. I decided to attend anyway and expected a very small audience and that everyone would be carrying their scripts around on stage. In the confusion, I left mine at home. When I arrived, I discovered that it was to be a fully billed cast and my name was in the programme. I went backstage and discovered that although the cast wasn’t in period dress, they were wearing a mixture of brightly coloured T-shirts and blue jeans. There was no way that I could perform without help and began to look around for a familiar face but I couldn’t find anyone. Then the bell rang for curtain-up. Panicking, I ran into the audience and took a vacant seat as the lights dimmed. Perhaps I could feign sickness or a lost voice. The show began and some of the players were holding scripts as they trooped out onto the stage. The first opening lines were read then the cast went quiet as my cue approached. All around, expectant heads began to turn as they awaited my lines. All I could do was slink as low as I could in my seat. 

From Left to Right

This used to be a fantastic pub before it got discovered and got crowded every time I visited. On my friend’s birthday we once spent a whole afternoon working our way across the bar from one handpump to the other. The only time we left was at the halfway mark when we decided to pop out to get some grub then we were back to it. I was on first name terms with the manager and knew most of the staff. I used to know the cellarman well and once had a visit down to the cellar to see the barrels on their stillaging. Nowadays I don’t recognise the staff and it’s hard to get a conversation out of them. Instead, they spend their time on patrol at the bar awaiting the next order. But if I’m lucky I’ll bump into one of the regulars who’ll at least give me a glancing nod that they’ve seen me there before.

 

Twats Twitting

Thank God it’s not the other way around. But you have to wonder who these people are. We’re given a name which is meaningless and that he’s a brewer at a place that I’ve vaguely heard of. The name itself sounds like its part of a marketing tactic and that he’s just been let loose somewhere because of his supposed status. The opening shot is interesting enough but then the camera just pans to a bunch of mystery bags on shelves. He may as well have been at the sorting office. After that we see grain being stirred and our narrator holding a giant pen-like substance to his eye. It’s possibly some magnifying glass to inspect the grain, but do we learn why? Do we learn why he can’t use an ordinary magnifying glass? No. All we’re told is to buy his book. It’s hardly the grain to glass that was promised in his video. Fail.

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Parkway Giggle and Titter at the Wellington, Birmingham

This gem of a pub is a temple to beer, and if you’re lucky enough to find a seat, you’re in for a real treat. Sixteen beers occupy the bar’s ground floor which are displayed on a TV screen and you order by number. There’s window seating overlooking the high street and towards the rear of the pub is an open plan room containing more tables. The walls are lined with shelves and bar stools to get as many people seated as possible. There’s even a few seats at the bar, although these aren’t too comfortable in busy times as everyone’s leaning over you to try and place an order. Upstairs is a quieter room containing a smaller bar with eleven beers which are more local and regular to the pub. There’s even an outside upper terrace containing a smoking area. With all this choice there’s just no room for food unless there’s an event on, but you’re welcome to bring your own.

 

Deal or No Deal

It’s quite difficult to play a game that you can’t see. I decided to go for the full version and hoped that Noel didn’t take too long trying to get to know me or the other contestants. He didn’t. As expected, his responses were mechanically dull and hardly reflected a true situation. He just told it like it is with no hints or tips whatsoever. He even crashed on me twice, but luckily Alexa remembered my game. You’ve got no idea which monetary boxes are in play on the bored, or which numbered boxes have already been opened. If I hadn’t seen the TV show, I wouldn’t have a clue how to play. I did start the game quite unfortunate with my first box being the big one, but I got to round 4 and got an offer of £16,000 which I accepted and discovered that my original box was just 10p. I don’t think I’ll play again unless I’m going to build myself my own scoreboard and recruit twenty-one other people to play with me.  

Did it Get There?

With all these extra packages whizzing around at the moment, it’s a wonder that they’ll all get to their correct destination. From personal experience, there’s been very few that I’ve had to chase up, and most of them arrived on time or even a little earlier than expected which was a nice surprise. Once an order went back as I forgot I ordered it and one order got refunded even though I received the physical item. Another time the courier hadn’t received it and the tracking information was in limbo but the seller knew straight away where the error was and how to fix it. But this is the address that the delivery men hate; the property with no number. If it’s being delivered by a postman then it’s fine because they know the local area. But if it’s not, the driver can’t even guesstimate and ends up doing a drive-by of the whole road. And if you’re the sender, you can’t assume that they have received it when they complain unless they ask for proof of delivery.

A Drastic Demolition #Empress 7

Rather than face a confrontation, Zhong decided to leave them to their fate. If the affair went on long enough, the Empress would demolish the old house, hopefully with them both in it; and upon his return he’d have a new one built and hopefully he’d have a new mistress that he’d meet at the palace. With his new fortune in mind, he quietly packed up the rest of his possessions and loaded them onto a cart. He wondered if his wife would notice his absence and spend her time living with her new lover. Then he decided that he didn’t care and began his journey back to the palace. As he approached, he could feel tremors and he could swear that one of the turrets was shaking. Inside, the whole place was a state of disarray as tables were knocked over and the floor was a mess of ornaments, smashed furnishings and papers.

Dead Dinosaurs

 It’s so sad, but it’s true. It just goes to show how long our evolutionary process takes. A decomposed stegosaurus can be manufactured into a fair number of plastic bottles. It would be interesting to discover if it could be remanufactured into a full-size stegosaurus depending on the thickness of the plastic used. The good news is that in its current form, plastic does take less time to decompose than the dinosaurs did. The bad news is that it’s taking longer to decompose because there’s more of it, and it’s leaving toxic chemicals in its wake. Some companies are doing their bit by using a lighter grade of plastic in their products, although sometimes it just appears as cheap and it’s not the quality that we used to remember. It just becomes a cost-cutting issue. And as a society, our whole understanding of this is still in the stone age. It’s easy to blame it on the people who don’t attempt recycling, but the focus really needs to shift to the people who create the stuff in the first place.

One of my loved ones is undergoing depression, want team to suggest good books which will help to feel good. Do not feel like suggesting a direct psychology book, I am thinking about feel good, loving and motivating fiction...

 I think it’s a great idea to suggest titles to preoccupy your loved one’s mind. Any plot where the protagonist is depressed is instantly going to raise suspicion as to what you’re doing, so titles like The Girl on the Train and the Adrian Mole series isn’t really going to help. Tales of a hero becoming successful in everything they attempt aren’t going to help either as they may end up subjugating themselves in comparisons. Likewise, you don’t want to delve too far into the fantasy genre otherwise a sense of realism can be lost. Instead you should look for characters that do experience conflict but their journey leaves them richer for the experience which could inspire your reader. Here are some suggestions that I found to be great stories. They’re well-known in the literary world and should be readily available in bookstores or stocked in local libraries. Most of them probably aren’t recommended for children.

Watership Down by Richard Adams: Rabbits at War!

My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl: A hilarious tale of exploitation that would make your mother blush!

Kane and Abel by Jeffery Archer: Two men from different backgrounds encounter each other through various conflicts in mid-twentieth century America.

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden: An inspiring tale of growing up in Japan’s Red Light District which surprisingly isn’t too intimate.

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving: A bit dark but its conclusion really makes you think.

Round Ireland with a Fridge by Tony Hawks: Hilarious travels, and there’s also a sequel entitled A Piano in the Pyrenees.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho: Oddly I don’t remember the plot (I’ll have to read it again!) but I do remember being inspired by this story!

Happy Reading.

Black Country Ales Plum Pig at the Real Ale Tavern, Bewdley

It’s hard to picture this pub as a former bank. Maybe the offices upstairs were in full use, or it occupied some of the pharmacy next door. You might picture it as a small post office and the queue is where the bar used to be, though it does go back a stretch. Only the giant vault door in the rear leaves any clue of the building’s former trade. Still, it’s nice and cosy inside and there’s a great choice of old favourites and new beers to try alongside its long bar. There’s plenty of snugs for private conversation and an open area at the end. There’s even a stranger’s bar in front of the beer menu, though you wouldn’t get much of a view or peace and quiet if you were propped up there all day. I’d hate to think what this place would be like when it gets busy, although it’s a great place for a lock-in. 

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other people's opinions drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

-Steve Jobs.

Everybody’s got to start somewhere, but some are at more of a disadvantage than others. That’s when you’ve got to find a mould and make it your own while you learn about your surroundings. Breaking free of dogma can be quite difficult, especially when you’re educated by your elders. It just makes it very hard to discover things by yourself, and you can feel very trapped, especially when you want to choose your activities. Sometimes you need to compromise to get your way otherwise you will find it very difficult to go it alone. You’ll be fighting yourself and others all the way and in the end help might not be available when you need it. The main problem is not knowing how much time is left on the clock, and of course obsessing over this time could waste even more time. But you’ve got to find the balance between enjoying yourself and reaching your goals. And that’s the power of a turtleneck.

The Gathering

It’s a nice sunny day and me and my colleagues have been invited to hang out at my boss’s converted barn for the afternoon. Our plan was simple; share a few drinks in his garden, head into the town for a meal then spend the night exploring pubs and stopping over. Only it didn’t quite go to plan. Firstly, we had no idea who was coming. I’d set off early to check out a local bottle shop for supplies. The sun was out which meant that it was a busy day for riverside visitors so I had to park quite a way away to transport my supplies. Then as I returned to the car I received a call that my boss had to go out and would be a little late but asked me if I could pick up some soft drinks too as he’d found some designated drivers! This necessitated a second trip to the bottle store. Fortunately, by the time I got back to the car the second time around, he’d made it back home. 

One time I felt really proud

It’s hard to think of one time that made me proud. I haven’t got many of the boxes ticked that I should have done at my time of life, and there’s still so much that I want to experience. There’s also so many moments of achievement that stand out, and to pick one of those moments to triumph over the others is difficult. Also, within these moments, there’s so many instances where the event could have been improved to make it more immersive or enjoyable than speculated. I suppose that my earliest memories are the best. I remember proudly building a windmill out of Lego to put on display in a town building competition, and even though I forgot to switch on the motor that turned it I was still proud to see it on display. But my most confusing moment was at the end of a scout camp. We’d stand in a circle and my name was called out and I was asked to step into the centre of the circle to stand next to the leader to receive a round of applause. As I was presented with a certificate, the leader said ’Bad Luck’. To this day I have no idea why she uttered these words or even what the certificate was for or why we were competing, but I was still proud to be given a certificate.   

Spikey Towers

This is the big one. Spike palace. There’s pointy bits everywhere. There’s also lots of accessories like house banners to customise your own stories and food items to decorate the banquet tables that feel a little bit like school desks when you’re building them. The moving staircase is fantastic. But what I don’t like about this set is that the turrets are pre-made. They come as large clumps of plastic with paper stickers rather than pieces that you mould together. There’s plenty of outside building for the minifigures to explore, but inside it feels a bit cramped when they’re all together. And I’m not entirely sure that I’ve fitted the mirror correctly. Never mind, it’s all in pieces at the moment as the girls got carried away playing with it and it’s all in pieces again. The rebuild will take slightly longer as the pieces are even more mixed up than they were before.

Spam Man

I seem to be getting a lot of spam lately. The e-mails starts off to be large legitimate companies e-mailing me about their latest offers. Towards the bottom of the message, there’s adverts advertising links to interesting news sites. It’s the kind of thing that you see on third-party websites when you’re searching for advice on Google or browsing through news content. But what are they doing in this e-mail? It’s all very strange. The only thing that I can think of is that either a hacker is trying to get people to click on illegitimate links or that they’re purposefully adding my e-mail address to these lists in frustration because I haven’t fallen for any of their scams yet. The only action that I can take is to try and create an e-mail filter so that it goes straight into my junk box. There’s no way that their unsubscribe button is legitimate.  

That Whomping Willow

There’s plenty of detail in this set. The rooms, although small, are awash with artefacts that the characters can interact with. But in these modern times, they might want to rethink the size of the dormitories. There’s also no staircase to access the upper floors, but this could encourage you to expand the rest of the castle with other sets. I love how the tree’s branches grasps the car like a giant hand. With a bit of tinkering, you could also rig a motor to the tree, although it’d look a bit unnatural if it rotated rather than swung from side to side. The detail on the car is amazing and it even has a working boot for you to insert luggage or even a stowaway if you wish to. And it’s great that the arch is wide enough to let the car through, but what we really want is a pair of huge doors that can be smashed open. It might do damage to the set though. 

Weather Balloon #dreamdiary116

I’m sitting on the top of a bunkbed in the garden looking at the sky. It’s a bright blue with the occasional cloud. I spot something that’s high up and misty, yet it’s too curvy and fine to be mistaken for something that’s naturally made. As I watch, it drops quite rapidly then steadies itself from a horizontal position to a vertical one as if it’s being inflated. I deduce that it must be a weather balloon. The balloon drops again and I decide to follow it. I throw back the sheets and I fly up and over the garden fence and across the allotments towards the school. In the distance is a hill where some new houses are being build on its summit. I head to the other side of the building site where I see a large blimp parked in the next field. Three men are chuckling as they look out the carriage at me all sporting pilot’s uniforms and brown moustaches.

Ouija Board

Scattered across the field are hoops which look as if someone’s preparing for a mass summoning of broomstick folk. There’s even secret compartments so that you can act out your favourite matches from the book. It’s great that there’s a bit of interaction with the keeper in front of the hoops. You could play a match just like Subbuteo, but you need to rig up a motor if you want to play on your own. The vibrant colours in this set make it one of the most colourful that I’ve ever known. It comes in a big box but you don’t get many big bits or buildings inside it. I wonder how many costumed minifigures are in my collection now? At a distance they could be cloaked binmen or the bludgers could be mistaken for bazookas. And if it wasn’t for the home shields, the towers could be mistaken for mechanoids. 

 

Stan Goes Forth

He has the face of Puck with a cheeky impish grin on a nearly triangular head. He speaks very slowly and as if everything amuses him as nearly every phrase ends in a chuckle. He’s also a gesturer as he likes to use his hands when he talks unless they’re distracted with holding something. The rest of his stature takes more of a skinny elvish stance without the height as his stroll is fast-moving and he likes to leap around the place. He seems to have a never-ending reserve of energy and charges up steps or stairs when unaccompanied. always He lets his hair flow to try and make him look as old as possible. He’s never one for brands or jewellery and always wears clothes in their plainest form; usually a red t-shirt accompanied by jeans and black shoes. In winter he adds a black leather jacket to his wardrobe. 

Something Funny for Money

I love the red noses. They’re a great collector’s item. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people who try and collect the whole set. I’m just happy with a nose from a different theme each year. And I love the creativity that you now get with your purchase. Instead of throwing the packaging away, they encourage you to play with it by either building something, solving the puzzles printed on it, or use it as a plant pot. But this year they’ve missed a trick. Instead of the t-shirts, keyrings and other daft merchandise that they want you to buy, they could have actually designed something useful and sold facemasks. This would replace a huge influx of income that would have been impossible to obtain through the usual wacky sponsorship events that people participate in due to social distancing. And we never know if there’s going to be another opportunity like it.   

 

Do a Hundred Push-ups

When you ask your smart speaker to do 100 push-ups, you think of a skill that’s going to be useful to you. Maybe it’s a skill to help you achieve this target throughout the day. A regular timer could come on and tell you when to get on all fours, and you could even set it so that enough time has passed after meals. You could even request a certain tune to get you motivated or reward yourself with a great tune after you’ve completed your set. When you’re struggling, it could give you motivational phrases such as, ‘Come on, you’ve got this” or “You can break through this wall!”. At the end of your set it should reward or commiserate you accordingly and keep track of how many reps you’ve got to go to reach your goal. But of course, the smart speaker doesn’t do any of this. It just counts to a hundred in a fast sped-up voice. 

Tipping the Leader

My boss had no idea how much work I was doing until on one dull bored night she decided to invite me into her league. It was a competition between stores to see who could complete the most steps and encourage us to get sponsors to raise money for charity. You could also earn badges to track your mileage. All we needed to do was download the app to sync our trackers into the league. Within a day, she was behind me, and by the end of the week she absolutely trailed behind the rest of my team. All she needed to do was to swap tasks with me for a few days and she’d be back on top, but she lacked the mojo to do it. Unfortunately, my tracker broke towards the end of the campaign, and she finally managed to catch up, but not before realising how many miles I cover in the workplace.

The Good Dinosaur

There’s not much to say about this film other than it was a time-killer. You get a great comic sense in the opening sequence and more of that needed to be spread across the rest of the film. We see some great landscapes but I was really hoping for a volcano rather than flood after landslide after flood. The concept of dinosaurs as farmers is almost brilliant but a bit more realism is needed to make them more convincing. They’d be better off with a herd of humans using the dinosaurs as machines; but then they’d be in danger of plagiarising The Flintstones. There’s also a sense of loss as the ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex is reduced to nothing more than a shepherd. It’s as if all dinosaurs suddenly decided to turn camp or take a vow of celibacy. I half-expected them to attack the whole herd; although that would wreck the story a bit since we’d just been introduced to similar predators.  And although Arlo has an epic adventure, I didn’t really feel that he did a deed great enough to help his herd. I blame Debbie. I’ve got no idea what they were trying to achieve with that Triceratops. 

Human Billboard

Our company wanted to raise some money for charity and came up with the idea of selling t-shirts for the staff to wear. We got shown a picture of models wearing the shirts and we had a choice of a short or long-sleeved garment. We’d pay a subsidised price and choose our size and they would send it directly to our store. Then the thing arrived and on the back was an advert for a product! We had no idea that we would be paying to wear something on our backs. And it wasn’t a printed drawing or text; it was one of those horrible iron-on labels that sticks to your back when you wear it and doesn’t do much good when you sweat. Over time, it dissolves into pieces and leaves bits in the washing machine. I just wished that they would have been upfront and honest with us when they were asking us to part with our cash.

 

Back in Brum

It’s good to be back in the city. It seems that a huge clean-up is taking place not just to welcome visitors back but to prepare for an amazing event that’s going to put it on the world stage. There’s been some major building work taking place and we’re witnessing its completion. A whole range of new buildings has been constructed, each with new and exciting stores and restaurants on their ground floors. Monuments and church spires have been cleaned and sand-blasted to make them look like they’ve just been built which makes it difficult to guess how old they are. And outside on the concourse, a huge paddling pool has been built for children to run across and get their toes wet without fear of drowning. There’s even a foundation for them to play with. And with the hot weather shining down on us it felt like we were in a foreign city rather than twenty miles from home. 

I can't Stand the Snow

 There’s some white stuff that’s falling out of the sky! It’s an amazing spectacle to watch when it first starts, but we’ve got no idea how long we’re stuck with it for. The worst part is when you’re at work and you can watch it coming down but if it continues then at some point you’re going to have to face getting home by travelling in it. Just watching it makes you more anxious. With each moment it’s only getting worse to the point that perhaps you should have abandoned your shift earlier. But when you’re responsible for other colleagues in the building too you have to act a little less selflessly. Of course, when you don’t have travel plans then you don’t have to worry. You can just be a spectator and everyone who is attempting to travel through it just becomes entertainment. Luckily, in this case it was too wet for the snow to settle.

The Betrayal #empress6

Zhong headed back to his farm. It took him a week to make the journey. Along the way, he had to pick up extra carts that the Empress had arranged for him. He wondered if his wife would expect extra gifts because of all the carts but he couldn’t afford anything at the moment. But once the farm was clear, he would be able to build a new farmhouse complete with a yard and stable for ferrying his future children to and from school. And think of how many labourers he could employ! This royal charter would benefit the whole village.

When he arrived, he saw his neighbour’s cart outside his house. He wondered why he was here. Slowly, he took off his shoes and ventured inside. He could hear a lot of noise coming from upstairs. As he peered around his bedroom door, he caught a glimpse of his wife and neighbour in the act. 

Petrol Prices

I like to get value for money in my car and make every mile count to be as fuel-efficient as possible. I never fill the tank to the top if I can help it as I used to own an old Astra that leaked fuel when it was overfilled. But unless I’m planning to go on a long journey; I never consider filling up until the car tells me that it’s running low to get as many miles as possible out of each tank. The car’s computer that estimates how many miles are left is usually pretty accurate and if I’m staying local I like to let it run into the low tens before I get my wallet out. Once I let it run into single digits as I knew that I was passing a fuel station on my way home; but I had to stretch that out an extra three miles to drive to another filling station three miles away because the garage closed earlier that I thought! But when you’ve been driving the same vehicle for a long time you know what you can get away with.

Why don't shopping centres in the UK give free parking?

That would be nice wouldn’t it? Not having to pay a fee every time you visit. But when you own a bit of land, there’s money to be made. You might be gracious and occasionally let people park for free when you’re encouraging them to visit, but sometimes charging the shops inside for rent doesn’t always cover the cost of powering those lights, lifts, fountains, and paying fat guys to walk around in suits all day long. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to spend a bit of money to organise events to encourage more people to visit the centre. But sometimes you want to keep your centre as safe as possible so you want to encourage them to leave or not take advantage of other nearby facilities whilst depriving you of any income and occupancy space. Of course, there are other ways of visiting. If you haven’t got a lot of shopping to do you could take the bus, or better yet go even greener and walk. Or you could even try somewhere else.