Glasshouse Tap is 5

I’ve never actually managed to visit. I’ve come close, but they weren’t open at the time. It wasn’t doing very well and they were struggling to keep the place open. I haven’t even seen anywhere that sells its beers or met anyone that’s tried them. The website is just a mixture of cans and t-shirts to choose from, and there’s no information about its history or how the name was chosen at all, even if you pry away at a side menu. I’ve been told that it’s easily accessible from the canal. It’s proving very difficult to find a picture. I’m guessing that tables are laid out like a Bavarian beer hall. It’s probably not somewhere that you’d choose to sit inside in warm weather. Still, it’s another one to attempt to tick off the bucket list; that’s assuming if it makes it to another year. Better try to get there sooner rather than later.

We think about...picnics!

It’s not something you’d think that a video game company would typically think about. Spending time outdoors with other people away from computer games and screens is a distraction and totally discourages sales. Unless, of course, it’s a pitch to sell one of their mobile gaming units or encourage you to play a game on your phone. Or maybe the bright light will make them cower in fear and look forward to returning home to purchase more games. It’s hard to see a screen in broad daylight. The mind can’t focus on purchasing new games when you’re playing new games. Or maybe they’re not addicted and they’re happy that at work outside while you remain indoors enslaved to their products. They could be enslaved themselves. They’d love to go on a picnic; but they’re too busy creating more products for you to buy. Maybe they just want a lunch break.

More tonne bags of Crushed Granite conveyed to site and unloaded by workboat 'Swinton' this morning. Plenty for the volunteers to work with

I suppose it’s another way of telling us that the towpath is going to be closed for a while. But whereabouts specifically and for how long? When will it be safe to plan a trip out there again? Maybe we can track the boat to find out. Is this a call for volunteers to come and help get the job done quicker? It’s going to take more than one morning, but there’s no call to arms here or indication of how long it will take. Will a morning be a whole session? It sounds like everything is organised and is divided by a number of teams but we just have to wait and look out for future tweets. In the meantime, we have to hope that the work doesn’t get in our way. Maybe we have to revert to previous tweets to find out. Hopefully, nothing got vandalised in the first place.

We need your help! Get tagging

It’s a bit uncertain as to what the purpose of this promotion is. It’s great for the consumer, and if they share it, you’re going to get even more followers. The only way that they can use this information is that if they want to brew a sci-fi beer or add a decoration to their tap bar. This makes them more popular and they might want to brew a collaboration. Of course, they could always talk to people, but they might want to get their inspiration a bit quicker or they might need a written record of what was said. I wonder what other themes they’ve considered. And if you’re not a sci-fan, would you have to wait for a contest that you are interested in? It might be  bit of a wait. You always lie to enter the prize draw, but if you win, would you have to prove your knowledge?

The Quiz Goblin Rides Tonight

You wouldn’t expect a goblin to be in the centre of Birmingham. It could be someone who just has pointy ears with  lot of earrings and wears leather. Does he go round from venue to venue asking questions in an evil voice? Does he punish people if they get the answer wrong? Perhaps he’ll keep asking question after question and won’t let people leave the pub. The landlord isn’t going to argue as people are just going to keep buying supplies from him. Maybe the goblin himself has to buy supplies. I wonder what he’s riding. Is it a motorbike, or perhaps he has a fancy glider to get around like in Spiderman films. Perhaps it’s a warning to stay out of his way. When he does get out and he can’t host any more, he likes to explore the coffee shops to search for victims to answer his questions.

Man forcibly removed from overbooked United Airlines flight

This is bad planning on the airline’s fault. Why wasn’t the mistake spotted before boarding? I thought computers weren’t allowed to make these sorts of errors. Were two seats allocated at the same time? Perhaps people were on the phone and the call operator didn’t wait for confirmation that the booking was complete. This could have been sorted without all the hassle on the plane. They might have found someone who’s willing to transfer to a later flight. Instead, they decided to make a decision against someone’s will which caused more conflict that they’d thought. Was he the last single passenger to buy a ticket, or did they not like the look of him or his profile? I wonder how late the flight was and what the man’s reaction was. It doesn’t sound that he’s happy by the outcome. Would he get arrested for something that wasn’t his fault? These companies need to wake up otherwise people will try and avoid them.

Real Ale Mecca's Newest Attraction

It’s been a year in the making for this place to open with a lot of planning and waiting around. You can still make out the building work taking place when the photograph was taken. In a city where beer is excellent, it’s going to need something a little more to bring people in. Hopefully, it’s going to be a classic restoration project. It’s a former bank but it will be great for the people to see the building in action and will hopefully be put towards a great commercial success. You’d think that a brewery wouldn’t be able to afford such luxury materials but they’ve managed to get their hands on some capital somewhere. Inside, there’s wood panelling and comfortable booths alongside tall windows. There’s smart, high stools for drinking at the bar followed by smaller areas and there’s even upstairs seating as well. It's certainly on my visit list.

Librarians are on the lookout for the 'weird cock' encyclopaedia bandit

How will they catch him? Is CCTV involved? And what exactly is he doing? This raises more questions than answers. Is he visiting libraries to leave photographs inside encyclopaedias? Is he exposing himself? Or is it something simple as rearranging the books on the shelves to spell out rude words? People have been doing that with all sorts of objects for ages. It’s actually quite ingenious as they’ve had to find a way to create an I from letters that don’t include it. Is he actively stealing them? If not, why is he a bandit? Is it just a name for an attention-grabbing headline? Or is it something simple as rearranging the books on the shelves to spell out rude words? People have been doing that with all sorts of objects for ages. And now that it’s in the media, people will think that it’s trendy enough to start doing it again.

@RogerProtzeer: The article ends with a list & fate of Spoons pubs previously closed or closing.

It’s a cull on a national scale. We’re all got to start saving money somewhere; especially where a lot of overheads are involved. Some didn’t make the cut; we think that outlets that were rented were more likely to be chopped. So for our town, this is the moment when two spoons became one. No they didn’t get merged or married or knocked through, the top dog just decided to close one of them. Others had closed already, but these still noted as the closures were of national attention. And it made more than one media outlet. Jobs would be reallocated where possible. But it didn’t offer a great outlook for the industry. A lot of these places have been pubs for so long so it’s going to be a struggle to repurpose them. They’re big buildings, and some of them have a lot of history. We hope that there won’t be another one.

It's not about getting drunk, it's about ticking beer

It’s an ambition to taste as many different beers as possible, then keep a record of what was sampled, where and when. You never know if they’re going to be continued to be brewed ever again. Some will be brewed by breweries who will halt production of a traditional bitter. Others will only be brewed for a special occasion. We might go wild at a beer festival but it’s only because there’s a huge range of beers to choose from that haven’t been tried before. I always aim to start with the breweries that I haven’t tried before. It’s all about trying new things, and when you’ve got them under one roof you’re going to be like a kid in a candy store. But you can only do so much in one session. And then you’ve got to add it to your record. I note it down on my phone then add it to an excel sheet, which I then update and send a copy to my phone.

Utter Contempt for the Cats, Staff and Customers from Black Country Ales

It’s a shame that it’s come to this. A beautiful black kitten who brought so much joy to visitors has had to be evicted from the pub. It might be because of an allergy issue. It might mean extra cleaning. Leaving cat hair and scents on the upholstery isn’t great. I suppose it’s possible that some animals don’t moult and leave hairs behind. It’s not great when you’re eating food to have to have a feline disturb you for a piece of your snack, but it’s not like you’re having a sit-down meal. I wonder if there was a complaint from the public since the cat’s been there so long. Perhaps it was something that the cat did like raiding the kitchen, bringing in a dead animal or scratch and slash the furniture. Maybe it was sick in front of a customer. Or maybe someone had it in for the landlord. I hope that Hops is doing well in his new home, but this hasn’t gone down well with the locals and some of them have started to boycott the business.

Next Year Fail @jdvance

Is this guy serious or is this guy just going along for the comical journey and filling in the important bits that his boss leaves behind? Is he supporting a project or leading it? It’s not clear when he’s lounging around on a sofa talking to a radio host. Does his boss know what he’s getting up to? Or is he subtly waiting for him to make a mistake so that he can step in? It seems like that he’s the man in charge of making it happen. The trouble is that the video is heavily edited so that you can’t get the full context. It’s as if he’s being made to look like an indecisive slacker. But he recognises the lack of power in people’s lives and wants to do something about it. But you’ve got to take the power away from someone else who’s not going to like it.

Whitbread Wipeout

They’re a company out there who’s just sitting on assets wanting to get rid of them. They’ve just given up and the place is shut. They’ve still got tables, chairs and equipment in them. Why would you suddenly restrict the use of your property to a certain clientele just because they’re spending less money? At the end of the day, you’re still turning a profit. Restricting your trade just for convenience isn’t going to win you over with the locals who will visit frequently. Instead you’re just forking on money just for protection. You won’t even give it a chance to sell it to someone who wants to keep the place going. Instead you’re just going to sit there and wait for a change in the policy to cash in. Instead, you’re just forcing abandonment which won’t give it much of a lease in life as people will become used to it.

Surviving the Axe

I’m not sure how this place will survive. It’s a lone small building in the middle of a building site that hopes to cash in on the passing rail travel when the HS2 terminal is finally complete. There’s an upstairs function room with extra seating and there may be a second bar there too but even then, it’s going to be a bit cramped with its central bar and small rooms. I don’t think that it’ll be able to cope with crowds. There’s overspill areas with picnic tables but people still need to get inside to order. At the moment it’s being fuelled by students and real ale fans. It’s going to be difficult to market as a destination pub with a limited capacity. It’s great that it’s being preserved but it’s going to be a tough one and prices will inevitably have to increase unless they can knock through.  

Burton's Brewing Heritage

So much of this has been thrown away in order to save costs and make money. The museum has been packed away out of public sight because they can make more money selling off the historic buildings. The traditional way of doing things is too expensive and a lot of the equipment has been dismantled, though fortunately some of it has been sold for brewing. It seems that if we want to save it, we have to pay for it. We can’t put it on display and let people wander around it for free. Things need to be fixed to stop people from wandering off with them, and the fixings themselves need to be safe. If they’re placed in a building, it must be maintained with adequate lighting so that no-one trips and has an accident or sues the people that built it. It’s a shame that we have to throw away our past to continue our future.

Fidget Spinner Creator isn't making money off the toy craze

There’s a problem in the copyright world. Sometimes it’s easier and cheaper to buy the cheap Chinese knockoffs rather than the genuine article. And if you haven’t put your name on the original, there’s nothing you can do to get the law to enforce your creativity. If you’re serious about your business, you need to plan ahead and prepare for your expenses and costs accordingly, or seek help so that you’re prepared. No-one’s going to be forced to  pay you compensation  for lost royalties, but everyone wants to cash in on your success. And the public won’t care because they’ve got a good deal, so long as the product they hold doesn’t crumble though their fingers in a few days. But if it does, they’re going to complain which is going to ruin your reputation of future sales. You’re either selling your product too cheap or to the wrong people.

Everyone on Twitter today is a business expert.

There’s a bit of sarcasm at play here. I’ve got no idea what they’re saying, but judging by your response, you need to be careful of whose advice you take. There might be too much advice, and some of it might be obvious. But there seems to be a lack of evidence of these things being done, otherwise it wouldn’t be offered in the first place. The critics seem to be the one complaining, otherwise they’d offer praise. Is it coming from one of your competitors, or is it someone who genuinely wants to see you succeed? Are they praising you as well? And if they’re all out there commenting, why aren’t they running their own business or commenting on LinkedIn? But you never know. It could be a day where only business experts are allowed to post. Didn’t you get the memo? Tomorrow it’ll be all about the garden.

What a day, walked about 30k and swam in two lakes.

Many people might walk this distance without even knowing it. You might be doing a long walk, but you’ve also got to travel to get there. If you’re in a hotel, you’ve got to get from your room to breakfast and back again before you leave it. If you’re not using a lift and you’re on a high floor, that’s a lot of steps. Many people would take the stairs down and head back up in the lift, though it depends on how long you have to wait for it. If you’re driving to the start of your walk, you’ll also be making steps as you press the pedals. And the route you actually take is much longer than the route says it is as you make wrong turns and correct yourself, and wander off to explore the area around the route too. Must have been a long day though.

Is this the right way?

So it takes thirty minutes to recharge an electric dray. This is great if you’ve got somewhere back at base to do it. The driver could have his lunch and be back on the road straight after providing the brewery’s excess energy is being put to good use. It’s not so efficient at a service station, though it does give the brewery great advertising providing that the dray’s empty. It might take only thirty seconds to fill it with diesel, but then someone’s got to have cash or the company credit card or be able to claim it back. Both these methods are more efficient than a horse which would struggle to last three hours and wouldn’t be able to travel as far. I still think that we’ve gone the wrong way about this electric battery business. Surely you’d be able to take the old one out and insert a charged one in a matter of minutes?

@daraobriain takes a break from the Paris sport to consider if a ride at Disneyland Paris is the best in the world…

I think he only finds it interesting because he’s managed to acquire a stuffed toy to match the ride. I wonder if that’s his regular mascot or it’s just something he found or purchased while passing through to look the part. Although the ride looks fun, it doesn’t feel more appealing than the live sport on offer, and there’s quite a walk to get through the queues to the ride itself, which is a car ride alongside a screen. It’s very impressive that its trackless, though I wonder if you’re just going around a square on a pre-programmed route alongside a screen. There also seems to be lots of marshalls alongside the queue system; they’re probably really there to keep an eye out on the riders and to stop the system should someone decide to step out onto the track. It’s not the most convincing of expressions and he certainly hasn’t given the game away.