The Southern

First out, apologies for length of last missive. Little and often is usually a good philosophy. However, have been fairly spaced out over past few months. Once in a “blue moon ” ( off  Marcels 1961 debut LP )  may be the other extreme? So somewhere in between hopefully.  Doo- wop! Now there was a great new word. Who invented that I wonder?

A blog just with song titles or lyrics ? – now that would be a challenge.

                                                                  12 Fonts with 4 of them cask  

You join me in the Southern, owned by Fuller Thomson with sister pubs Ox184, Holyrood 9A and the Red Squirrel in Edinburgh. Choose from 24 fonts, 4 of which are cask beer. Most are rotated and in interest of research I have had pints of Vienna Lager, Pale Blond and Long White Cloud all of which were in very good condition. Especially the pale blond.- ( in your dreams! Ed)

The pub reminds me of Barhop in Toronto which last year had 36 beers on offer whilst still retaining an authentic pub atmosphere. Good, but not over intrusive music with an unusual sound quality, the reason for which was revealed as we left, as we saw the barman put the next LP on the turntable.Vinyl!  Check out LP, vinyl and turntable in last century.

                                                                                           The other 12 options

What’s happening in the world this week?

Well, we have Alberta on fire. That is a devastating and life changing blow to tens of thousands of folks. Coincidently I had been reading last week about the broad support in Canada for an initiative to push the country into deriving much more of it’s energy from sustainable sources. I’ve visited Canada quite a few times since the early 70s and I can confirm to the outside world that unless you are a snow sport enthusiast then you really don’t want to be there in the winter. Canada must spend the equivalent of the GDP of a small country just on trying to keep it’s “trains and boats and planes” ( Burt  Bacharach / Hal David hit in 1965) functioning. Gene Pitney, whom I’ve featured in a past blog turned down the offer of the song  but “do you want to know a secret” Billy J Kramer didn’t and had his last hit with it. Fountains of Wayne, who I only heard of a week ago through an old CD that someone must have put together for me, covered it in 2003. Check out their “Girl I can’t forget ” if you like pop with a capital P. ( Neat lyric, but sounds more like session musicians rather than a group?  Ed.)

James Taylor started a tour of Canada in Ottowa in early May ( we’re going there in July- yippee ) and has offered to donate all profits from two of his gigs to the Canadian Red Cross in order to support the relief effort in Fort McMurray region.   Good for you James, though I would have hoped that the Canadian government and the fuel companies would front up big time on this one.  Haven’t had the time to follow through on how the fire started. 

What is guaranteed is that there is going to be a huge amount of recrimination. It’s already started and I expect a lot of bitterness will surface. 

I’m an old hippy so I reckon you can guess my views on the tar sands exploitation and I did promise to keep this blog shorter, so full stop here. 

Elsewhere: 

Well if you are ill or injured in the Syrian hell hole don’t seek sanctuary in a hospital.

Today we received our pamphlet from the UK government detailing why the country should not vote to leave the EU in our June referendum. Couple of thoughts here. The Tories are as divided ( and probably more so ) as every other party on the issue, so how can they claim to represent the ” government ” ? My main gripe though is that by so openly spending my tax payer’s money on promoting something with which I so strongly disagree that it is abusing and belittling democracy. Actually, just kidding, but the point is fundamental. If they had been promoting leaving, it would have been equally as big an abuse of power. 

👇🏿
Downer: 

Recent report says in the UK young people are the least likely to recycle. Over 55s take a bow – but only if your lumbago is ok today, as you may not get back up straight. However the bright side might be that overall we are moving to a ” circular economy” File that under new jargon.

Cautionary Tale Gentlemen

Ok, how did the wall come to such an unfortunate condition? 

Seems like Mr had finished work at the property, and wanting to go off somewhere had asked Mrs to come and take the truck home. Sorry girls. True.

To finish:  Scotland’s National Rag puts another couple of nails in the coffin of our supposedly wonderful education system.

Headline recently:  Misubishi offices raided over fuel data. Maybe the workers were having a “t” ceremony?

Headline today: Turning vegitarian on a flexi-time basis.

Until the next time.