The Night Mail

[rockershovel]

A propos beer strengths, it's a matter of "horses for courses". The relatively weak Watneys keg beers (the name Star Light also comes to mind) were well suited to the then-common custom of drinking several pints a night, three or four nights a week accompsnied by games such as bar billiards or darts, and then getting up early for a day's heavy work. It kept the pipes working and a bit of flatulence did no harm. What students did, was of no interest - they being fairly rare at the time. 

 

I think the sudden surge in lager drinking was a product of the rapid growth of mass foreign tourism from the 1960s onwards. 

 

 

[Hroth]

Beer used to be more like flavoured water, of little alcoholic content, especially "Small Beer" which would be drunk as we would drink bottled water nowadays.  In towns, it would be preferable to the polluted water supplies and easier to obtain than boiling water to drink.

 

It would be good to reverse the trend towards stronger and stronger beers and revert to the small ales of our forefathers.  I don't count non-alcoholic concoctions as real beer, they're more like ultra processed foods...

 

ION

 

Just finished taking the vacuum cleaner for a walk upstairs and downstairs.  Put the hiss and spit coffee machine on for some real coffee and time for a rest with a muggacoffee and a book... 🙂

 

[br2975]

[br2975]

13 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

I still have a turntable and a good collection of vinyl. 

 

I listen to it when ironing as an aural anaesthetic. 

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My turntable is in the man cave - as are many of my 12" favourites.

[Tony_S]

On our very infrequent trips to pubs for meals, where it is usually my turn to drive, I have replaced Diet Coke with Guinness Zero or Moretti Zero. 

[rockershovel]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

On our very infrequent trips to pubs for meals, where it is usually my turn to drive, I have replaced Diet Coke with Guinness Zero or Moretti Zero. 

I was offered Guinness Zero at my daughters' the other day, although I opted for something else. I've never had it; is it any good? 

[rockershovel]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

Beer used to be more like flavoured water, of little alcoholic content, especially "Small Beer" which would be drunk as we would drink bottled water nowadays.  In towns, it would be preferable to the polluted water supplies and easier to obtain than boiling water to drink.

 

It would be good to reverse the trend towards stronger and stronger beers and revert to the small ales of our forefathers.  I don't count non-alcoholic concoctions as real beer, they're more like ultra processed foods...

 

ION

 

Just finished taking the vacuum cleaner for a walk upstairs and downstairs.  Put the hiss and spit coffee machine on for some real coffee and time for a rest with a muggacoffee and a book... 🙂

 

Well, exactly. My late Aunt Patsy (my grandmother's sister) lived in a house in Cambridge which she regarded as quite modern when she took it, about 1904 in that it had a cold water tap in the scullery and an outside toilet. 

 

Her previous house, still standing in the 1960s had no water supply other than a communal standpipe in the "front alley: with communal WCs in the "back alley"

 

When you live in such conditions the pub is an extension to your living space. If you must rise at 5am for your shift, you don't want to do it with a banging head, furry tongue and the urgent need for a consultation with Mr Shanks and Mr Armitage. 

 

The ability to drink four or five pints of relatively weak beer, around 3% abv was a necessary social skill

[Tony_S]

28 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

I was offered Guinness Zero at my daughters' the other day, although I opted for something else. I've never had it; is it any good? 

Guinness draught ( in cans at home) when I am out would often be what I would drink if I wasn’t sure about other beery offerings. The very few pubs we do,visit often have seasonal ales that look,wort a try. The Guinness Zero as my choice when driving is definately better than my previous choice of diet cola. It isn’t quite “Guinness” but probably worth a try.  My  near neighbours who are very very keen on Guinness (especially when watching their rugby team) are very much in favour of it when alcohol is not appropriate.  It certainly isn’t dreadful like some low alcohol,zero alcohol beers used to be. 

[Tony_S]

Looks like Guinness too. 

The last proper Guinness went in the casserole. So I have a can of the Zero to accompany it for lunch.  

[Happy Hippo]

3 hours ago, br2975 said:

Thanks Brian, decent beer.

 

Did the rest of you notice that Brains is an anagram of Brians?

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, rockershovel said:

Her previous house, still standing in the 1960s had no water supply other than a communal standpipe in the "front alley: with communal WCs in the "back alley"

We went to see the National Trust “Back to Backs” in Birmingham. My Grandmother was born and raised in a nearby street. The NT place was just as described. Outside loos , communal laundry area etc. Outside water pump. My mother said the house she was born in had an inside tap but that was all. The Birmingham City Corporation decided that all the slum housing needed to be cleared and built huge council housing estates creating new suburbs. These were good houses with modern facilities like indoor toilets and bathrooms.. My grandfather had years of work working as a builder on those estates and the family moved into one, using a borrowed market barrow from Aston to Acocks Green. The good houses with lots of parks were very much a concern of the Chamberlain family who were running Birmingham. 

Edited April 28 by Tony_S

[SM42]

My father grew up in  a house with a communal toilet. 

5 seats and you could chat with your neighbours over the partition whilst you went about your business. 

 

Alcohol free beers seem to be a growing trend in the motherland as well.

 

A few years ago it was IP and APAs. 

 

 

 I've tried a few and have settled on  three so far that pass muster, namely Perla, Lomza and Zatecky Lezajsk. 

 

They make a change from the 5.8 to 6.0 % of normal beers and very useful if you are duty driver and fancy a pint. 

 

Andy

[SM42]

As you may have guessed we are back from thd BBQ, full of pork products and oodles of cake. 

 

The weather cleared up just in time and it was nice to see most of the congregation and the priest all together in a social setting. 

 

There is such a strong sense of community that I sometimes wonder where it all went wrong in the UK.

 

Andy

[jamie92208]

4 hours ago, Tony_S said:

On our very infrequent trips to pubs for meals, where it is usually my turn to drive, I have replaced Diet Coke with Guinness Zero or Moretti Zero. 

Over here there are quite a few, 1664 00 is palatable and there is another called Jupiter.  As I am usually the designated driver I take a Four pack of 00 to parties. 

 

Jamie

[br2975]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Did the rest of you notice that Brains is an anagram of Brians?

.

Some 25 or so years ago, I built small modelling 'tray' from an offcut of Formica covered worktop, onto which I stuck graph paper, and then a sheet of plate glass.

.

Very useful for building things level and square, it was last in use...... this morning..

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In order that everyone at the club knew it was mine, I put my name on the underside.

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See what I did there ?

.

 

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

The Birmingham City Corporation decided that all the slum housing needed to be cleared and built huge council housing estates creating new suburbs. These were good houses with modern facilities like indoor toilets and bathrooms.. My grandfather had years of work working as a builder on those estates and the family moved into one, using a borrowed market barrow from Aston to Acocks Green. The good houses with lots of parks were very much a concern of the Chamberlain family who were running Birmingham. 

 

My maternal grandfather, as a corporation housing department foreman, was in the thick of that. He was born in Arklow but emigrated first to Liverpool then Birmingham to escape the civil war. He had a story about meeting his boss, the Clerk of Works, at a University of Birmingham graduation ceremony. The boss was rather full of his own son being a graduate and said something along the lines of 'Fancy seeing you here, Jack", to which my grandfather took great satisfaction in replying that this was the third such ceremony he had attended. Of his five children, all went to university, my mother, the youngest, the last, as a mature student in the late 70s.   

[rockershovel]

2 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Guinness draught ( in cans at home) when I am out would often be what I would drink if I wasn’t sure about other beery offerings. The very few pubs we do,visit often have seasonal ales that look,wort a try. The Guinness Zero as my choice when driving is definately better than my previous choice of diet cola. It isn’t quite “Guinness” but probably worth a try.  My  near neighbours who are very very keen on Guinness (especially when watching their rugby team) are very much in favour of it when alcohol is not appropriate.  It certainly isn’t dreadful like some low alcohol,zero alcohol beers used to be. 

Then I will try it, next time it is offered. 

 

My preferred "zero" drink is Beck's Blue. 

 

My good wife has ordered Old Speckled Hen Low on next week's delivery, on offer at £1.17 a bottle... I thought it worth a punt at the price! 

[New Haven Neil]

I'm a bit of a fan of the Guinness Zero, I drink very little alcohol nowadays (making up for those years in the merch) so it hits the spot.  It's not the real thing but is reminiscent of it, and doesn't have the weird aftertaste I find most alcohol free beers have.

 

As for HiFi, I had a Thorens 204 that got damaged moving here 😬😪 it wasn't really economical to repair, and also had a Dunlop Systemdek that was pretty good until the motor expired, which turned out to be totally unobtainable.  The current Thorens is just the cheapo 280 Mk4.  My Musical Fidelity A100 amp died a couple of years ago, replaced with a budget Denon which TBH is very nearly as good, the difference 30 years makes!  The Musical Fidelity T1 tuner still soldiers on, that is a good bit of kit but FM only.  My CD is an Arcam Alpha, again venerable but still capable of good performance, but oddly really needs to be hot to do so, needs to have been on an hour before it really opens up.  Must have some old EL85 valves hidden in there, 🤣 in reality probably dying capacitors somewhere.

[rockershovel]

1 minute ago, Compound2632 said:

 

My maternal grandfather, as a corporation housing department foreman, was in the thick of that. He was born in Arklow but emigrated first to Liverpool then Birmingham to escape the civil war. He had a story about meeting his boss, the Clerk of Works, at a University of Birmingham graduation ceremony. The boss was rather full of his own son being a graduate and said something along the lines of 'Fancy seeing you here, Jack", to which my grandfather took great satisfaction in replying that this was the third such ceremony he had attended. Of his five children, all went to university, my mother, the youngest, the last, as a mature student in the late 70s.   

In those distant days when the government cared about their people, and a University education was a ticket to a good job...

[Tony_S]

44 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

As for HiFi

Mine is all from different manufacturers! Though some people may not agree it is hifi as it set up as a cinema  surround sound system. It can be set to stereo and the two main speakers are also sold as stereo pairs. Before I got the hearing aids I had to fiddle a lot with the processor settings to hear TV sound.  No problem now though. I have just had my hearing aids tweaked and Aditi asked me to turn the TV sound up as it was too quiet. 

[Tony_S]

55 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Fancy seeing you here, Jack", to which my grandfather took great satisfaction in replying that this was the third such ceremony he had attended.

I was sitting waiting to see Aditi get her degree conferred. This was at the Barbican in London. The woman sitting next to me said how lovely it was to see one’s child graduate. I replied that I wasn’t seeing my child I was married to one of those graduating. The sheer look of horror that someone my age might possibly be wed to one of the bright young people marching across the stage was amazing. I did point out that my spouse was the short woman with a floppy doctoral hat sitting in the middle of a row of ecclesiastical gentlemen and military officers .

[Winslow Boy]

9 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Would you like to be directed towards a suitable shed supplier? 🤔

🤪

 

Not really as it isn't really devious enough if truth to be told.

[Happy Hippo]

Saw these at Model World Live and thought of Ramrod: 

 

 

 

No sign of any representative Hunters or Phantoms.

 

It was a good show, and very busy for a Sunday.

Edited April 28 by Happy Hippo

[TheQ]

Mum was brought up in a house with outside loos, and a well about 50 yards away that was shared between 4 houses. I can remember when we temporarily had to live in my grandparents house in 1963, the new bathroom just off the kitchen had just been fitted. That grandfather's work was a ganger had 3 of his 4 children get their degrees, two became teachers.

 

My wife was brought up in a house with outside loos and a tin bath in front of the fire until the early 1970s.

 

I rented a cottage in about 1980 that had only got mains water / indoor plumbing in the early 1970s, the former gamekeepers house on the edge of a big estate needed to wait until mains water came half a mile down the road to the solitary house.

This house got mains water about the same time, late enough to have had an electric pump mounted in the well to pump water up into a barrel up in the loft for probably the previous 20 years.

 

As for alcohol free, I became very partial to Heineken lager zero with lime or lemon  out in Saudi , that really suited the conditions.

 

The rich locals could of course get smuggled whisky, the poor often drank alcohol based perfume!!! You'd find empty bottles of it behind dunes just off the main roads.

 

These days, for me, it's alcohol with beer or whisky, but not much,  rarely do I have a coke.

[Hroth]

@Happy Hippo  Referring back to your visit to Chirk Castle, here's a couple of snaps of the Civil War re-enactors I saw there on a visit...

 

 

 

A Push of Pike

 

The Vanquished

 

 

FIRE!

 

Very noisy....