Saturday, May 16, 2009
Pub life
A couple of days ago sampled the liquid fare in central London. Quality of beer good but price bad. Generally well in excess of £3 and to add insult to injury the ruling style seemed to be to fill the glass up to about a centimetre from the top and when challenged to add just a dribble. Now it used to be a common enough practise to serve short pints on the grounds that most people don't complain and then, if they do, to fill the thing up properly. A good, if tiresome, way of boosting the bottom line. This new practise is even more tiresome. I just wish they would charge a fair price and serve a full pint.
Another new practise was more amusing. This consists of roping off a chunk of pavement for the pub's customers to stand outside and smoke in - and in the places we visited there did seem to be more outside than inside. But to make sure the customers played the game, the pubs hired black guys, some in what looked like blue hotel uniforms, to patrol the edge of the roped off areas and to make sure that no feet were straying over the line. Easy enough work - and I suppose no more boring than most security work.
Closer to home we now have a rival to TB in the form of the reopened TJC. This last offering good quality warm beer at well under the £3 required for warm newky (which while quite acceptable is not good quality warm beer) at TB and about the same distance away. How long will they keep it up? The pub opposite our local Wetherspoon's had been trying to compete on price for some years, I had thought successfully, and is now closed. (I note in passing that two other decent pubs in town are up for rent. Not looking too good). In the meantime, TJC may prove a useful alternative source of information. We learned yesterday, for example, that the true flag of England is the white dragon, in contrast to the red dragon of Wales and the red cross of the alien Normans. They even had a sample flag. Mr G. does not seem to be too sure about this. A page from Wikpedia indexed by Mr G. as saying that there was no evidence of the white dragon ever having been used as a national emblem had been deleted. Other sites which were more positive about the white dragon appeared to be infested with runes and goblins, so I am not going to put too much weight on them. So where do I go now? Don't think that they will have a clue down at TB. Not their sort of thing.
I should add, to be fair, that Mr G, was equally vague about when the red cross of St George came in. The only thing that seemed firm was that it was being used as a national flag by the 16th century. Presumably Henry V and all those sort of chaps used some forerunner of our royal standard as their battle flag, the nation still being conflated with the person of the monarch of the day.
Trusting again today at the regional headquarters, that is to say Polesden Lacy. Rather like Clandon (see 18/9/2008), there were both posh trusties and a hard core collection of mainly Chinese china. Or perhaps porcelain. Plus some jade and such like. Some of it was interesting and some of it very handsome, but you need a big cheque book and a big house to make much of a hobby of it, so disqualified on both counts.
Being the regional headquarters and wanting to set a revenue raising example, there were no less than five shops: a farm shop, a garden shop, a souvenir shop, a tea-room and a restaurant. Presumably for the same reason there was the added touch of someone playing Chopin in the drawing room. I am told that lowly functionaries of the National Trust are also lowly paid, it being thought enough of a privilege to have Polesdon Lacy for an office. I wonder if the same is true of the higher functionaries? What do they pay themselves and what do they get in the way of perks? Invites to swanky 'charity' balls? Fancy dining rooms? A lot of other charities have taken to paying their top men and women entirely commercial rates, on the grounds that they have to attract the best. Along the same lines, I wonder whether the otherwise excellent Macmillan Nurses organisation is being corrupted by being a contractor for nursing services to the NHS? Is it really a charity any more?
But one small quibble: there were lots of books, some of which looked quite interesting - for example the collected dispatches of the first Duke of Wellington, running to quite a few volumes - and some of which might have been rare. But they were never used. Certainly common or garden visitors were not allowed to touch and it seemed that the only people with a look in were the cleaners who dusted them twice a year or so. Which seems rather a pity. Perhaps I ought to suggest that they run book lovers events every now and again so that they get a bit of use. So, they would lose a few, but so what?
Then onto an orgological event at the canteen, where, for £8 or so, I got quite a decent lunch. Some kind of chicken pie made with estate grown chicken, improved in my case by getting a double portion from the end of the tin, the last portion not being big enough to sell separate. Served with vegetables which they had gone to some trouble not to overcook. In fact, raw according to FIL. Washed down with some very nice apple juice, not from the estate but at least somewhere in Sussex. Some sign explained that they try to source their food as locally as possible so that customers can get the authentic taste of the locale. All a bit strong, but the grub was OK.
Then around the garden. Not a design effort like the last one at Loseley, but very handsome for all that. Some super beds of irises, particularly striking for me as I had never seen them grown in masses before. And a bed of massed peonies, also a first for me. And, last but by no means least, some sort of flowering cabbage. Very handsome it was too. And once one had done with the formal gardens on one side of the house, lots of good walks and trees on the other side. Some owner in times gone by must have been a tree nut, and the current owners seem to be doing a serious job of keeping the planting going. Lots of carefully fenced young trees. Didn't see any of the deer that the fences were presumably for, but we did manage one rabbit and one buzzard - which last has become quite common in Surrey according to TB. First time I have seen one here though.
Another new practise was more amusing. This consists of roping off a chunk of pavement for the pub's customers to stand outside and smoke in - and in the places we visited there did seem to be more outside than inside. But to make sure the customers played the game, the pubs hired black guys, some in what looked like blue hotel uniforms, to patrol the edge of the roped off areas and to make sure that no feet were straying over the line. Easy enough work - and I suppose no more boring than most security work.
Closer to home we now have a rival to TB in the form of the reopened TJC. This last offering good quality warm beer at well under the £3 required for warm newky (which while quite acceptable is not good quality warm beer) at TB and about the same distance away. How long will they keep it up? The pub opposite our local Wetherspoon's had been trying to compete on price for some years, I had thought successfully, and is now closed. (I note in passing that two other decent pubs in town are up for rent. Not looking too good). In the meantime, TJC may prove a useful alternative source of information. We learned yesterday, for example, that the true flag of England is the white dragon, in contrast to the red dragon of Wales and the red cross of the alien Normans. They even had a sample flag. Mr G. does not seem to be too sure about this. A page from Wikpedia indexed by Mr G. as saying that there was no evidence of the white dragon ever having been used as a national emblem had been deleted. Other sites which were more positive about the white dragon appeared to be infested with runes and goblins, so I am not going to put too much weight on them. So where do I go now? Don't think that they will have a clue down at TB. Not their sort of thing.
I should add, to be fair, that Mr G, was equally vague about when the red cross of St George came in. The only thing that seemed firm was that it was being used as a national flag by the 16th century. Presumably Henry V and all those sort of chaps used some forerunner of our royal standard as their battle flag, the nation still being conflated with the person of the monarch of the day.
Trusting again today at the regional headquarters, that is to say Polesden Lacy. Rather like Clandon (see 18/9/2008), there were both posh trusties and a hard core collection of mainly Chinese china. Or perhaps porcelain. Plus some jade and such like. Some of it was interesting and some of it very handsome, but you need a big cheque book and a big house to make much of a hobby of it, so disqualified on both counts.
Being the regional headquarters and wanting to set a revenue raising example, there were no less than five shops: a farm shop, a garden shop, a souvenir shop, a tea-room and a restaurant. Presumably for the same reason there was the added touch of someone playing Chopin in the drawing room. I am told that lowly functionaries of the National Trust are also lowly paid, it being thought enough of a privilege to have Polesdon Lacy for an office. I wonder if the same is true of the higher functionaries? What do they pay themselves and what do they get in the way of perks? Invites to swanky 'charity' balls? Fancy dining rooms? A lot of other charities have taken to paying their top men and women entirely commercial rates, on the grounds that they have to attract the best. Along the same lines, I wonder whether the otherwise excellent Macmillan Nurses organisation is being corrupted by being a contractor for nursing services to the NHS? Is it really a charity any more?
But one small quibble: there were lots of books, some of which looked quite interesting - for example the collected dispatches of the first Duke of Wellington, running to quite a few volumes - and some of which might have been rare. But they were never used. Certainly common or garden visitors were not allowed to touch and it seemed that the only people with a look in were the cleaners who dusted them twice a year or so. Which seems rather a pity. Perhaps I ought to suggest that they run book lovers events every now and again so that they get a bit of use. So, they would lose a few, but so what?
Then onto an orgological event at the canteen, where, for £8 or so, I got quite a decent lunch. Some kind of chicken pie made with estate grown chicken, improved in my case by getting a double portion from the end of the tin, the last portion not being big enough to sell separate. Served with vegetables which they had gone to some trouble not to overcook. In fact, raw according to FIL. Washed down with some very nice apple juice, not from the estate but at least somewhere in Sussex. Some sign explained that they try to source their food as locally as possible so that customers can get the authentic taste of the locale. All a bit strong, but the grub was OK.
Then around the garden. Not a design effort like the last one at Loseley, but very handsome for all that. Some super beds of irises, particularly striking for me as I had never seen them grown in masses before. And a bed of massed peonies, also a first for me. And, last but by no means least, some sort of flowering cabbage. Very handsome it was too. And once one had done with the formal gardens on one side of the house, lots of good walks and trees on the other side. Some owner in times gone by must have been a tree nut, and the current owners seem to be doing a serious job of keeping the planting going. Lots of carefully fenced young trees. Didn't see any of the deer that the fences were presumably for, but we did manage one rabbit and one buzzard - which last has become quite common in Surrey according to TB. First time I have seen one here though.
# posted by Jim @ 12:34 PM 
