Lovely to see. We used to get lots of frogs in our pond, but haven’t seen any for years. Think the fish eat the spawn.

So sad for your loss, Ellie. Take care - may the many happy and lovely memories help you through this difficult time.

Trying this fruit beer from Three Bears, Canada. Enjoyed the IPA - but everything’s served so cold.

Debate on gravy on Radio 2 right now. Perfect time for pubs to promote their roasts and delicious gravy. Should all pubs have to give free extra gravy? What’s your view?

@oldjointstock.bsky.social

Never had to queue so much than today, shopping in Birmingham’s city centre. Everywhere is rammed. Good news for retailers.

I know huge labour and ever higher operating costs are forcing businesses to use tech/automation more, but I struggle with self service in a restaurant environment. It just makes it less about hospitality, more DIY. And should a service charge (12.5%) be automatically added to the bill?

#hospitalityapprenticeshipshowcase #hospitality #meritocracy #fullers

Hospitality provides careers and opportunities: from bar work to marketing; beer making to CEO. And it’s fun!

The Hospitality Apprenticeship Showcase inspires me, thanks to people like Ben, who joined Fuller’s at 16 after being failed by his school. A passion for work & learning has seen him grow into a confident, incredible young man, sharing his story with MPs/leaders. Hospitality is a true meritocracy.

Cheshire Cheese, a Sheps tenancy in central London

A lovely Sheps tenancy in the heart of London. Beautifully refurbished, good food and beer. Described as a hidden treasure and it really is - a stone’s throw from the Old Bailey, if you’re visiting 😉. Cheshire Cheese, Little Essex Street @shepherdneame.bsky.social

Visiting BrewDog at Waterloo Sidings - massive but super cool space, with bowling, slide, private meeting rooms, Grind coffee and more.

Train’s delayed, so time for a quick pint 🍻

Fellow passenger on tonight’s tube engrossed in a good book @petebrownbeer.bsky.social

PSA: The train ticket sale has started today. I've just mass booked everything I need to March and I think I've saved a bit of cash 🤷

BII News out now

BII News is out! Full of great stories featuring fantastic operators, with exclusive research & industry advice. Thanks KAM, Philip Thorley, Rob Pitcher, Annabel Smith, Paul Rankin, Mark Robson & others, plus NITAs winners, inc Apprentices of the Year cover stars, Alex Marshall & Handerline Morency.

Events at Club Soda Join Club Soda's events at the Tasting Room and online to discover alcohol-free drinks, learn to change your drinking and create connections.

Lots of events coming up this January: tastings at Majestic stores across the UK, plus Wine & Cheese Club, poetry, Queers Without Beers monthly LGBTQI+ social and more at the Tasting Room in London: joinclubsoda.com/events/

Know that feeling 😬 - my family all hate me, cough, cough, coughing. I’ll get some Vocalzone. Get well soon. X

So many nasty bugs around this winter. Unpleasant as it sounds, I’ve been coughing my guts up daily since Nov 22. Hope you get well soon, hun. X

Merry Christmas to you, Nigel.

Love having the family back together for Christmas, but makes me realise/remember what running around after, and feeding, three children feels like. It’s non- stop. Not sure whose fault it is that they revert to little kids again, but I’m loving it… for a limited time. Bloody knackered though. 🤣

Merry Christmas to you and Diana, with all good things for you both in 2025. X

Great article about six great pub landladies in The Standard. A pub is not just a pub. It’s a calling. Thanks to @thedodomicropub.bsky.social for sharing.

Great article. Thanks for sharing Do. Loved the quote about Violet Thompson, first woman to be recognised as licensee: Pubs… were not just a job.They were more like a calling… her greatness as a landlady came from the fact that she believed, with true faith, that a proper pub was a beautiful thing.”

All the best, Ellie. Major change happening in my life too in 2025. Hoping that as a ‘Wood Snake’, it’s going to be a good year for me.

Nice idea. But don’t do what my mum did, put them in albums but with no dates or captions! Old albums were card and she wrote on those, but the newer plastic ones had no space for info.

When print was print. ‘Printing Types’ book from the London College of Printing, now London College of Communication. 1985-1987

Just rummaging through a big box of old photos I saved from my mum’s and old family home. Such happy memories, but wonder whether my kids will ever get to do the same. All my photos are uploaded onto the cloud with only a few printed and framed.

Never easy when family overseas. But thank goodness for tech, doesn’t it make such a difference being able to see and hear from them easily? FaceTime calls with my eldest, when she was in Sydney over the summer, shrunk the distance massively, versus the odd postcard or call, as it was in my youth.

Many a good night out here in the 1990s with various hospitality friends, who used it as a regular meeting place.

Crazy busy on the tubes tonight.

Having listened to Alison Battisby, Avocado Social’s top tips for 2025, I had a go at a vertical video last night. Not sure it’ll win me any awards. 🤣@avocadosocial.bsky.social