Get to the pub.com

By the way...

• There's a great irony about the Sunday dinner pub, (which I neglected to mention when I blogged about Sunday dinner pubs. It's that even the dinner, Sunday or otherwise, is usually shit. But today my in-laws took me to the Speckled Hen in St Albans for lunch, and it was great. A sort of bean curry thing with skewered paneer. OK, so the beer looked so unappetising that I didn't even have a pint. The food, though - excellent. I'm still in shock.
• At the University Arms, people form a linear, post office-style queue at the bar, rather than just nudging in where there's a space and waiting for their turn. I don't know whether this is down to the physical layout of the pub or the cerebral nature of the clientele. But it's the only pub I can think of where this happens. What about you?
• At last I've taken my first peek inside the Bath Hotel since Thornbridge came in. As the brewery promised, there've been no major changes to the decor. The lick of paint that's been applied isn't even Thornbridge Green – it's a sort of slate grey colour. House beers accounted for half the handpumps, with the remainder given over to a decent enough selection from around and about (including Oakham Citra – hop addicts' flavour of the month). One aspect of the Bath Hotel that's survived the takeover, but which desperately needs replacing, is the hand dryer in the gents'. This is roughly as effective as lifting your hands and asking an asthmatic nonagenarian to wheeze on them. Any chance you could get on to that, Thornbridge?