The Green Man, Eversholt

So you travelled back in time for this one! Is there no end to your talent?

No, just lucky (sometimes). We had lunch there, and just as we were leaving, over an hour behind schedule (train missed, food took ages to come) this stagecoach turned up. And the sun was out at that moment.

One thing I miss in Spain almost more than anything else is a decent pint of bitter in a decent pub! I'm really not a lager fan! And Spanish bars can sometimes be enjoyable places to visit, but it's not the same!
At least there are some decent wines here in Spain at a decent price to fall back on!

I too have never liked lager. But lager shandy (which I have) with the stuff mixed 50/50 with lemonade, is nice - the sweetness of the lemonade neutralises the bitterness of the lager and vice versa.

Welcome and Thanks for posting your wonderful picture to

www.ipernity.com/group/buildings

Worth missing your train for. Hope there was another one.

Yes - an hour later. Notice anything odd about the pub sign?

I thought straight away that it doesn't look very traditional,
and on closer inspection it doesn't look much like a Green Man.

No, that's right. It (above "The Green Man") is actually Garibaldi, borrowed from a St Albans pub of that name. The real sign on the pub shown is one of those trendy, dowdy, dull, grey, modern ones which we hate.

Perhaps you could play around with this one, though it's the wrong angle.

Not at all. See above. Thanks for that.

Oh, that's much better! Matches the colours of the blankets.

I hope the Green Man at Aylesbury will not be suing you for plagiarism.

I've just checked the original on Street View and it's one of the grossest and most boring grey pub signs I have yet seen, with the green man sliding off the edge of the picture. and the scrawly writing barely legible from a few feet away - the sort of pub you could drive past without noticing it was there.

What is the reason for this trend of turning Merry England into bland mediocrity? I can't help feeling it must have something to do with Liberals and Remoaners who wish to distance themselves from the convivial working classes by pretending to be progressive and arty.

From the convivial of ALL classes.

As well as your sign, something else has been added to this picture, but it's gone unnoticed.

The shadowless man with the beer. I think I prefer it without him.
You could also remove that dark line from the right-hand side.

Better?

Pictorially it's 50/50 with or without him, I agree. But he WAS there, handing a beer to the coachman, albeit a minute after the main picture was taken, so for the coachman's sake I've left him in.

Yep, that's more realistic now. You are jolly clever at doing these alterations.

Thanks. We had dream photographic lighting again today (with beautiful skies) but unfortunately at both places I was - Southend & Leigh-on-Sea and King's College London (it was my 11th wedding anniversary and I go back there annually to commemorate it) there's little or nothing to take.

They have some sea and a very long pier. My father worked in a cafe there and I remember him telling me how he had to ask the customers whether they wanted a long pour or a short pour, as it apparently made a difference to the taste or texture. One of the rare times he ever spoke to me.

As Jesus said: "The pour you will always have with you."

If he hadn't worked there, perhaps he'd have been a father without pier. (Only teasing).

That would have been in the good old thirties, when such things mattered.
No teabags in those days.

1. Nice if we'd been able to choose our parents, but if we had, would those we'd have chosen have chosen us? No one, at least, ever had to have ME for a father, and for that both he and I should be grateful.
2. For me, the tea they made, whether the pour was long or short, is undrinkable. I do occasionally drink tea - for refreshment - but the teabag must stay in contact with the water for two seconds maximum and the (skimmed) milk barely fill a tablespoon. People who drink tea (especially strong tea) to quench thirst need to have it explained to them that the sensation of thirst is the body's way of telling the brain that there's insufficient water in the bloodstream, and that the natural, sensible and most effective way of remedying that is to drink some WATER. I have explained this to people, including my parents, but with as much effect as explaining it to a cow.

1. I think they might have picked the short pour with me.

2. Normal people do drink water with their tea. They like a nice cuppa cha.

1. So you must have performed this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6en-O5yF0o, like a natural.

2. Throughout history normal people have done silly things, unquestioningly assuming that because they were the then "normal" things to do, that they were sensible and beneficial. I can think of many examples.

So says the man who thinks that buttoned-up collars should always be worn with suits.

So says the man who who still has a small amount of dress sense. That includes recognising what does or doesn't go with what. Bermuda shorts and sandals e.g. do not go with formal suit jackets (even if and when that becomes the fashion); nor do open-necked shirts.

Some of the best-dressed news presenters have been known to wear shorts below desk level.

But only (I hope) when they're on camera and those shorts are out of sight. They also, when on camera, wear makeup on their faces. Would it therefore be good taste for them to wear it at other times?

Make-up tastes yuk wherever you wear it: like having to kiss my auntie's powdered cheek.

"Yuk" just about sums up having to kiss and (worse) be kissed by relatives. Bad memories.

But you were such a cute little boy.

I'll take that on your good authority. You do well to remember me from those days.

I remember your photo, dear boy. You must have been all of two or three.

You remember taking it? I would have been too young then to be aware of your doing so.

But seriously - to subject a child, however cute, to forced physical intimacy, forcing him to kiss or let himself be kissed when he dislikes it, is (or was) child abuse, and to demand that he show affection (whether he feel it or not) to people to whom he merely happens to be related is mental abuse, and resentment of it can last a lifetime.

Then I must have been a seriously abused child, as I didn't feel affection for ANY of my relatives, but just accepted the kissing as part of the ritual. It wasn't the intimacy that bothered me, so much as the mouthful of stinky face powder, especially whilst not yet recovered from my car sickness.