It's that time of year, again

It’s that strange time of year that precedes the run up to Christmas, a commercial enterprise that seems to have started whilst we were away on our late autumn, Atlantic cruise. Mrs PBT’s and I are both too long in the tooth to concern ourselves with yule-tide activity, and son Matthew isn’t overly struck on the concept, either.  Working in retail means he is exposed to the madness that is “Christmas shopping” with all the pushing and shoving associated with the frenzy of buying those “must have” gifts. By the time the main event arrives, he is as cheesed off as the rest of us, fed up to the back teeth with Christmas, and the commercialisation associated with it.

If I had my way I’d disappear to somewhere really cold, where they have lots of proper snow, and an authentic “Christmas” feel about the place, rather than endure the damp, draughty and chilly conditions of a typical 21^st century, English winter.  I sound like some old boy, sounding off in the local pub about things not being what they were, even though I’m sure every generation that comes along feels the same. It’s party season as well, with pubs and restaurants geared up for what for them is supposed to be the busiest time of the year.  My firm’s Christmas bash takes place on Friday week and is being hosted by a largish pub at the bottom end of the High Street, in Tunbridge Wells. I won’t reveal the pub yet, but it’s an old established hostelry that has reverted to its original name, after years of trading under a series of daft names, that some trendy, pub company executive thought would appeal to the local “yoof”.

That depends, of course, on whether supplies of potable water have been restored to the spa town, or not, because as many of you will know, Tunbridge Wells has been making national headlines recently, for all the wrong reasons. Local residents have been without water, drinking or otherwise, for the best part of a week due to what can only be described as a “cock-up” of biblical proportions at the local treatment works. There are already reports of pubs and restaurants cancelling bookings, due to the water shortage, at what should be the busiest, and most lucrative time of the year. South East Water are the company behind this fiasco, and I can certainly empathise with residents of our neighbouring town, having experienced a similar shortage earlier in the year. Fortunately, that particular outage, only lasted a couple of days, but it still brought home how dependent we all are on having a clean and reliable source of water, piped into our homes.

I’ve spent much of the day catching up with various outstanding tasks, including some minor maintenance on my car, but the main job I had was renewing my UK passport. Fortunately, passport renewals can be carried out online, and this includes uploading a current photo of oneself. Snappy Snaps, photo shop have simplified this process, by providing a unique code, that links to recent photos taken in the store. In my case, this was last week and have to say that the end result is far superior to those provided by the photo booths we had to huddle in, back in the day. The booths were a regular feature in shopping centres and station concourses, and probably still are to a certain extent.

There is also no need now, to have one’s photo verified by an “upstanding member” of society, such as a teacher, church minister, doctor or similar profession. Quite how these individuals were considered more “upstanding” than us lesser mortals is beyond me, but I am quite glad to see the end of a requirement that really does belong in Britain’s class-ridden past. I lost out on 6 months validity on the passport I am surrendering, thanks to the shenanigans of Brexit, because since that inglorious day, the validity of passports, for non-EU citizens, is a strict 10 years from date of issue. 

To illustrate this point, my current document was issued in Apil 2016 but doesn’t actually expire until December 2026. That additional seven-month period is no longer valid, after the UK deliberately made itself a “third country”. I already knew this, but it was pointed out, when I checked in at Southampton, six weeks ago, prior to boarding our cruise ship. Thanks, Boris, you great big, useless lump of lard, and the same applies to all the other weaselly, Brexit-backing creeps, such as Michael Gove, Jacob Rees-Mogg, John Redwood etc.

I had another disappointment earlier today, although not quite in the same league. Having submitted my online application, I had a bit of time to spare, prior to collecting Mrs PBT’s from her place of work. I had it in mind to visit the historic, George & Dragon, at Speldhurst. My last visit has been in August 2024, whilst completing the final stretch of the Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk. There have been a number of changes since then, the most noteworthy being ownership of the pub returning to the Sankey family. This was the culmination of a story dating back 65 years, when the grandparents of current owner, Matthew Sankey, bought this ancient old inn.

You can read the rest of the story here, but it’s worth knowing that Matthew Sankey also runs a restaurant-cum-pub, called Sankey’s, at the top of Mount Ephraim, in Tunbridge Wells. I was keen to see how things were progressing at the George & Dragon, following its return to family ownership, and with three-quarters of an hour to spare, it seemed the ideal opportunity. I hadn’t banked on being unable to park the car though, but after a fruitless drive around, I gave up on the idea. Too many large vehicles seemed the problem, but regrettably I too am guilty of this, having bought an SUV a couple of years ago. Much easier to slide in and out of, than a standard saloon, especially for Mrs PBT’s who has a few mobility issues, but not much good when it comes to squeezing in and out of tight places.

Sadly, I had the abort the idea, but on the drive back to Eileen’s work place, I thought of at least five former pubs in nearby Southborough, all of which are now sadly closed. All of these closures pre-date COVID and are just signs of the demise of the pub trade across the country. I shall make another attempt to visit the George & Dragon, in the not-too-distant future, but the fact that the car park was full, is proof that the pub is doing alright, now it is back in family ownership.