Black Country news and blogs Saturday 21 July 2018
Pig Blog
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A Sad Loss 
Pig Blog 17 Jul 18
I was greatly saddened to hear from BrownhillsBob that we have to say goodbye to The Plastic Hippo , a man who made the local blog scene so much the richer.
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Arrival
Pig Blog 23 Apr 18
Saturday involved, after sorting a couple of household things, a beer trip to meet Andy & JC.
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Bearing up under the strain
Pig Blog 13 Mar 18
So, I decided to go and take a look at the nicely refurbished Ogley Junction Bridge , and hopefully cross it and get to Chasewater, extending my recent short rides .
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There Is No Cloud
Pig Blog 7 Mar 18
there is just someone else’s computer .
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No More Beyond the Northern Wastes
Pig Blog 22 Feb 18
With the reduction of subsidies from Staffordshire Council , our relatively recent discovery of Chasetown and Burntwood as places to drink and eat looks like it will end in April, when the NXWM 10 bus route stops going further than Brownhills at off-…
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A Slightly Longer Spin
Pig Blog 30 Jan 18
I’d finished work early to get a broken coil spring fixed on my car (the bodyshop visit having prevented me being organised and getting the MOT done with more time to spare) and the MOT retest done.
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LMGTFY
Pig Blog 24 Jan 18
A minor intertubes annoyance of mine.
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Breaking the System
Pig Blog 2 Dec 17
I’ve been in hospital again.
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Bell Ends
Pig Blog 21 Aug 17
[Title shamelessly stolen from here ] So then, Andy wonders why i have no faith in the political system.
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In the Hall of the Greene King
Pig Blog 17 Aug 17
So, there was a bit of work needed at an office in Bury St Edmunds- a bit of network diagnosis and install a ID card printer.
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Diesel Do
Pig Blog 1 Aug 17
So having had the emmissions-test cheat mode removed from my car, I was interested to see on BBC Watchdog ( everyone’s favourite combination of fuckwits and whingers ) that there seems to be a growing number of complaints following the “service …
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Watching
Pig Blog 29 May 17
I happened across a tweet from CPMG last week,and retweeted it (amd, indeed, responded to it with both a reply and by completing the survey (which I’d encourage you to do).
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Festival -1: Walsall Beer Festival
Pig Blog 9 Mar 17
Sad to hear that this weekend’s Walsall Beer Festival is off: Urgent announcement.
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Chilly Out
Pig Blog 5 Jan 17
I realise it’s winter, but tonight’s cold snap surprised me: I got changed, got gloves on, and got the bike out, and then when setting off had a surprise: the front gear mechanism literally would not move, and investigation found that it was …
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Thirteen
Pig Blog 1 Jan 17
This blog has just passed it’s thirteenth birthday, and we’re at the start of a new year, a year that’s to be honest, brought little to be happy about in many ways: the loss of many celebrities (and for once, the word celebrity is actually …
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Taphouse Tour: Summary
Pig Blog 28 Dec 16
The Taphouse Tour is over, and here’s a summary: Name Score The Duke William 9.75 The Old Bulls Head 9.37 Green Duck Brewery Badelynge Bar 8.75 Beacon Hotel 8.66 The Fountain 8.44 Hail to the Ale 8 The Sow and Pigs 7.525 The Park Inn 6.98 The Windsor …
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Taphouse 10: The Old Bulls Head
Pig Blog 28 Dec 16
Pubblog Link */?> Whatpub Link Brewery Site Taphouse 10, again with a brewery actually onsite- Black Country Ales.
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Make Tech Difficult
Pig Blog 12 Dec 16
One of the things non-techies hate about tech is the complexity of setting some things up, and the rise of IoT , and the ubiquity of smartphones and home broadband has meant that our homes have more and more tech, and that tech is expected to talk to…
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Some you win
Pig Blog 4 Nov 16
Time I blogged a bit more… A week of differing days: starting with a very long day, and a failed Internet connection and firewall migration (which had to be reverted), followed by another late finish, followed by a hospital appointment with a long …
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Out for a Duck?
Pig Blog 5 Oct 16
I note that The Drunken Duck in Walsall Wood High St is closed and looking for a new tenant, as a business opportunity, and this is probably the time that I can say it was the pub behind my pub lifecycle post , though the concept applies elsewhere.
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Taphouse 9: The Windsor Castle Inn
Pig Blog 24 Sep 16
Pubblog Link Whatpub Link Brewery Site Taphouse 9.
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Taphouse 8: Green Duck Brewery Badelynge Bar
Pig Blog 24 Sep 16
Pubblog Link Whatpub Link Brewery Site Taphouse 8, this time more the bar on the brewery site rather than a brewery on a bar or pub site.
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Taphouse 7: The Duke William
Pig Blog 24 Sep 16
Pubblog Link Whatpub Link Brewery Site Taphouse 7, again with a brewery actually onsite- Craddocks.
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The Pub Lifecycle
Pig Blog 16 Aug 16
Some thing I’ve remarked upon with friends but not really covered here before now is the seemingly cyclical nature of some pubs; Andy has mentioned it in a number of posts, and we’ve probably caught pubs at different stages of the cycle during …
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A Noise Annoys
Pig Blog 28 Jul 16
Last night, I was a little later home than other days, and my dear other half suggested a visit to the pub for tea (for those of you of a posh or southern disposition, that’s the evening meal).
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Taphouse 6: The Park Inn
Pig Blog 23 Jul 16
PubBlog Link Whatpub Link Brewery Site Taphouse 6, again with a brewery actually onsite- Holdens.
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Taphouse 5: The Beacon Hotel
Pig Blog 23 Jul 16
PubBlog Link Whatpub Link Twitter Taphouse 5, with a brewery actually onsite- Sarah Hughes.
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Beyond the Northern Wastes
Pig Blog 7 Jul 16
In the over 20 years I’ve lived in Walsall Wood, near to the 39x (previously)/10/10A (now) bus route , I’ve probably only caught the bus northwards towards Brownhills a handful of times, heading instead towards the bright lights of Walsall, and …
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A Personal Win
Pig Blog 22 Jun 16
I’m writing this on the eve of the EU referendum.
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A Tale of Two Crap Towns
Pig Blog 12 Jun 16
We’ve been away, and as I still didn’t fancy the long drive required for Scotland that we often take at this time of year, we went a bit closer- Morecambe.
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Taphouse 4: The Gunmaker’s Arms
Pig Blog 23 Apr 16
PubBlog Link Whatpub Link Pub Website Taphouse 4, this time it’s Two Towers ‘ taphouse.
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Police State?
Pig Blog 19 Apr 16
I was both intrigued, pleased, and disturbed in equal measure by this post from the blog of West Midlands Police Traffic .
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A long, slow death…
Pig Blog 15 Apr 16
and a very welcome one.
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Self Serving
Pig Blog 23 Mar 16
Is it a necessity that if you design a self-service till for a shop, that you must fuck up the UI so badly that it’s totally unusable? I’m a techy.
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Taphouse 3: The Sow and Pigs
Pig Blog 19 Mar 16
PubBlog Link Whatpub Link Pub Website Taphouse 3.
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Walsall Beer Festival
Pig Blog 10 Mar 16
It’s beer festival time! Walsall beer festival starts today at 5pm, running until Saturday.
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Bristol City
Pig Blog 7 Mar 16
We went away for a few days, and my better half suggested Bristol.
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Grand
Pig Blog 7 Mar 16
Our trip to Bristol saw us head through Birmingham New St.
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Taphouse 2: Hail to the Ale
Pig Blog 13 Feb 16
PubBlog Link Whatpub Link Pub Website Hail to the Ale! The second taphouse, keeping us on target! A bit more involved logistically, but not too hard.
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Taphouse 1: The Fountain, Walsall
Pig Blog 31 Jan 16
PubBlog Link WhatPub Link 100Pubs Link Given that The Fountain is an easy one to get to, and well loved by everyone on the 100 pubs tour, it was a ideal start for our taphouse adventure.
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Taphouse Tour
Pig Blog 31 Jan 16
Following on from last year’s 100 Pubs adventure , we decided on a twist in our ways to drink too much contribute to the pub trade and have a bit of a giggle.
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#100pubs2015: The Finale
Pig Blog 31 Dec 15
We did it.
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That Time of Year
Pig Blog 21 Dec 15
No, not the festive season.
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#100pubs2015: The Home Straight
Pig Blog 20 Dec 15
Despite a hangover (from all of four pints, FFS) on Saturday, I managed to get my errands done in time to get out by bus and meet Andy in Walsall for the start of another push at 100pubs2015 .
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Getting The Turtle’s Head
Pig Blog 13 Dec 15
Yesterday saw us at the Brownhills Christmas Market mid-morning, and having beer forced upon us by the nice chaps at Backyard .
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Not So Swift
Pig Blog 19 Oct 15
I bought a Swiftcard , because it seemed like a great idea.
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Diesel & Whine
Pig Blog 18 Oct 15
I was feeling like I’d missed out on the requisite quantity of dieselboners this year, so I was pleased to note that Aston Manor Road Transport Museum had their final running day of the year today, even if I did have to befoul my computer with …
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Near Beer
Pig Blog 8 Oct 15
We’ve been away, to Seaton , as I didn’t fancy a long drive to Scotland just yet , so the M5 beckoned.
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School of Hard NOx
Pig Blog 23 Sep 15
Oh dear, VAG seem to have cocked up , huh? The fact that the EPA in the US caught them gaming the system with emission testing is interesting, and given that they face a huge fine, and the CEO Martin Winterkorn, having recently ousted Ferdinand Piech…
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Let’s Rock
Pig Blog 10 Sep 15
Or not.