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This morning I had my next round of chemo so spent the morning sitting in a nice warm hospital whilst all sorts of chemicals were dripped into my arm. The only problem was the lovely volunteer lady who brings us cups of tea and nice sandwiches was not in so I needed sustenance when I met up with Gill at lunchtime. And then we discovered a queue outside our favourite Japanese restaurant so we had to have Beefy Boys burgers instead.

On Thursday night whilst listening to some excellent music in the Vaults (Geoff Ockenden who played base for my 60th, his wife who is a brilliant pianist (they are both professional musicians) and their children aged 12 and 13! The 13 year old is a very good drummer) a friend mentioned a Community pub in Shrewsbury. Being a community minded person I suggested we walk to it for a pint after our lunch, as you can see in the picture the sign says "Very Open" and guess what, it was closed.

Walking back via pub which was open I came to the conclusion I didn't like the idea of a community pub in town as there are lots of pubs run by dedicated landlords trying to make a living so the locals setting up in competition is not helpful. They are a great idea in a village which loses its one and only pub but not here.

So we supported the real pub about 100 yards away which served a fine pint of Timothy Taylors bitter and had a framed copy of my favorite Bernard Levin monologue. I don't think Bernard had any connection to Shrewsbury and I doubt if he visited pubs so perhaps it is also a favourite of the landlord.

The picture at the top of the page is by an architect called James St Clair Wade. He is slowly recording every street in the centre of Shrewsbury and of course selling the prints to all the home owners. He has a couple of good reviews, Debbie Harry who bought one and was delighted but the stand out reviewer who I guess did not post her review on Amazon said:

"These Drawings are masterpieces of minute detail."
Elizabeth R

We are now established in our hotel and are off for a posh celebration dinner in a restaurant called Rhubarb, do you suppose they serve it with custard, I do hope so.