Hi all. It’s been a while yeah? Apologies the blog has gone quiet. I’ve had loads on and little writing time. Not complaining though. I’m really happy with life at the mo and that’s not always been the case.

Yesterday was St George’s Day. The national day of England and one of my favourite days of the year. As is the norm it’s English music only as I was getting ready and this time “Sense” by Lightning Seeds, “Death” by White Lies, “Magic Hour” by Cast, “Vice” by Razorlight and “Nothing Matters” by The Last Dinner Party were the choices. The latter of those I’ve really got into this last month and I’d love to sing it at karaoke despite it being performed by a female. Be interested to see if any ladies make eye contact with me while I’m belting out the chorus line of “and I will fuck you like nothing matters.”

I headed to town and first mission was to visit Eclipse Records, now located just inside The Crossing At St Paul’s Church building next to the bus station. This independent record shop is owned by fellow Walsall FC fan and all round top lad Pete Holland. He’d had something made specially for me so I popped in. Pete wasn’t about but his daughter was serving who was friendly and welcoming. We had a decent chat. Music along with Walsall FC, pubs and me is one of the subjects I can talk about all day. Turns out we both have “Acquiesce” as our favourite Oasis song. You can checkout the Eclipse online store here eclipse-records.co.uk

From there it was off to Jack & Ada’s for a superb full English breakfast and then the gym. Now at this point I need to mention that I have booked off St George’s Day when it has fallen on a week day every year since 1993 but this is the first time that the gym has occurred on this most magnificent of days. It was a routine visit other than finding out that it is quite tricky trying to hold in a fart when you are on level 5 of the treadmill. Normally I’d have unleashed it but a lass had rocked up on the machine next to me and there were no other suspects in the vicinity.

Last up was ASDA. I love shopping and if I had the money I’d do it more often. I’d heard the Heinz were bringing back the cheesy beans so you can imagine my excitement when I saw a shelf full of cans of them. This joy died when I saw the price. £1.80 for 1 can. I was very angry but still grabbed a can for research purposes. Although who am I kidding? Had it been two days after payday rather than 2 before I’d have probably cleared the shelf. The cheese they use now in them is Cathedral City. If you’ve ever wondered which city this refers to it is Wells in Somerset. I know this because I am sad and have absolutely no life and researched it once in case it came up in a pub quiz. Which it hasn’t. I also bought a tube of BBQ Pringles because on the Monday morning Absolute Radio Breakfast Show during the “is it weird that I?” feature, a lass had messaged in saying that she eats Pringles upside down as they taste better that way and I wanted to test this.

Something occurred to me whilst using the self service checkout. Since the rise of these machines you no longer get the kids football teams offering to pack your shopping. Is that still a thing? Although last time I used this service it didn’t go well. I paid the £2 and let them get to work while I had a flirt with the checkout lass. It was only when I got home I saw the horrors within those bags. Items just chucked in. Heavy things on top of bread. White plastic bottles in with mixed colours. It was carnage.

I got home and did a bit of work in the back garden. Josh and his wife Lyndsey had been around the previous day and cleared all the chainsaw debris from the previous year which I was very grateful for. Lyndsey had even neatly placed the to let sign back in the neighbours garden which they had thrown into mine after moving in. Nice to see it go back where it came. Who knew to let signs have boomerang qualities with just a bit of encouragement?

It was pub time. First up was Black Country Arms. Kim’s daughter Holly was serving. She is ace and I hadn’t seen her for ages so that was nice. A few fellow Saddlers were in so conversation flowed along with the ale.

The Tap & Tanner had put out a Facebook post advertising their St George’s Day event, with Strongbow and John Smiths at £1.75 a pint. It was never going to be John Smiths but the Strongbow appealed to me. I love The Tap but barely use it nowadays. The last few visits the service hasn’t been great and the last time was when I went to meet Kev Paddock and Dan Gilbert. Kev gave me £20 upon arrival and said “get the round in”. It took that long to get served that he thought I’d done a runner with his cash. So tempted by the cheap offer I headed in. I got served straight away and forgot the offers ordering Inch’s instead but it was really good.

Next up was Katz. I’d done an event in there on Friday night where I’d delivered over 3 hours of anecdotes about my life to a group of friends. Colin on the bar had helped to set it up and it was nice to have a chat with him about how it went. He said “you’ll have to do another one”. A couple of folk have asked for a second one too. I then came up with the title. “Anecdotes Night II. Return Of The Twat.” I just need some material now.

From there it was the Walsall Arms to meet one of my best friends Woza. The regular Tuesday afternoon karaoke was on, hosted by the amazing local singer Carla Yates. Kerry the lovely barmaid was on looking resplendent in an England football shirt, and the wonderful landlady Jaz was also about being her usual delightful self. I mentioned that I was doing a blog and requested a picture. This turned into quite the photoshoot as Woza tried various angles and distances and Jaz did quality control checks until we got one that she was happy with. Cheers Jaz.

My favourite beer Lemon Dream was on and a buffet was on the bar which was very much appreciated. As is normal for when I meet Woza he couldn’t get a word in as I talked non stop for a good half hour. But we had a good time, planned future blog missions and I even told him an anecdote I’ve never told anyone which was cut from Friday night.

We called it a night about 9pm but what a day it was. Same time next year St George yeah?

P.s Pringles don’t taste any better upside down.