Kien Tan

Retro @airportarchitecture.byerussell.com again!

While we sit around to find out how bad exactly it all is, a bit of cheer: the best baguette of Paris competition was won by a Sri Lankan who appears to have started as a dish washer in restaurants and eventually trained as a Boulanger.

www.paris.fr/pages/la-mei...

That's... very average, given they have so many taps. What a shame.

Coffee kiosk outside John Lewis, branded as Topshop

Topshop at John Lewis coffee menu

Page from Topshop newspaper showing a woman in a trenchcoat, with a 20% off flyer next to it

Page from Topshop newspaper showing a selection of ladies shoes

👠 Not sure a coffee kiosk is the best way to advertise TopShop (nor whether John Lewis is the most obvious stockist), but you gotta admit those prices are keen: £38 animal-print sandals, £120 trenchcoat, plus 20% off.
Like all Gen Xers, I hope TopShop & TopMan get their mojo back soon!🤞

Express headline: “brutal Arctic freeze” to hit UK

14 day forecast from Weather.com showing mild, spring-like temperatures well above freezing

Context: some journalists are paid in clicks and the Express is notorious in eg forecasting blizzards with a 1% likelihood as “fact”

Tweet saying "as a child, the greatest airport terminal in the world" with a photo of a maze of escalators in a futuristic-looking circular concrete space

🛫 Stolen from the other place, one for @airportarchitecture.byerussell.com ...
IYKYK!

I know I shouldn't fall for the clickbait, but...

...yeah, this just confirms that Home Bargains will be closed on Easter Sunday (but open the following day 🤦‍♂️)

@economybeyond.bsky.social this has your name written all over it! 🍜

Indeed they were! 😋

4. And not one but two visits to the Queen Charlotte... A dangerous discovery, and a godsend in an otherwise barren part of Fitzrovia (pub-wise)

Enough distraction from politics yet?
Happy Friday!

Two pints of pale ale, some peanuts and Scampi Fries on a pub table

A pint of cask beer on a pub table

3. Oh, and The Pocket's sister pub and Giles Coren's favourite (but don't let that put you off!), a couple of pints at the Southampton Arms.
Sorry they are blurry - consumed after a long day at the hands of the NHS, so that was why.

A pint of cask beer on the bar counter

A view of the length of the bar at The Pocket pub in Highbury

2. Can you believe the Pocket in Highbury is less than a year old? Always a well curated and well kept selection: that's a delicious pint of cask Tartarus DDH pale ale from Leeds, but also had an excellent Saison from Balance and a Cold IPA from Queer

Two Chimay-branded glasses below a Chimay tap badge

Two pints of cask beer on a pub table backlit by a candle

🍺 As a timeline cleanse of all that politics, and while waiting at a hospital (because NHS), I'm going to post some nice pictures of beer I had this week...

1. A cheeky few pints at the Sutton Arms... Hard to drag yourself away from the best cask in London, but it was Belgian beer week, so:

🚌 For buses “Increased journey times calculated to be less than a minute”…

I mean, I don't know her, but I'm guessing she would have less objection to foreign students if they were German or Canadian...

Why is Britain educating China’s scientists? Elite universities have more Chinese than British students taking Stem courses, which smacks of reckless self-neglect

Wow. I have some sympathy with the argument that Britain should be supporting STEM courses, but how xenophobic is this column? Apparently Chinese students are "not the same as Canadians or Germans" because they might be Communists 🙄

Oh thank god, I thought it was just me... When will Boots go 3-for-2 on allergy meds, because I CANNOT WAIT 😫

I'm blaming @pollymackenzie.bsky.social for this! 😒

…at least for their A380s.

Never thought any airline could make the Uglybus lustful, least of all Lufthansa, but here we are.

Ok, for an otherwise bland airline, that’s quite sexy…

🤦‍♂️ This is what happens when you get AI to produce your article…

View of the River Thames to Tower Bridge at sunrise

🌅 Don’t forget to look up on the way to work this morning

Harry, you have a unhealthy fascination with Gregg's Insta...

Where are the balloons? 🎈
Diamond club doors, unlimited Amicelli, and a bottle of Villa Monte Vibiano finest Italian ̶p̶a̶i̶n̶t̶ ̶s̶t̶r̶i̶p̶p̶e̶r̶ wine for you! Have fun in Spain 🥳

Tweet from March 2023 waiting for a bus at LHR

Follow up tweets, still waiting for a bus at LHR

While the LH example was bad, it's by no means unusual - eg waiting 2 hours for a bus after IROPS a few years ago, because all the bus drivers had gone home despite delays meaning loads of remotely parked passengers were still arriving

It was 1 daily when MH first started the route

QR did this when MH first started on the route, and after a while added the flight back, so you had a choice of 2 different airlines on the same connection bank...
QR: QSuite sometimes, dine on demand, Diptyque, Starlink maybe
MH: Vantage 1-2-2, satay, private satellite transfers, check-thru baggage

Pint of Burning Sky Plateau cask pale ale in a jug on the bar counter at the Queen Charlotte pub

Pint of cask Five Points Best Bitter in a jug on a wooden table in the Queen Charlotte pub

🍺 No, YOU just discovered that the Queen Charlotte (formerly a Br**dog Draft House, but now sister to the Blue Maid in London Bridge) serves £4 pints of cask and core on Sundays, and is conveniently - and, some might say, dangerously - located between the gym and home 😑

I know he's a bit marmite to the folks on this here blue sky, but this Matthew Syed piece is a good read if you want to know what's going on outside our metropolitan capital bubble.
And all I see from our politicians (all colours) is sticking plaster rather than any diagnosis or path towards a cure.

"This wasn't what we voted for!" 🤬

Oh but it was, Karen, it was. Should've read the small print, hun.