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The Post Lockdown Pub Crawl?

(What will the really small places do?)




The pictured bar is called the Temple of Convenience, usually shortened to The Temple.  It is an old public toilet converted into a drinking establishment and is absolutely tiny inside.  Unless the owners are allowed to serve drinks in the space outside, I'm not sure how it can open on July 4th.  In fact, I'm not certain how any pub or restaurant that isn't large or has an outside space (or both) can operate profitably, or how they will operate.  If I sit facing a friend or colleague, will there be one of those ubiquitous perspex screens between us?  Or will the great British boozer be laid out like a classroom?  Speaking of perspex, hindsight is giggling manically and screaming "Why didn't you invest in perspex?" at me.  I hate hindsight.  It claims wisdom but is not wise.  I much prefer foresight.


While I'm keen to meet friends and colleagues for the first time in months, I'm in no rush to do this indoors.  In fact, the lads on the weekly virtual pub lunch seem to agree on one thing.  Pubs might open on July 4th, but we might as well let useful idiots unwittingly work for us, for free, in the role of Junior Systems Test Engineers.  Being someone who tests stuff for a living, I've been considering test cases for our new employees to conduct on our behalf.  For example:

        Given R < 1
                And time for symptoms to develop is between 2 and 14 days
                And pubs have been closed since March
                And the pubs re-open on July 4th
        When we wait until August the 4th
        Then R still < 1
                And daily infections rates are still on a downward trend.
                And daily death rates are in single figures (if I got my adding up right).

If the above test case passes, then we will likely have a proper get together (aka Great Booze Up Blackadder), but preferably somewhere with a nice beer garden.  From the information we're seeing from pubs already, it looks like booking a table in advance, and continental style table service, will be the order of the day.

© 2020 Jason Hindle

The photos? Taken by me as I've no wish to buy (or steal) someone else's.  Both taken with a Sony A7 II.  Top with the bog standard 24-70 f4, bottom with the Sony's nifty fifty.  Both processed in Adobe Lightroom, using Huelight profiles, and tarted up in Photoshop.
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Location: Manchester, UK

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