Gossip

Memo to the manager of the Mad Bishop And Bear, Paddington: serve beer!

The benefit of having WiFi in Paddington Station is that people want to sit down and eat, and drink, while they log on.

So if you run a pub in the WiFi hotspot area, you get to serve meals to more people, right?

Well, it seems to be a mystery to the staff! I walked into the pub for two reasons. First, I wanted to post a story to my web site  about Paddington Bear (and Niklas, of course) - and my battery was running down, and I knew there was a power socket in the pub.

But also, I was dying for a pint and a plate of nachos, or some ham and eggs would have been good, or a home made beer lasagne would have gone down proper or maybe I'd have preferred the steak, ale and mushroom pie (home made with London Pride cooking bitter) or even the Big Bear Platter with onion rings....

And do you know, I sat in that corner for half an hour, wrote my story, and finally, packed everything up and left, without being disturbed by a single member of the bar staff.

They were being kind, I'm sure. They had plenty of seats, and didn't begrudge me a little voltage to do my work. But kids- I was hungry!

And I could see a hand-pump offering Fullers Extra Special Bitter, staring at me, and of course, I couldn't leave my wretched computer and bag sitting by itself in the corner and go and stand in the queue at the bar...

Society has some adjusting to do to this technology stuff!