Life is sometimes sort of okay because...

[Spikes]

In Cologne last year, and pretty much all that was on offer was the all pervading local brew of Kölsch
Which may well have helped to shape Hawkmonger's opinion.

Thank Grud for finding the obligatory Irish pub (Hello, The Corkonian!)

[ZenArcade]

If I go into the average bar in Belfast, I am proffered either Carlsberg, Heiniken, stout, Harp, Smithwicks* or if I'm lucky, Belfast Ale (hope I've spelt them rite). No I could go into a wankers bar and get over priced Peroni or a weiss bier, but essentially choice is limited. Germany's a revelation: good beir and food and not at some rip off bullshit price. Z

*King pops'll be along in a few moments to call me a prick.

[Hawkmumbler]

Pity German lager tastes like piss though.

It really doesn't.

Hawkmonger and Cosh have both drank piss - CONFIRMED!

Tastes better than Budweiser (the most vile of lagers).

[Bagley]

...I spot two different pairs of Goonies socks in Poundland. And buy both. For two pounds.

[TordelBack]

How much would it have been for one pair?

Nearly all my old drinking buddies are heavily into 'craft beers' now, to the point that I find the whole thing mildly tedious, despite the fact that I'm the only one of us that brews my own. It maybe an artefact of getting to the pubs so rarely, but I find the pre- and post-match analysis of this ale and that off-putting. Pint of plain, a packet of King, no bloody TV and a spot near the fire, please.

[Bagley]

How much would it have been for one pair?

I could have got them from 99p Stores but with Poundland you're paying for the label. 

[Albion]

Pity German lager tastes like piss though.

Plenty of other beer styles to choose from in Germany.......
http://www.germanbeerguide.co.uk/styles.html

[TordelBack]

Hurrah, my fightin' feudin' flatin' neighbours (they of the on-street racer garage and regular arson attacks) have been evicted.  I don't like to take pleasure in others' misfortune especially in the area of housing (they have small kids after all), but the flood of horror stories from the families either side of them in the terrace that has emerged now the threat of reprisals has moved on makes me very glad I apparently didn't know the half of it before. First decent night's sleep in ages.

[ZenArcade]

We all of course feel for the children in situations such as this, but the adults simply cannot expect to carry on with antisocial behaviour in a consequence free endless present. People like this are an utter blight on the areas in which they exist i.e. working-class areas. Z

[Theblazeuk]

Dutch beer is duff compared to the neighbouring countries. Belgium is king.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

That was a fun trip.

Best bit was the speakeasy that you entered through a food stall. (I'm serious; it's a preserved speakeasy where East Berliners drank smuggled Western drinks).

Worst bit was leaving the speakeasy with my flight in six hours time...

[TordelBack]

Hurrah, my Reaper Bones II Kickstarter minis finally arrived! Such a variety of cool monsters, undead and assorted beasties it's unreal! Just the sight of them all makes my atrophied campaign-writing muscles twitch.

Why only 'sort of okay', you ask?

Was it the €33 customs charge that took the sheen off?  Well no, while hard to finance, it seemed inevitable (it was a 4kg box from the US, they aren't stupid) I was expecting it to be a bit more and had been squirelling change away for the past month or so against the risk.

Could it have been the free gift of a grotty gnarled human fingernail packed in with my Gnolls, Bugbears and Dwarves?  Why yes, that'd be it.  At least I am reassured that they aren't using child labour in that particular Chinese factory.  Zombie labour, that's another thing.

Time to find another kickstarter to back, I think!

[Tiplodocus]

I'm working (well, just finished) and again in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday.

But I can hear Tiny Tips practicing his sax and piano (Gershwin!) and occasionally moving onto guitar.

Talented little bugger makes bad things seem better.

[TordelBack]

Tim Minchin gigs on Netflix!  How did I miss these before now? A boring afternoon of accounts just became hotly anticipated me-time.

[Professor Bear]

I may have mentioned on the board before about the chaps in the downstairs flat whose skunk-and-beer stink has been seeping into my gaffe for years to the point that it ruined the contents of my linen closet - well, one of them started hammering on my door on Sunday morning, and, thinking they'd finally set fire to their place I jumped awake and found he was in a right old state talking about his bathroom ceiling falling in.  I went downstairs to take in this calamity and saw... he had a leaky pipe somewhere or other.  Which he had decided to blame upon me because I was "up there somewhere", and this was the same general vicinity as the leak.  During the conversation, I managed to work the phrasing into something along the lines of "yes, it's terrible having something seeping into your flat from someone else's" but it didn't register at all what I was getting at.
It's really stressing them out, so I hope it is one of my pipes, to be honest, and that the ceiling falls down around the heads of the fucking junkie alco cunts.