It was Saturday, we had no specific thing we needed to do, and somehow, we both independently thought:
As I mentioned to a friend by message:
Now, it’s not that mental an idea. Willenhall still has a good pub density, even if one of the best has now gone. It’s well served by bus, and not too far if NWWM don’t manage to run a bus service.
It started to go wrong when we missed a 10 in Walsall Wood. This isn’t a huge problem but it was a poor omen. Still, we made the next one, and found ourselves on a 529.
Which is where the annoyances really started, with a young, but not that young, lady playing 3 second long excerpts from every shit song on her mobile, then conducting a loud speakerphone conversation, then watching some vacuous makeup video, while we all got to share in the audio of it all. I was polite, if not charming.
Off the 529 and into the ‘spoons. We needed lunch, and it’s right by the stop.
Kids running around. Someone smelt of piss. Lunch was shit, as was my beer (which wasn’t my first choice anyway). We left for another nearby pub and sat outside, with more speakerphone action, if not so bad. Onwards, and we visit a new, if unexceptional pub– or at least, it’s been renamed and the last visit was c1991. No complaints here, except the lack of wine.
Final disappointment of the day: The County, a pub I fondly remembered for its atmosphere and several real ales, but in the intervening years seems to have become just another run-down urban pub with football and mediocre beer.