Vacant Possession

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Beaumaris, July 1st. 2020

    Interesting times, indeed: I took this picture standing in the middle of the road by Beaumaris Pier yesterday lunchtime. On any normal July 1st. I would have had to stop the traffic to take it. Most places are still closed, but a few have gamely stayed open, operating a kind of takeaway version of their normal business - like the ice cream parlour in the middle of town - despite the weather this week being more suited to stews and baked spuds. Such is life. But the pubs are all making preparations for lockdown-easing at some point, although quite what the experience of a COVID-safe hostelry will be like, I dread to think. Gone are the days of Saturday nights rammed cheek-by-jowl into some foetid beer-hole, shouting at each other over the jackhammer pounding of a jukebox and hoping for 'afters'. Mind you, age has lost that particular joy to us and I can't say that I miss it much. What I do miss though, is a convivial hour talking drivel with like-minded eejits over a couple of pints of decent draught ale in whatever pub we'd decided was our local for the present. If this ever returns, it will be a small but welcome step back to a past, an oh-so-recent-past, that seems very much rosier than our current present. Que sera, sera...

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