Black with ginger please.

[Rosie] I believe I've spoken on this matter on another site, but the crux of the matter is that I'm with you on this one. My pub is licensed until 1am on friday and saturday, but I close at 12. Customers need consistency, and they need to know where they stand. On very rare occasions, I will stay open until 1am, but that is for the likes of our football team's annual prizegiving, and they all know in advance. They tend to leave about 12.30 anyway though. If the pub has 50 customers one friday night and you stay open the extra 30 minutes, what happens next week when there are 45 customers. You make yourself an immediate target for bickering. If you going to take punitive action, may I suggest you let the gaffer know before you do so, as he may not notice. He also might be more likely to change his ways in advance of losing custom.

[Rosie] Your other question. No, there is no variation in cost that tallies with what your licensable activities are. You do, though, open yourself up to a much bigger can of worms in the matter of your neighbours and their potential objections.

(Phil) I think the manager may have seen sense, though not through customer persuasion AFAIK, because there is now a completely new regime after less than a fortnight of this arbitrary stuff and the pub now has a 24-hr licence all week and is advertised (in the bar) as being open from midday to 11.30 a.m., the half-hour closed being apparently to put a few things in order each day. There is no mention of management discretion on the notice. Does this mean I can stay there drinking, probably alone, until 4 in the morning (say)? What on earth is the point of that because Carshalton is not exactly Soho. I'd like to know what's going on but the barman (not the manager) couldn't help, or wouldn't.

[Rosie] Have you been in the bar since Monday then?

(Phil) Sanity has prevailed with the appearance of yet another regime in which closing time is 1130 (pm) except Friday and Saturday which are midnight and Sundays which are 11 pm. These are modest extensions to the original times. The manager could have kept his itchy fingers off the keyboard and printer until he'd made his mind up but all's well that ends well.
(pen) Shurrup. Wha' if I 'ave? :-)

Over here one has to move pub to get different closing times, it's all according to the type of licence issued, i.e. whether or not the licensee is able to have live music. Very strange but one gets used to it.

Hmm, looks like this site is about to become target for a lorryload of spam. Will need to think about tightening up the security I guess.

In the meantime, you might want to check the status of our latest building project.

[rab] Nice lav ;o)

[pen] That one's on its way out. The new one is sitting in a box in the spare bedroom.

[Rosie] Glad to hear you have stability again.

maith fthmri fuqv ktndamcs yetxq latids umgjkyftd

So nice to see we have visitors from another galaxy.

I thought it was one of us posting from a palm raspberry thing straight after emerging from the dentist's surgery.

(pen) :-)

Nice dusting of snow this morning, oddly, more in front of than out the back of the block.

Noting a slot and the date, does anyone have any inspiration for an advent-themed game of MC?

[Tuj] Done. Can you wait up until midnight to make your move? Sorry if that was a bit rude...

[pen] I knew someone would be able to hatch my half-idea =) thank you!

[Tuj] You're going to have to wait another day for a morsel of chocolate. Softers just got today's.

Sorry to interrupt, but I need to get a message through to rab and the firewall here is stopping me posting to OMC/N&Q at the moment. I'm seeing a nod problem with the index page here at MC5. The names and moves displayed on it are not the same as those showing last in the games themselves. Is anyone else seeing this, or is this confined to my proxied-by-idiots world? Am I living in pre-cached hell again?

All looks fine here, Stevie.

Looks like a caching problem at your end, but I've resynched the index with the game data anyway.

[rab] *sighs* Okay. I'll resign myself to never seeing the site in it's real state then.

I could try adding the appropriate http header to try and request a non-cache.

See if that works.

[rab] Seems to have fixed it for now. Clever, you.

It's almost a week since anyone said anything, so I'll break the silence. I think I've moved into the 'finishing off projects' phase at work before my last day in the office on 23 December. How strange this is...

Not at all unusual if you are a proper professional, pen, which I assume you are.

I'm definitely demob happy now. I'm finishing off other people's jobs and bringing mince pies into work. I don't even like mince pies that much.

It gets very quiet in here over the weekend. Does that imply that most of mc5s posts are posted when the poster ought to be working?

[Knobbly] I am shocked, shocked to hear such a suggestion!

[knobbers] How very dare you??!!

I'd really like to express my hurt at the suggestion but, since I'm at work at the moment, I can't.

[Knobbly] Now look what you've done! Everyone is too ashamed to play any more. There has hardly been a move in any game for two days.

Shhh! Some of us have work to do, keep the noise down.

BOO! .....apologises to neighbours.....

We've had a lot of dealings with tradesmen recently. None of them too disastrous (although there is still one job outstanding in the bathroom, scheduled for 8am tomorrow). But when something really good happens, I get so pleased. Our roofer was scheduled to check a few things out tomorrow morning in advance of the down-tools period (I had visions of a waterfall coming though the extractor fan on Christmas day). He phoned me up just now saying "I'm in the area, shall I come now?"; leapt onto the roof, found everything that was wrong with it and told me it would be thirty-five quid to fix. It was done in about the time it took me to get to the cashpoint and back.

Oh, and when I told him that one of his rivals told us we needed a whole new roof, he looked at me like I was mad and said, "Nah... this one will last about 20 years".

[rab] Is your bathroom fixed now?

This is my last day at work...

Woken by the telephone at ten o'clock this morning. Augh! The four best hours of the day lost in slumber, never to return! Oh well, I doubt if anyone else is at work today.

[Raak] I'm trying to plan a night off on Jan 2nd. It looks like it might work -)

[Raak] I'm still at work... Can't afford any time off, as I need all my leave for the imminent arrival of a new addition to the family. So I'll take this opportunity to wish a Merry Crimbo to everyone at MC5!

Happy wotsit. I'm obliged by the cult of Jobs to tell you this comes via my Father's iPhone.

Phew, Christmas successfully accomplished in the traditional manner. The Windy Miller is, this moment, accompanying the AA man in their attempts to get the car started, in anticipation of driving back to the Netherlands tomorrow. I have a chicken curry simmering on the hob, and was until a few moments ago, studying a book of Heath Robinson illustrations. Next, we will play with the new kitchen-windowsill weather monitoring station and see if we can't find out how to turn the outside temperature up a bit.

(pen) Move here. You may "glow" a little.

Monday, 2 December - the third consecutive day with a visit from the AA man. Today, they are taking the car away to a garage to be fixed. The advantage is that I get to spend extra time with the Windy Miller (we went to the cinema to see Australia last night - our first-ever cinema date. Marvellous cinematography, probably a lot of it CGI, but sh*t writing - maudlin, predictable and worst of all, it had Nicole Kidman in it). The disadvantage is that he is getting impatient as he has work to do back at home.

I'm packing, and moving. Moving and packing. Eek!

[pen] You have my deepest empathy.

[CdM] Ignore Pen, it may not be great, but her way of seeing Australia is a lot less bother than yours.

[pen] It's a new beginning - sounds exciting. I enjoyed my 2 years in the Netherlands and would probably have stayed longer except for my ex.

hajoqpr budr znbq zoaidfeum cbrglknov mtsjiaex bveowfzyt

Very cryptic, Duj :o)

I wonder if epjlqroab nfpaub is the same person as zbchk bnud from back in November?

[Knobbly] Don't be ridiculous, the names are completely different from each other.

I have two chairs and one lamp left. Everything else has been sold or is in boxes. Even my bed will sell on Ebay today, and a mate with a garage will sell my car for me. Lummy.

So you weren't joking when you said you were leaving, pen. :o)

[penelope] Where will you be living? Will you be using only public transport once you move? I've never been to Holland but I understand they have invested heavily in public transportation.

Has Film Club run it's course, or does someone else want to suggest a new subject for it?

[SM] Public transport? Heavens no. I will be riding a stately omafiets, a birthday present from my schatje molenaar.

[penelope] Would that be a bicycle, horse, moped or skateboard?

It's a 'granny bike' - big wheels, sprung seat, upright handlebars, luggage rack and shopping panniers, enormously comfortable and particularly suited for flat places.

[pen] In my my experience the wind always blows in you face whichever way you are cycling in Holland, making the traditional bikes hard work.