It’s been a while since my last post on this blog and I’m sure there are no surprises as to why that is. As I sit here writing this on Sunday 2nd August 2020, it’s been nearly 19 weeks since the ‘lockdown’ in the UK began (my apologies to Prime Minister Johnson and co. who may protest otherwise, but I’m counting 23 March as the start date) and just over four weeks since the pubs reopened. I hope I can be forgiven for having limited my trips to the pub since reopening and, when I have mustered the courage to expose myself to the ‘invisible mugger’ that has been patrolling this country’s crowded places, for having opted for something a little bit stronger than lime and soda to get me through.
Covid-19 has, for want of a better phrase, fucked a lot of shit up. And I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve had a job, somewhere to live and stayed healthy throughout all of this so far. Others have been a lot less fortunate. Right now the world doesn’t really need another lime and soda blogger to give the latest hot take on what’s good and what’s not in the world of cordial and fizzy water. At times, it feels like we need a miracle. Speaking personally, I'd also settle for competent leadership and a sense of togetherness.
I will spare you lengthy reviews for now and for the foreseeable future. At least until I have carried out enough of my government assigned ‘patriotic duty’ of pumping my wages into the flailing British consumer economy by sitting in freezing cold beer gardens on rainy English summer evenings, gulping down pints of lager mass produced by companies who need my financial assistance about as much as my two pint hangover needs me to commute into the office ever again.
It feels like we’re living a half-life at the moment, a diet life if you will. We can still do a lot of things we used to do: shopping (wear a mask!), eating out (at the time of writing a Big Mac is £1.60 thanks to the Chancellor), travel (besides to Spain, Luxembourg or most other countries in the world), going to the gym (if you don’t mind becoming a semi-professional cleaner whilst you’re there) and visiting a friend's place (unless, as of two days ago, you live in most of North West of England) but none of it is as enjoyable as before, or at least not as easy.
It’s as though we’ve all walked into a pub, gone up to the bar and ordered a pint of the green stuff, hoping to be refreshed, and been told that there’s only sugar free cordial and the soda is off because that morning’s delivery never arrived. The delivery driver was off sick.
I assume we’re going to get through this but assumptions are worth even less at the moment than in better times. I would also like to assume that there are some people, unlike myself, who have resisted temptation and stayed loyal to the nation's favourite non-alcoholic beverage during the difficult past few months. So here's to you, the loyal lime and soda drinkers.
Cheers and stay safe.
