Poor wee doggie!!

Any chance of a small bowl of mild ale?

Poor wee doggie, left out of the pub! This is the back entrance to the Gold Cape, a very nice Wetherspoons place in Mold, North East Wales. We've been here many times before and the beer is consistently spot on, we've had good grub here and have recommended it to many folk as an excellent example of the Wetherspoons' philosophy, i.e. great ale presented in comfortable surroundings. OK some town centre Wetherspoons can be a bit busy later on a weekend evening and others look as if they're catering for elderly lost souls who want to have an early beer and a chat with their mates - but what's wrong with that? What's wrong with this is that it's the area where smokers come out to have a bit of fresh air and previously we've had no problem taking our dogs to sit out there while we enjoy the fine ale. On this occasion we were confounded, as was Skip! The little notice on the left of the gate says 'No Dogs' and, as we arrived, within seconds a manager came out and insisted poor Skip had to stay outside on the road. Shame! We have been living in Chester for a while and the pubs compete to provide the best service for customer's dogs - bowls of water, biscuits and cuddles are no problem whatsoever and the enlightened landlords and landladies obviously compete vigorously for this important sector of their business. C'mon Tim Martin - give us a break!

Need a St Bernard really!

The following night we sneaked into the Cellar Bar in Chester (with Skip of course!) to find an eminently suitable beer on the bar - this was a tasty dark ale from Snowdonia. Very appropriate as the following day I was marshalling at the top of Craig Cwm Sillyn in the Cwm Pennant Fell Race, a British Championship mountain race near Porthmadog. I'd asked the race organiser if he need ed any help and he'd only posted me at the top of the second highest peak at over 700 metres. I went up the week before on a gorgeous day and could see the whole 17 mile race route mapped out before me. Well on the day it was a complete waste of time taking my binoculars as, for the whole 3 hours I was up there I could see about 20 metres. Still it was good to see the runners - I blew my whistle every 30 seconds and my ACME Thunderer reliably kept them apprised of my whereabouts. Nearly 300 of them struggled over the top towards me - this pic is of the organiser himself - I had 3 layers on at the time and was decidedly chilled.

Are there you are Martin - good to see you!

And just a final photo from slightly further back shows how tough the terrain was - this is Victoria W from Denbigh Harriers looking quite cheerful considering. And as a postscript.......the mountain rescue team were not needed after all.

Is this the new running track?