Welcome to Issue 5 - I hope you enjoy it!
Good-time Charlie is an irregular newsletter containing items that I hope will be of interest you, our readers. It is based on eating, drink, music, fun stuff and well … good times!
Good-time Charlie
As we wallow in the depths of Lockdown 2.0 with a sense of déjà vu, we have some tips on things to keep you busy and in good cheer.
Starting with the number 300 then moving on via pottering and beer to an art project that I have been saving all my life, just for a moment like this - Lockdown 2.0. The Boy Scout motto of “Be Prepared” also extends to having a side hustle involving Verarschung - the German word for “fooling around”.
300 Tools
Invented and made over 100 years ago, in the US, by organ and piano maker H.O. Studley – this beautifully crafted Tool Chest that is every chaps dream acquisition for his shed.
Keep your tools - handy
300 Corkscrews
The evolution of the Corkscrew over the past 300 years is a book tittled Uncorked by Marilynn Gelfman Karp and photographed by Jeremy Franklin Brooke which explores her collection of corkscrews
Opening Time - again
Who would have thought that just pottering about at home or in your shed could be such a road to spiritual well being that some has written a book praising it and helping you to up your pottering game!
Potter On – And Keep Calm
Now for the real meat and potatoes that everyone likes … some beer related banality and DIY brewing - what is not to like?
Read about the fruits of the labours of man obsessed with beer mats! Sad but true - however a good beer mat is a thing of beauty, if only to catch the drips on the bottom of the glass.
Drinking – is an art
If you are suffering the effects of missing out on fresh draught beer during these sorrowful times, the Pinter comes to the rescue. An easy squeezy homebrew solution that seems pretty easy to achieve good results with little or no mess!
The initial set up price for the hardware and enough specially formulated ingredients to brew 20 pints of your choosing is £75 but replacement ingredients are a reasonable £10 to £15 for 10 pints – depending on beer style chosen. £1.00 to £1.50 a pint and plenty of DIY feel good something or the other – handcrafted by my do-hickey in the box. Sterling stuff indeed!
Lockdown never seemed so good and with the signposted ‘stricter tier rules’ coming along in a week and a half, this looks a good alternative to the sometimes welcoming but often somewhat lost, officious and sullen bar staff I have encountered in the ‘happy carefree New Normal times’ between Lockdown 1.0 and Lockdown 2.0.
Santa, I have been an almost good boy – so ship them in!
Here at Good-time Charlie we have been getting prepared for Lockdown 2.0 since the end of Lockdown 1.0. Toilet rolls, pasta, rice and wheat beer fill every crevice of Chateau Good-time. Now is the time to feel that one’s time has been invested wisely and not wasted (as the Stoicic’s would say) with something to take away from the latest Lockdown – an art project:
Collage images were produced at the well appointed art studio of The Romford Beach Club and here are the first results – a set of six grouped under the heading Postcards From Heaven – Series I
Try and enjoy them!
Are you ready – to be disappointed?
Marilyn with Butterflies
Your Courage
Carnaby Street with Roses
The Girl with the Diamond Earring
Revenge of the Killer Butterflies
Marilyn with Roses
Well that wraps up Issue 5, until the next time … thank you for your support.
All complaints to the usual address.