Blog on the road … 3

Almost as promised, we report from the Wetherspoons pub in Weston-super-Mare, less well known as the Dragon Inn. Our live report ambition was thwarted, as the wi-fi internet was out of action. The Dragon Inn is one of these huge town centre pubs, as are most premises of the pub chain Wetherspoons. It was a busy night, with students and youngsters dominant, probably due to the lower prices charged there, and probably as a warm up stop before moving onto the various nightclubs in town. Smoke free, music free, cheap prices, and large choices … that’s the Wetherspoons trademark.

Wetherspoons have gone to great lengths and expense to accommodates its smokers, and its backyard beer garden is now very much the smokers domain. They have installed heat lamps, large rain proof canopies, tables, chairs, and ashtrays to make the smokers comfortable. Despite being a cold, wet, and windy December night, all the tables were occupied, mostly with young smokers, who seemed to intermix across tables as a group of social outcasts. All in all, trade seemed to be booming inside and out.

So it seems that Wetherspoons are one of the winners in the smoker-poker controversy, having made the effort to keep everyone happy. It’s a strange turn of events really, as Wetherspoons chain had tried before the smoking ban last July to introduce no smoking pubs and no smoking zones inside its pubs, which pretty much failed, with customers opting to stick with the smoking areas. Unlike the ‘country’ type pub we tried the previous night, which had a wooden bench and a small canopy, which appeared quite uncomfortable.

Does & Dont’s of Smoking:

You can’t smoke outside and drop your cigarette but = €110 fine (may vary regionally)

If you are a Member or Parliament, you can still smoke at work (perk of the job for the legislation makers?)

You can theoretically still smoke herbal cigarettes in pubs and public places, though in practice it could have problems.

You can take your motorbike into a pub and leave the engine running, as long as you don’t smoke.

You can take snuff in a pub, as long as you don’t sneeze over a burning candle.

You cannot smoke in football grounds, and you cannot even smoke outdoors at Bristol airport.

If you wanted to invent tabacco flavoured crips, beers, and other drinks, you can consume these in pubs.

After 3 nights of extensive research and ‘blending in’, extreme weather (extreme cold, gale force winds, and heavy rain interspersed with even heavier rain), the blog team are yearning for a return to Madeira, but we will stay to see the task through [As an incentive, perhaps someone would be kind enough to provide a Madeira weather report?]. Tomorrow we will have a Madeira special story, so don’t miss it!’

www.madeira4u.com