Oh, come on, I can't pull the wool over your eyes any longer….we're not in a parallel universe, we're right bang in the middle of the UK in the 21st century and the company concerned is J.D.Wetherspoon.

I'm not quite sure where my love affair with Wetherspoons started - I think in a dark but cosy pub called JJ Moon off the Holloway Road in London - but it has continued unabated over the past few years. I used to get grumpy about various things along the way, for instance I NEARLY wrote a letter asking for family areas - I couldn't see why they had these massive pubs but were missing the opportunity for the Pampers Pound - but they fixed that too. They have even provided a social service for our pensioners - you can't go into a Wetherspoon in the middle of the day without seeing a few grey-hairs scattered round.

Of course the other main pub chains offer similar services, Chef and Brewer are obviously trying to hoist pub food upmarket, but can't quite provide the consistency, the Hogshead after early interesting inroads have all but given up the ghost as can be witnessed by the curious smell of old fat in many of their establishments and Brewers Fayre, well what can I say - if the Nevill Crest and Gun near Tunbridge Wells is anything to go by, they may be serving up the worst food in Britain.

I don't have the space in this article to name-check each and every JD branch, but a visit to their website can help you find the nearest pub to you.

I really wanted to end this article with a journalistic double take - you know the type, "Wetherspoons is great, but…..". Or a self-serving swipe at something - "the loos are shit", but no I can't even say that. Oh bugger it - is it Wetherspoon or Wetherspoons?
Sorry, I know - pathetic. M