Verbatim: Pilsner Urquell. 14/5/08, 330ml, $3. At work, trying to write a beer list for “Paris 2.0”. So this is an audition, really. Five stars in the bible. Good, flavourful pilsner. And it’s the original. So full marks. Too bitter for Chloe, but she can see it’s a good’un.

Afterthoughts, October 2010: Ah, “Paris 2.0”, what a great example of Told You So you are. I worked at a pretty-horrible pseudo-British pub for a while (while back at uni, initially) and when it was eventually sold the I’m-not-kidding genuinely-mad woman who bought it sought to resurrect a mid-nineties Wellington staple that had fallen from fashion and was eventually scuppered for insurance money (leading to the pseudo-British place taking its spot). I told them it was a bad idea, but did my best to give them a Notebook Full of Good Ideas Certain to be Ignored. Ignored they were, and the place lasted mere months before being scrapped again. But that did lead to me getting a better job…

(“The bible” refers to one of Australian writer Willie Simpson’s books.)