I had one of my better ideas last night. Possibly because it was Wednesday evening, I was feeling rather nostalgic for university, thinking about the Wednesday evening discos in the campus bar. The nights when I used to dress up and go to brandies now seem a lifetime ago; the building itself will have been demolished by now, or soon will be. That thought made me rather sad – my friends and I had many a wild night there, many of which are recorded in the archive of my blog. However, it was then that I was struck with an idea: why not create an online version of brandies? Of course, it won’t be the same: it is impossible to replicate the alcohol-fuelled chaos of a student bar on the internet, but that’s how the Facebook group ‘Virtual Brandies Bar, Alsager’ came into being. I’m quite pleased with my creation – it already has about eighty members, probably mostly former MMU students just as nostalgic as me for the place that was, at one and the same time, the best and worst bar on earth. I’m pleased to say that my online friends have reacted very warmly to the online echo of our old campus bar, and I hope they use it as a place where they can reminisce, swap stories and keep in touch.