When one door closes another opens.

Original visitors to this website and people with good memories may remember that I used to do custom Lego figures. My proudest ones have been of popular Vegas Vloggers Matt Bridger, Kevin Alderton and Mark Anderson.

Below is an example of some of the stuff I used to do.

I do still have the means to do more Lego but over time requests dried up and I stopped promoting it. I am down right terrible when it comes to obsessing then getting bored and my attention span in laughable. I remember the term MTV generation being used in the old days but I guess now TikTok is there for us who can't concentrate for more than 30 seconds.

Anyway, I digress.

Posting videos after every Vegas trip was going to mean just one lot of vlogs every year and for how long that was going to go for I had no idea so to fill in the gaps between trips I would vlog day trips, 'staycations' and also during the holiday seasons I decided to try different food, concentrating on anything unique.

Over time people would send things for me to try but at the same time the channel was getting confusing and thinking I'm an expert at YouTube I thought the lack of clarity would affect the YouTube algorithm and I would possibly lose viewers who really only wanted to see Vegas content.

That's when I decided to split the channel and create one with a really catch name. It was decided the name Master Taster may get me in trouble so I went with Bates Tastes.

Sometimes getting AI to design a logo is not the best option

Did it help the Black Country Vlogger channel? I've absolutely no idea but splitting it would mean we could target the videos to the right audience better.

Yes, the number of subscribers is tiny but some subscribers send stuff in, suggest things and the feedback is really good - especially when I drag Dad into the videos. If anything, the Bates Tastes channel has helped Dad cope with the loss of Mom as it's a welcome distraction for when times and days become difficult.

I hope the Bates Tastes channel will grow and develop, it was suggested to go to restaurants and review them or record us out and about eating, reviewing etc and that may happen but I still struggle to feel comfortable filming locally (think North end of the Strip by the Strat and you'll get a rough idea what Wednesbury is like). But for now I'll continue to try and taste different things and sometimes go for the crazy hot or sour but I'm not doing anything Bushtucker trial related - even I can't stomach that.

It would be greatly appreciated if you could take time to check this channel out as well as my main Black Country Vlogger channel and spread the word.