Awaiting the bus, I find I’ve got WIFI access (University offices nearby, I reckon).  I got a nice nod from a Brit in New York yesterday (PR guy and he’s on painkillers right now, so take it with a grain; still, he is responsible for projecting a half-naked Gail Porter onto Parliament awhile back so [...]

Si bene quid memini, causae sunt quinque bibendi; Hospitis adventus, praesens sitis atque futura, Aut vini bonitas, aut quaelibet altera causa. ———Henry Aldrich, 1647-1710 † This is Part 2 (February 2012) of my monthly review of wines…Part 1 is here:  The Horse of Parnassus (January 2012). There was a cold snap at the start of [...]

One of the guys at the Crown told me about the former Bell Inn recently renamed the Barbury Inn to take advantage of the name recognition of the nearby Barbury Castle.  I was still thirsty so I ran the half mile to it despite already changing into my dry clothes; this was a good move [...]

Another hour of running in some beautiful weather through gorgeous landscapes brought me to Broad Hinton.  My map showed a pub down a byway and I found its garden jutting out onto the horse trails making up the path.  Friendly punters at the bar swarmed the first stranger to pass through with the appearance of [...]

It was a gorgeous day for June, and since it was actually a Sunday in February I made the most of it.  Sunny, relatively calm, and temperatures hovering around 12-13°C mad for perfect running weather.  I hopped off the bus at 11:55 in Devizes and, rather than wait around 5 minutes for the pubs to [...]

The Botley Road Kebab Stand is known for its fine chicken kebabs and decent falafel, but I fancied a bit of shoarma so got a doner meat and chips at the end of my run.  This chilli sauce was grand, the salad ( I just had tomatoes, cabbage and chillis) was fresh, the doner light [...]

I don’t have a hashing problem, I can quit anytime.  Last night I went to the start and didn’t hash, so get off my back. The Oxford Hash was running trail from Oxford Brookes University and I had never been in a campus bar there so jumped on the opportunity.  Two ales available and the [...]

This is a pretty standard Greene King franchise pub, and by franchise I mean it looks indistinguishable from any other pub of it’s sort.  Pity, as the structure is really nice and the staff attentive.  But, they also appear to have firmly corporate training and the decor screams that it was picked from a very [...]

At the end of the run that took me to the Royal George (may she R.I.P.) and to Riff’s Bar (my new favourite despite the beer selection) I was entering Wootton just as the bus was leaving but it was a good thing as I headed to the Cooperative to do my dinner shopping the [...]

Listen up Athens, GA and Austin, TX peeps: you have a challenger for the Surreal Rock Bar in a Backwater of the Year Award.  I was 9.5 miles into a Sunday run and spotted Riff’s down the road toward Wootton Bassett and, although I was fairly certain it only opened at night, I decided to [...]