[The Chippy Challenge: to eat more fish and chips in 2014; see original post for details.] Fish: cod Sides: none Evaluation: Not oily, perhaps too close to room temperature and could have used more vinegar but quite palatable.  Besides, I was absolutely starved and couldn’t wait the rest of the ride home…and this was probably the […]

[*kpw = kebab per week for 2013, as noted in an earlier post and the 21st entry for the 2013 Challenge] Starving on the way home last week, I hopped off in Faringdon when I realised the BF2K was open.  I have been here before but never sober or rested.  The chilli sauce and chips were the best […]

[*kpw = kebab per week for 2013, as noted in an earlier post and the 18th entry for the 2013 Challenge] Somewhere over the Rainbow I opened the box to inspect the wares.  The chips were, as suspected, greasy (scooped as they were from some storage area beneath the heated display case where the precooked cod rested–to be […]

A brief meet-up at the Bell in Faringdon turned out to be not-brief-enough as I saw my bus pull away without me.  Hungry, I headed for a kebab but the only place open didn’t have lamb döner…just chicken.  This was very disappointing, at first. The fellows in the One Minute Food House (I’m not sure […]

The run to Faringdon Folly ended and I was floating but famished and nearly every place for snacks in town was already closed; everything seemed to point to kebab and chips.  The doner was tender and tasty but I’ve had better; the chips, however, ruled and the tomatoes and chilis were excellent.  And, as usual, […]

I have frequently run the hills around the Folly (built by the eccentric Lord Berners, dubbed during its construction as “Lord Berners’ monstrous erection” by a local newsman).  It has been two years since the first time I tried to go to the Folly pub and it was worthy of the repeated effort (another example of failed Folly-ing […]

I had to drop off some books at the Faringdon Library and that left me with a half hour to kill before the next bus came along.  The Folly Inn was locked so The Wheatsheaf it had to be. I have read that it is not an especially friendly pub but it is hard to […]

Exiting the Faringdon Budgens with my bottle of chianti for supper just as the bus passed by, I comforted myself with a pint of Cotswold Cider in the Portwell Angel, another basement bar next door to the Old Crown.  The pint was tart, astringent, and very, very good…this was the best cider I’ve had in […]

An explosion in a lab at work late Friday led me to leave a little early for the bus.  As we entered Faringdon, I figured whattheheck? A nice pint is just what I need to erase the memory of the heavily bandaged colleague being loaded into the meat wagon.  The basement of the Old Crown […]

The Duke of Wellington is so local that the customers recognise the shadows cast on the windowsills of other customers coming in.  A fire was being built as I entered and while I may or may not have been the youngest person in there it did have that distinct feeling of crazy old people ruling […]

When I hit Faringdon last year for some runs, I was pleased to find so many good pubs.  I ran up to the Swan on one of these loops and found that it was still being prepared to open (I believe the carpet was just being laid and there were scaffolds and shit everywhere.  Now, […]

The Volunteer is a great pub, one of the best I’ve hit since coming to the UK.  Teeming with punters when the others in the town were wastelands I was greeted by the attractive barmaid and promptly served, then accosted (after a fashion) by another customer who wanted to test her kid’s hearing: “who does […]

Late afternoon, the bar at the Bell Hotel was dead.  Pity, really, as the staff were an amiable lot and they served me up a bowl of chips before I could get two sips of Bishop’s Tipple (a fine Wadworth ale, if ever there was one). The bar and lounge are pretty Victorian with dark […]

I went to Faringdon for a run last week and rather enjoyed the pit stops in the pubs.  However, what really recommends it to me is it is so safe that the police station closes up in the middle of the day:

The Red Lion is in a pretty building with a fantastic garden.  It is kitted out with fine hardwood floors and modern furnishings.  I have to believe that the reason it was so empty was the less than friendly staff. Mind you, I can see behaving as if the foreigner has just pooped on your […]

This is the last of Three hundred sixty-seven Consecutive haikus. Alright, then, maybe this one would have been more appropriate: Woke up this morning. Got myself a beer. Future’s Uncertain, end near. I’m really glad to see the back of the haiku, though.  Some amused me, fair enough, but most were uninspired as, indeed, most […]

The frequency and intensity of my running has increased with the rise in temperature this summer so I find myself ducking into pubs for respite more than in recent months.  Beer and cider are featuring more so than dinner wine in the Daily Tipple log as a result:   BEER DT # Date Name Type […]

Close to racing weight But without the stamina For three miles further. Name: Titanic Ale Over Type: bitter Venue: Old Crown, Faringdon Review/notes: Leg stocks at the Old Crown, and an unusually hoppy beer for a real ale.  Very nice way to wait out a summer storm. [DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here] Monthly consolidations/compilations: January February […]

  I haven’t fallen out of love with the Chippy Challenge despite the distinct slowdown this month.  We had to rent a new house which involves 2½ month’s rent (1½ deposit plus first) and the movers and rent on the place we are leaving (a luxury, but it is very nice to spread the joy […]

[The Chippy Challenge: to eat more fish and chips in 2014; see original post for details.] Fish: cod Sides: none Evaluation: Perfect balance of creamy and flaky fish, crisp but not oily batter, and flavours of the seaside (that, with the recent flooding, is much closer than it normally would be).  Yummy. Days since last: 2 […]