Archive for the ‘cider’ Tag
Warmest regards to Fatty from Tucson for spotting this beer label (if anyone knows where to get Fat Tire in Swindon or Oxford please get in touch)
It has been a good run — one of nearly 6 years, nearly 1300 different pubs, a few marathons and a bunch of halves (and shorter races), good entertainment, fulfilling work, and a couple of laughs. But, it is over … at this address, anyway: I’ll continue on in much the same vein at the Endless British Pub Crawl (continues) but this site will just be an archive for the first 1292 pubs and memorial to itself and a lot of ill-advised fun that went into gathering the material herein.
I want to do a retrospective of this blog’s 6 years but it deserves better than what you have before you. Them’s the breaks…here it is in tedious detail.
In 2177 days, there have been 2537 posts. Of those, 1292 were specifically for 1st time pub visits, 367 were for last year’s Daily Tipple (with added Haiku), 210 have been for the Chippy Challenge and the Kebab Challenge, and 169 were for the 2012 Yellow Beer Challenge. The remaining 499 involved running, mocking the serious beliefs of others, laughing at the weak, bitching and moaning about one thing or another, obituaries, and other things that serve to strengthen my bona fides of Britishness. According to WordPress, these pages have been visited just over 350,000 times…get a life, losers.
Most frequent pub names so far (and how many of each):
43 Red Lions
24 Crowns
22 Ploughs
19 (tie) Bells, White Harts
15 Greyhounds
14 (tie) Black Horses, King’s Arms, Queen’s Heads
13 (tie) Rose and Crowns, Swans, White Horses
Best names: Five Mile From Anywhere No-Hurry Inn, Far From The Madding Crowd, Cafe Rene, Sally Pussey’s Inn, The Bee’s In The Wall, The Roaring Donkey, Who’d A Thought It
Fuck that place: The Angerstein Hotel, The Woodman Inn, The Black Horse
Personal favourite pub write ups: The Chequers in Cottenham, hangover after a night in the King’s Arms in Ely, handing the puzzle over to the Dog and Duck in Linton (Cambs), the Crown in Penzance (a low-key 25th anniversary), the Glue Pot in Swindon after my first Wildcats Hockey match, the Blackfriar in London (not so much the write up as the architectural details), and the Rose and Crown in Chippenham for the fantastic people watching. Certain there are other decent ones but this list contains the two or three I’m really pleased with.
Other pubs worthy of mention (good or bad):
The Red Lion in Southampton for architecture and Henry V connection
The Hop Inn for the locals’ alternative names
The five Red Lion Run back in 2010
The New Inn, Blists Hill (a historic museum town)
The Goldfinger (accidentally found Ian Fleming’s grave on run to this one)
The Blue Boar, Aldbourne (Dr. Who link)
The Blind Beggar, Whitechapel (Kray Brothers link)
The Red Lion, Aston (a town of ‘tards)
The Brass Monkey, Teignmouth (George W Bush on their sign)
Wernham Hogg’s, Slough (The Office tie-in)
The writing isn’t brilliant but it was never meant to be stunning. I have occasionally stumbled into something I’m happy enough with (to mention here) but never anything I would attach a real name to. Some of those are:
“What a Bunch of Dicks” (September 2011)
“Our Ex-Neighbours” (September 2011, with links to the whole saga)
“Risk Assessment: Proper Use of Bins” (October 2012)
“British Citizenship Exam” (November 2012)
“My Pet Leeches” (September 2013)
“Me and the Queen” (June 2012)
It wasn’t all drinking and knob jokes. Occasionally I ran, sometimes quite a lot (although usually whilst stopping regularly for drinks and to tell inappropriate knob jokes). I even race a bit with some of my favourite racing efforts here:
Grunty Fen 1/2 Marathon and general thoughts on the finisher’s medal (September 2009)
Snowdonia Marathon pub crawl (October 2009)
The River Run — Cantabrigiensis HHH (October 2009)
New Year’s Eve 10K Little Downham (January 2010)
Historical notes on the 30 Pack Marathon (April 2010)
Thame 10K and morning chunders (June 2010)
Florence Marathon (December 2010)
Bupa 10K plus bailout for the London Hash (May 2011)
Run For Heroes 5K or thereabouts (August 2011)
Chippenham Half with a sponsored pub stop (September 2011)
Swindon Half whilst hitting every pub within 1/2 mile (October 2011)
Cricklade Half + 8 mile warm-up (October 2011)
London Marathon pub crawl (April 2012)
Great British Beerathon Like the 30-Pack only smaller and including food (August 2012)
Great Bustard 5 or getting there’s half the fun (July 2013)
Beat the Bore at Night (September 2013)
Malmesbury Carnival 10K done twice to hit some pubs after (August 2014)
Isle of Wight Marathon pub crawl (October 2014)
11:58 My big head notwithstanding, this is the Joe Strummer Subway
In fact, I started the blog for people in the States that already knew about my running idiosyncrasies (i.e., running to get to a bar, drinking heavily there or at one or more other bars, then running home). So, for them the “racing” entries are no surprise nor are some of the other efforts, which I enjoy as much or more. These three Birthday runs are typical:
2010
2013
2014
I also used to ‘hash’ before I found the one true way; my life as a hasher came long after I started drink-running (and drug-running, for that matter) and that it has become just a passing fad baffles some of those folk although I still encourage hash virgins to go to a hash as a kick start to Hashlam. I would, indeed, encourage all of you to go hashing at some point.
We saw some good shows and bad shows and some shows. I saw Springsteen in the Atlanta Fox Theatre in the 70’s but Jackie never had so we booked a trip to Maastricht to fix that…and it was awesome. We causght Neil Young in Hyde Park and Paul Simon there as well another year. Two of the best shows were Lloyd Cole in Stroud and George Thorogood in Cambridge, and you can’t go wrong with the BeatHoles.
Tourism ideas:
No trip to Wales is complete without a ride down this highway. (November 2009)
Find out why they refer to Oxford as the City of Dreaming Spires. (September 2010)
You can wait for English Heritage or the National Trust, but the loving family fits their own plaques (like this one to Arthur Stanley Eddington). (August 2011)
If you get to Germany, indulge in the local folklore like the Bremen Musicians. (June 2012)
Nothing is more fun than old buses. (June 2014)
Get out on the street furnishing trail, maybe starting with post boxes. (November 2014)
And, to be serious, here are a few ideas for London.
Recipes and food:
A friend that travels in China sent some delectable menu items to look for but I still haven’t found them in any Chinatown restaurants. On the other hand, you can find the most interesting spices in the Caribbean markets, here.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day so you shouldn’t shy away from complicated recipes like this one. Or, as an alternative you could start your day with one of these.
There were, of course, a lot of booze recipes, but these are worth the efforts involved and better than the pictures would suggest:
Lupini
Cassoulet (one of several versions blogged herein)
Rabbit
Finally, no look back wouldn’t include obits. Mostly, I obitted people I don’t know but knew of but on occasion I actually had a relationship with the deceased (Rest in Peace, y’all):
Vic Chesnutt (December 2009)
Bus Job (October 2010)
Andy Holden (whom I did not know but feel a special connection to, January 2014)
This blog (January 2015, which you are reading right now)
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 of the DT entries themselves were. The tyranny of the daily post is not conducive to creativity in many of us (or, at least, in me).
Raw numbers (ignoring today and 31 December 2013):
144 Beers (of which there were 60 bitter; 22 lager; 10 stout; 9 pilsner; 8 mild; 6 each of blonde, golden ale, and porter;5 IPA; 3 dark ale; 2 ‘other’ pale ales; and, 1 each Belgian ale, Belgian brown, brown, dark IPA, dark pilsner, IPA/mild, and weissbier).
21 Ciders
5 Perry
1 Cider/Perry mix
4 Ginger Beer
166 wines (of which there were 122 red, 18 white, 18 rose, 3 Champagne, 3 other sparkling, and 2 port)
24 Booze (6 from Drunken Bunny Liqueurs, most of the mixed drinks experiments from Mr Boston)
The number and volume of Gin and Tonic is highly underrepresented, as was the beer but you had to choose one thing per day.
Location, location, location:
Pretty much the homebody, 221 of the DTs were in our house (43 in Eastcott, the other 178 here in Old Town). My pub visits tend to come in flurries of 4 or 5 on a run (therefore on the same day) and those were underrepresented. Because of some overlapping categories, this list won’t add up to only 365:
221 at home
130 British pubs
4 Bremen Germany pubs
2 pubs in Holland (one of which was also a Coffeeshop)
5 in restaurants
4 outside
1 beer fest
1 Church
1 dog track
As far as towns go, 256 Swindon, 57 Oxford (or very close to work), 5 Bremen, 2 Holland, and the balance explained by the multiple pub visitations, next paragraph/list.
Four Candles, Oxford: 20
Far From the Madding Crowd, Oxford: 6
White Horse, Oxford: 4
Steam Railway Company, Swindon: 4
Greyhound, Besselsleigh: 3
Red Lion, Marston: 3
White Rabbit, Oxford: 3
Savoy, Swindon: 3
Hop Inn, Swindon: 3
Beehive, Swindon: 3
Old Crown, Faringdon: 2
Prince of Wales, Shrivenham: 2
Messenger, Swindon: 2
Clifton, Swindon: 2
76 others.
Thirteen of the Daily Tipples were in the beer category with 12 pub visits (6 of which were Wetherspoons, 5 of those were the Four Candles). The highlight of the month had to be tasting the finished batch of Two Cures, though, with the worst experience of the bunch the very disappointing trip to The Lighthouse:
.
The Chippy Challenge dragged until the last week of the month but there were some spectacular examples (Crispy Cod and Robinson’s Traditional Fish and Chips) and some crimes against cuisine (Marmaris and WingLoon House):
.
The GHadHHH had two minor trails this month, one each versus the Oxford and Moonrakers hashes, both night efforts. More importantly was the treatise on IntifadHHHa and CalipHHHate differences in this confusing era of global Hashlam and its various pretenders.
Pub count: this month only added 8 more pubs to the total and all of them came on runs. Started the calendar year with 1197 and the blog year (19 January) with 1201 so it is shaping up to the weakest effort of the 6 years so far but at 1280 I hope to hit 1300 before the end of 2014.
I felt like I was finished with my run and there wasn’t enough time to do any ‘normal’ tourism so I turned off the run tracker and popped in the first pub that attracted me. The Pig and Drum threatened SKA and reggae on a window poster and had Pink Floyd blaring Comfortably Numb out the doors.. sold.
Inside I found a staggering array of cider pumps and ales in the sparse, warehouse-like room. The bar lady was friendly and efficient and the guys hanging out were a laugh. The music was what you might call classic rock but very good choices of it in my opinion (some Stones but from Let It Bleed, and unusual choices with regard to Van Morrison and the Clash, as well); the sound system was crisp and quite loud. It is the pub I wanted to have when I was 18 years old, and now at 52 it taunts me with the banner that I could have it if I really wanted:
While the Brewery Inn was relatively empty, the bar itself was rammed largely due to the charming and agreeable landlady running the show but also, to some degree, because everyone at the bar was a friendly sort to begin with. Unable to push close enough to read without my glasses (too fogged, smeared and dripping with rainwater and mud from the mucky trail I took from Bowerhill to use), I pointed at the last pump handle and asked, “is that a cider, madam?” “It is, indeed,” she answered instinctively louder than the guy sitting in front of the tap who volunteered, “ooo, aye, a fine cider that one, young man.” I think that’s what he said, as it all came out as a single word. It turned out to be Cheddar Valley Traditional cider, which Mr NoSpaceBetweenNotes pointed out used to be made by a small brewery but is now part of the Thatcher’s collection but is still the same formula as always and in some ways the quality control is better although ’tis sad to see the small ‘uns sell up [spewed in 3 seconds flat in his otherwise delightful West Country drawl].
With my legs caked in mud and cow shit and my shirt soaked in rain from without and sweat from within, I moved to a table to check out my route and cause less offence. Encroaching on others was not seen as a problem by the parents of the two little boys who kept tossing a cushion around and then crashing into my table with increasing ferocity. I drank up faster than I had planned (this otherwise would have been a good house in which to linger) and as I was returning my glass heard the erstwhile father character say to one of the boys, “calm down, now, you might hurt yourself.” Muttering my thanks to the lady of the house I added, “yeah, they’re definitely on the road to injury;” a two count and the guys at the bar started laughing and wishing me well for the day and to return soon.
New pubs to the blog count, all on two day trip to IoW
At first glance, October seemed a month of two halves — the first healthy and spry, the last stinking of death and decay. Yet, closer examination reminds me that I’ve been ill more or less constantly since the 10th of the month despite making the Isle of Wight Marathon trip, another cancer surgery (and spillage from the same), and having a busier than usual month at work. The weather has been spectacular, I’m told.
I added 11 pubs to the count entirely on the two-day trip to the Isle of Wight Marathon. Two new ones appeared in Oxford (old ones but with major refurbishments and name changes) but they will have to wait until November. The best of the new additions has to be the Red Lion in Southampton, but you could do a lot worse than The Crab and Lobster Tap (Ventnor), The Traveller’s Joy (Northwood), or most-up-my-alley The Painter’s Arms (Cowes).
The Daily Tipple list accurately represents the beer consumption for the month with a little more than half favouring darker varieties like stout, porter, and mild. Choosing one per day was really the hard part as almost every new pub mentioned above supplied local brews that I have never tried before and the Swindon Beer Fest introduced 7 beers and 3 ciders new to me (and scores more I didn’t get around to):
The Fish and Chips Challenge was in a lull partly due to the ongoing medical problems and partly due to the remoteness of new venues and my ability to reach them. My spreadsheet updates my days-per-fish rate and the minimum number for the year (based on one every 7 days until year-end) after each fish. The average of these two appears to be converging on 124.9 for the year (let’s say 125). I’m going for a pub fish and chip lunch when I finish this post, so this looks like a fairly good prediction.
The G-Had has started to make an impact. In October, the site had more hits than in all months prior combined. It also led to paranoid behaviour by North Wilts HHH when they tried to pretend a run wasn’t going to happen and then came up with a clever (but easy to defeat) trail marking plan to foil the IntifadHHHa. With local attention piqued and health poor, the war became one more of propaganda than contact but a fresh scalp was added courtesy the Isle of Wight HHH.
Also, the subtleties of the Intifad-HHH-a versus a Calip-hhh-ate became a matter of record, over on the G-Had HHH site.
Pretty sure that I had done every pub in Chippenham, I was pleased and surprised to find the Buttercross Inn. Even more so that they had stacks of cider boxes to choose from…we were drawn in like gnats. Very nice couple running the place, but still familiar…then it struck me: this was the Four Seasons in another life. It looks really good both inside and out. Music accompanies the cider fest this weekend (26-28 September 2014).
Oh, right, the house employs a character I first encountered at the Rose and Crown (one of my favourite pubs in town). Here’s a wee story about Bambi.
The folks in Tucson
Can write their own jokes this time.
My sole comment: wheeeeeeee!
Name: Fatty’s Farmhouse Scrumpy
Type: cider
Venue: Buttercross Inn, Chippenham
Review/notes: 50 ciders to select from, many over 7% abv but none a proper session tipple. How to choose? I went for the inane grin on the red face of the bald, round head before I even saw the name. I should buy a lottery ticket this weekend.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
One at 3-to-1
While my other three greyhounds
Loped in next to last.
Name: Somersby cider
Type: cider
Venue: Abbey Stadium greyhound track, Swindon
Review/notes: Totally functional cider. I broke even on betting after four races so two of these were my entire cost for the day…result! Decided to walk it off and head back to the house for an early supper. First time at the afternoon meeting, definitely not the last.
If you want any tips, feel free to ask. This is the dog I had the most faith in…came in fifth:
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
A relatively busy month just passed. Here’s the short version (somewhat longer versions available in the blog).
Ten new Chippy Challenge entries include the southernmost and westernmost, circled here:
At 91 for the year so far, I predict a year-long tally of about 125 (definitely more than 109 and up to, at the current average rate, 137). The venues themselves were:
#
|
Name
|
Where
|
Date
|
Venue Type
|
| 82 |
Three Goats’ Heads |
Oxford, Oxfordshire |
01-Aug |
Pub |
| 83 |
Dolphin Fish Bar |
Calne, Wiltshire |
02-Aug |
Chippy |
| 84 |
PCR Cafe, Dept. Of Physiology |
Oxford, Oxfordshire |
08-Aug |
other |
| 85 |
Fish and Chips Takeaway |
Bath, Somerset |
10-Aug |
Chippy |
| 86 |
Seafoods |
Bath, Somerset |
10-Aug |
Chippy |
| 87 |
Buckles |
Chippenham, Wiltshire |
16-Aug |
Chippy |
| 88 |
Cove House Inn |
Isle of Portland, Dorset |
18-Aug |
Pub |
| 89 |
The Old Harbour Fish and Chips |
Weymouth, Dorset |
19-Aug |
Chippy |
| 90 |
Bobby’s Fish and Chips |
Swindon, Wiltshire |
23-Aug |
Chippy |
| 91 |
Golden Dish Fish and Chips |
Malmesbury, Wiltshire |
30-Aug |
Chippy |
.
Of course, the Daily Tipple trundles along easily and the Haiku are not yet becoming repetitive (albeit, enough of them are entirely derivative). We drink a lot of wine seems to be the take home message of the DT:
.
With a bit more travel than normal this month, I was able to add a few new pubs this month, bringing the blog total to over 1250 with 20 new ones this month. The new ones, few though they are, are shown here and, easier to see, on the map link:
My running mileage is nothing special (170 miles this month) looking back over the previous years, but it is back up to a sustainably middling-to-long-mileage level. While still short of the planned 2015 ramp up (I’ve got some upcoming surgery that will slow things a bit), I’ve got a good baseline level of fitness for the advanced (and ever-advancing) age.
Largely due to the extra mileage and the aforementioned local tourism, the G-Had is starting to bleed into new realms and I have a few potential recruits (although they may, just as easily, become hashers). The missions completed in August hit 3 sites with new attacks against Bristol HHH and Wilton HHH. Taken from full map at http://goo.gl/maps/aR9JU :
Nearly 15 miles into my run and 5 minutes from the bus stop, I had 35 minutes to kill as I crested the hill into Malmesbury. The Three Cups was there to my left and it would have been rude to pass it by.
It turned out to be more sports bar than anything else but a friendly crowd inhabited it and I wound up talking to a fellow runner who had done his first race that very day (the 10K I was in). He seemed very excited about the whole thing and yet a bit perplexed by my methods.
Oh, bonus today: saw Manchester United draw 0-0 with some bottom of the league table team. Or, should I say, some OTHER bottom of the league table team…still winless three games into the season.
I forgot that I signed up for the Malmesbury Carnival 10K until I received an email reminder last week. I also forgot that upon registration for the event I was given the option of personalizing my bib number. When I went to pick it up, the guy ahead of me had put down “Mel Gibson,” prompting me to mutter, ‘jackass,’ under my breath. I gave my name and the volunteer retrieved my number whilst reading back “Pub Crawl.” Jackass, indeed.
We started beneath the Abbey but you really couldn’t see it from the start and it was at your back or obscured by houses after the horn blew. The race I ran was pretty disappointing on its own merits: I didn’t even break 45 minutes, the race was chip timed, and the field was small so I cannot blame starting at the back of the pack (maybe I lost 30 seconds filtering through the crowd in the first kilometer but no excuses…I was capable of sub-40 but really couldn’t ask myself to try that hard).
So, I cleared the finishing mat and was confronted by the mayor, herself, hanging the finishing medals on all comers. It was mortifying but it would have been rude to decline and I was able to remove it once out of the tent and moving on toward my fish lunch.
The next step was to live up to the Pub Crawl label and to extend the daily mileage by hitting all the pubs within a short detour of the race path (linked here). This resulted in a net 15 miles with stops at the Red Bull, the Cat and Custard Pot, and the Horse Guards before a valedictory beverage at the Three Cups. There were still a few stragglers coming in on the B4040 as I headed out and an intermittent-to-steady stream of cyclists but, largely, I had the quiet roads to myself.
Lazy day today.
A short run, some household chores,
And pommy soaked steaks.
Name: Sheppy’s Vintage Reserve Oak Aged Somerset Cider
Type: cider
Recipe: Two frying steaks (sort of like breakfast steaks back home) marinated a few hours in about ¼ cup of fresh pomegranate seeds, crushed, with a splash of Viet Namese fish sauce are flash fried and served with chips and a fresh salad. Yum.
Venue: house
Review/notes: Good cider, really pick up the vanilla from the American oak (Bourbon) barrels.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
July
Magic Roundabout
A terrifying structure
As is it’s namesake.
Name: Circle Cider Roundabout
Type: cider
Venue: house
Review/notes: Circle Cider is fantastic (the company, not the product). They take windfall apples and create truly local and artisan ciders that, despite the great idea, are a bit gamey and even a foul. I’ll still try the others as this one started to grow on me about halfway through but I wouldn’t rush out for it if I were you.
It was a day of high expectations dashed…I picked up this record at a thrift store based entirely on the goofy cover. A word to Winnie: next time try less honky and more tonky. This would have been a lot better on the Hammond organ during an ice hockey match.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
July
Imagine Cruising:
A new unicorn mascot?
Or, rainbow flag shirts?
Name: Sandford Orchards Rhubarbed
Type: cider
Venue: Four Candles, Oxford
Review/notes: Nothing special, just something to kill time waiting for the bus. The Metro had the story of the Dr. Who world tour, but the real great story was the insert in the Swindon Advertiser showing the team kit with the gayest sponsor in the entire Football Association. Cruising doesn’t translate to the British form of English but they should know that in the States it is the equivalent of ‘Cottaging.’
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
July
At Wetherspoon’s it’s
Spooky to see Scoobs and Jeff
But not surprising.
Name: Hogan’s Cider Panking Pole
Type: cider
Venue: Groves Company Inn, Swindon
Review/notes: Exceedingly dry and alcoholic, yours truly chose a cider with a funny name and found a kindred spirit. Wetherspoons is on a twice or so annual cider fest which is always enlightening, and it attracts folks that remind me of Meet Rack denizens (talk about your Pole Pankers):
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
Re-watched Hard Day’s Night.
“God knows what you’ve unleashed on
the unsuspecting South.”
Name: Thatcher’s Katy
Type: cider
Venue: house
Review/notes: Another beautiful summer afternoon enjoying the garden with a cider. Katy is a single variety cider and evokes biting into a crisp, cool, and tart apple: sweet but not like treacle and with a distinct malic acid bitter aftertaste.
Hard Day’s Night is 50 years old this year. It’ll be wine, women, and song once you get a taste for it.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
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April
May
June
It may hit 30
Next week in Southern England
And I’ll own the streets.
Name: Thatcher’s Vintage Cider
Type: cider
Venue: house
Review/notes: After the run, we went to get some bicycle related items at Halfords. The temperature was in the mid-20’s C (upper-70’s F) and almost, but not quite warm. Another degree or two and the papers will start reporting heat-related deaths.
Our bike repair treat was some Thatcher’s Oak-aged cider which was dry and crisp and perfect summer fare.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
A Sunbeam Tiger
Like Maxwell Smart used to drive:
Jackie’s favourite.
Name: Lilley’s Apple and Pear Cider
Type: cider
Venue: Turf Tavern, Oxford
Review/notes: Lilley’s is a fantastic beverage company and this is one of my favourites (although the Mango cider is sinful). The bartender left a bunch of foam at the top (missed it by THAT much) so I had her top it up. “Are you taking it outside? You can sit under the umbrella.” “Oh, no,” I answered, “NOT the cone of silence.” She found that funny…would you believe amusing?…how about didn’t get it at all?
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
April
May
June
The brutality
Of a proper Record Night…
Awesome to behold.
Name: Weston’s Vintage Cider
Type: cider
Venue: house
Review/notes: Record night strikes again. I’ve mentioned it, with due awe, several times in these pages and last night lived up to the hype. We went through a holiday weekend’s worth of vodka in 6 hours of album exploration after a couple of bottles of wine greased the skids. I had the good sense to eat a handful of codeine before bed and recognising that Jackie did not, saved her a couple of tablets for the painful morning ahead. With three ciders for £5 on offer up at the news stand, we breakfasted on cheese and mushroom omelets (fat and protein) washed down with Weston’s Vintage (8.2% abv and slightly oaked but with enough sugar to re-equilibrate the blood glucose).
I distinctly remember when denial (repeated declarations of “this is NOT Record Night”) turned to acceptance (“oh, well, since it’s Record Night do you want to pour one more”) and regret (“you and your fucking Record Night…fetch me some cider”).
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
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April
May
June
The Endless British Pub Crawl 
Warmest regards to Fatty from Tucson for spotting this beer label (if anyone knows where to get Fat Tire in Swindon or Oxford please get in touch)
It has been a good run — one of nearly 6 years, nearly 1300 different pubs, a few marathons and a bunch of halves (and shorter races), good entertainment, fulfilling work, and a couple of laughs. But, it is over … at this address, anyway: I’ll continue on in much the same vein at the Endless British Pub Crawl (continues) but this site will just be an archive for the first 1292 pubs and memorial to itself and a lot of ill-advised fun that went into gathering the material herein.
I want to do a retrospective of this blog’s 6 years but it deserves better than what you have before you. Them’s the breaks…here it is in tedious detail.
In 2177 days, there have been 2537 posts. Of those, 1292 were specifically for 1st time pub visits, 367 were for last year’s Daily Tipple (with added Haiku), 210 have been for the Chippy Challenge and the Kebab Challenge, and 169 were for the 2012 Yellow Beer Challenge. The remaining 499 involved running, mocking the serious beliefs of others, laughing at the weak, bitching and moaning about one thing or another, obituaries, and other things that serve to strengthen my bona fides of Britishness. According to WordPress, these pages have been visited just over 350,000 times…get a life, losers.
Most frequent pub names so far (and how many of each):
43 Red Lions
24 Crowns
22 Ploughs
19 (tie) Bells, White Harts
15 Greyhounds
14 (tie) Black Horses, King’s Arms, Queen’s Heads
13 (tie) Rose and Crowns, Swans, White Horses
Best names: Five Mile From Anywhere No-Hurry Inn, Far From The Madding Crowd, Cafe Rene, Sally Pussey’s Inn, The Bee’s In The Wall, The Roaring Donkey, Who’d A Thought It
Fuck that place: The Angerstein Hotel, The Woodman Inn, The Black Horse
Personal favourite pub write ups: The Chequers in Cottenham, hangover after a night in the King’s Arms in Ely, handing the puzzle over to the Dog and Duck in Linton (Cambs), the Crown in Penzance (a low-key 25th anniversary), the Glue Pot in Swindon after my first Wildcats Hockey match, the Blackfriar in London (not so much the write up as the architectural details), and the Rose and Crown in Chippenham for the fantastic people watching. Certain there are other decent ones but this list contains the two or three I’m really pleased with.
Other pubs worthy of mention (good or bad):
The Red Lion in Southampton for architecture and Henry V connection
The Hop Inn for the locals’ alternative names
The five Red Lion Run back in 2010
The New Inn, Blists Hill (a historic museum town)
The Goldfinger (accidentally found Ian Fleming’s grave on run to this one)
The Blue Boar, Aldbourne (Dr. Who link)
The Blind Beggar, Whitechapel (Kray Brothers link)
The Red Lion, Aston (a town of ‘tards)
The Brass Monkey, Teignmouth (George W Bush on their sign)
Wernham Hogg’s, Slough (The Office tie-in)
The writing isn’t brilliant but it was never meant to be stunning. I have occasionally stumbled into something I’m happy enough with (to mention here) but never anything I would attach a real name to. Some of those are:
“What a Bunch of Dicks” (September 2011)
“Our Ex-Neighbours” (September 2011, with links to the whole saga)
“Risk Assessment: Proper Use of Bins” (October 2012)
“British Citizenship Exam” (November 2012)
“My Pet Leeches” (September 2013)
“Me and the Queen” (June 2012)
It wasn’t all drinking and knob jokes. Occasionally I ran, sometimes quite a lot (although usually whilst stopping regularly for drinks and to tell inappropriate knob jokes). I even race a bit with some of my favourite racing efforts here:
Grunty Fen 1/2 Marathon and general thoughts on the finisher’s medal (September 2009)
Snowdonia Marathon pub crawl (October 2009)
The River Run — Cantabrigiensis HHH (October 2009)
New Year’s Eve 10K Little Downham (January 2010)
Historical notes on the 30 Pack Marathon (April 2010)
Thame 10K and morning chunders (June 2010)
Florence Marathon (December 2010)
Bupa 10K plus bailout for the London Hash (May 2011)
Run For Heroes 5K or thereabouts (August 2011)
Chippenham Half with a sponsored pub stop (September 2011)
Swindon Half whilst hitting every pub within 1/2 mile (October 2011)
Cricklade Half + 8 mile warm-up (October 2011)
London Marathon pub crawl (April 2012)
Great British Beerathon Like the 30-Pack only smaller and including food (August 2012)
Great Bustard 5 or getting there’s half the fun (July 2013)
Beat the Bore at Night (September 2013)
Malmesbury Carnival 10K done twice to hit some pubs after (August 2014)
Isle of Wight Marathon pub crawl (October 2014)
11:58 My big head notwithstanding, this is the Joe Strummer Subway
In fact, I started the blog for people in the States that already knew about my running idiosyncrasies (i.e., running to get to a bar, drinking heavily there or at one or more other bars, then running home). So, for them the “racing” entries are no surprise nor are some of the other efforts, which I enjoy as much or more. These three Birthday runs are typical:
2010
2013
2014
I also used to ‘hash’ before I found the one true way; my life as a hasher came long after I started drink-running (and drug-running, for that matter) and that it has become just a passing fad baffles some of those folk although I still encourage hash virgins to go to a hash as a kick start to Hashlam. I would, indeed, encourage all of you to go hashing at some point.
We saw some good shows and bad shows and some shows. I saw Springsteen in the Atlanta Fox Theatre in the 70’s but Jackie never had so we booked a trip to Maastricht to fix that…and it was awesome. We causght Neil Young in Hyde Park and Paul Simon there as well another year. Two of the best shows were Lloyd Cole in Stroud and George Thorogood in Cambridge, and you can’t go wrong with the BeatHoles.
Tourism ideas:
No trip to Wales is complete without a ride down this highway. (November 2009)
Find out why they refer to Oxford as the City of Dreaming Spires. (September 2010)
You can wait for English Heritage or the National Trust, but the loving family fits their own plaques (like this one to Arthur Stanley Eddington). (August 2011)
If you get to Germany, indulge in the local folklore like the Bremen Musicians. (June 2012)
Nothing is more fun than old buses. (June 2014)
Get out on the street furnishing trail, maybe starting with post boxes. (November 2014)
And, to be serious, here are a few ideas for London.
Recipes and food:
A friend that travels in China sent some delectable menu items to look for but I still haven’t found them in any Chinatown restaurants. On the other hand, you can find the most interesting spices in the Caribbean markets, here.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day so you shouldn’t shy away from complicated recipes like this one. Or, as an alternative you could start your day with one of these.
There were, of course, a lot of booze recipes, but these are worth the efforts involved and better than the pictures would suggest:
Lupini
Cassoulet (one of several versions blogged herein)
Rabbit
Finally, no look back wouldn’t include obits. Mostly, I obitted people I don’t know but knew of but on occasion I actually had a relationship with the deceased (Rest in Peace, y’all):
Vic Chesnutt (December 2009)
Bus Job (October 2010)
Andy Holden (whom I did not know but feel a special connection to, January 2014)
This blog (January 2015, which you are reading right now)
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