Comfort of the Familiar

I really like trying new pubs and new beers from new breweries...but there is a great joy and comfort to be found in the familiar.

It's why a "local" is such a stressless place to be.

Now, yesterday was a "football" day, so I said I'd meet the guys at the usual haunt for lunch.  I do this periodically and the Basketmakers in Brighton always feels like a local to me, even though it's not actually local to anywhere I might call home.

It's always busy on a Saturday lunchtime so there's a general acceptance (well, amongst most people) that you try and cram a lot of people around your table and allow strangers to join you at your table if there's space.
So it was that six of us sat around a single small table (and felt quite smug about it) and ate, drank and chatted for a cheery couple of hours.
It's odd, if you told me how much I'd love a Fullers' pub, I'd probably deny it.  But the Basketmakers has it right:  well kept, decent beer (yesterday I had Seafarers and Bengal Lancer, S had HSB); really nice food - and that includes nice veggie meals too; and a nice atmosphere, even when it's rammed to the gunwhales.
The benefits for the football supporter is that it's just around the corner from the bus to the Amex so it wins on that count too.

Obviously there has to be post-football beer too.  It, too, is a well-practised ritual.
There is an optional stop off at one of the Amex concourse bars which serves Harveys  - this is useful in allowing the crowds at Falmer station to dissipate a bit - and then, on return to Brighton, the venue of choice is the Evening Star.
This is another very, very popular pub and so gets extraordinarily busy - especially for the post-football crowd.

I didn't go to football so I arrived well before the others - it gave me the chance to get a seat at a (shared) table. So I settled down for about 30mins with a pint of American Pale Ale and a paper.
I was soon joined at my table by a couple a blokes - again, this is a pub where you share tables.  Some folk chat, others don't but sharing a table here never feels like an imposition. 
S came straight back after the match to keep me company and started with the traditional pint of Hophead.  Not long after, the other guys joined us, as did a large number of other people.

By the time it was my round again the pub was shoulder to shoulder.  Carrying three pints back to a table through an empty pub is tricky enough...through a rammed one, damned near impossible.  This is where being a short, middle-aged woman plays in my favour.  When faced with a woman carrying three pints at a time, most men instantly step back leaving room for me to get through.  I'd like to think that this was through admiration - though it's probably more likely they expect me to spill beer on them.  Whichever way it is, it makes my life easier.

So, after more beer than is probably good for me, I made my way back to the station and home.

It was a good day.  Sometimes we crave the new - some days the familiar is relaxing and fulfilling.