The Shire

 It was time to head northwest (from Eastbourne's perspective, anyhow).

The last couple of visits have been distinctly chilly meaning that we haven't really ventured very far and, when we do, we wanted to be in places that were pretty cosy...or at least could do an approximation.

This time, we arrived in sunshine on Thursday - not exactly warm but at least not freezing.

We don't even have to discuss the first venue - 4 hours of travel on us means we want to be in familiar surroundings where we absolutely know that the beer will be tasty and the staff delightful.

Our train was 30 mins late but we were still in the Barley Mow by 4.30pm and already it was pretty busy.  Thankfully, "our" table was free and suddenly all was right with the world.

By the time of the second pint, people had been coming in and joining a burgeoning crowd/queue at the bar. Eventually I decided I needed to bite the bullet and join them.  The boy timed how long it took for me to come back with beer:  6 minutes.

Actually, that time belies how well the bar staff were running the backlog.  No matter where around the bar you were, I could detect no queue-jumping whatsoever.  A sure sign of excellent bar staff and, to be fair, a pretty good set of punters.  So many times here we've seen huge groups of after-workers who order and buy one drink at a time  and - just for extra annoyance - throw in the odd coffee order or dither in their choices.

We had thought about eating there but, neither of us fancied it in the end so it was back via Sainsbury's with some pasta, pesto, tomatoes and (trashy) garlic bread - and it was as good a way to end the evening as any.

Friday the weather was wet all day.  But as we were mainly planning to go to Moor - it's no great hardship.

Today, it's bright and sunny and we're meeting friends at the Wiper and True new taproom.  Probably too cold to sit outside, but it won't be long until we will.  I'm quite looking forward to the stroll over there in dry, pleasant spring weather.