Not letting perfection become the enemy of good

 I'm a recovering project manager (there, I've said it).

I've spent quite a lot of my time on corporate projects where the members of the project team are fixated on perfection.  Honestly, it's really good to have high standards but sometimes you have to get the job done to "is it good enough" standards.

So, too, with beer-drinking for us.

On Saturday we'd arranged to meet some friends we don't see all that often.  They like a beer, but they're not quite as fanatical as we can tend to be.

They had a prearranged thing late afternoon (right when we'd normally be going to the pub) so a compromise was required.  I did a bit of surfing around and realised that the Landsdowne pub in Clifton was probably the most suitable place on a Saturday evening which was also convenient for them in the circumstances.

I have to admit I was a bit nervous - since we'd not been there for years and we weren't that impressed by it at the time.  But it seemed to have "local beer" promise.  So we went with it.

At 4.15 we landed there after a little walk around the village and it was pleasingly quiet.  The cask offering was two from Good Chemistry and one from Moor plus Doom Bar and London Pride.  We both went with the Moor and the lad grabbed a seat.

We bemoaned the beer choices a little, but it was nicely cool, fresh and well-kept.  We muttered that it wouldn't be a regular haunt for us.

Hoardes of people (mostly students) came in, ordered beer and got swallowed up by the garden and the room upstairs.  It was impressive to see.

Older adults came in, ordered food and drinks.  People came, people left and all the while the pub felt lively rather than busy.

By the time our friends arrived we'd ordered our second and we had a good time catching up -  and doing a lot of moaning about insurance and dreary business things.

For the last pint the boy switched to Moor Festbeer on keg and I reduced my quantity to a "half of the same".

After the friends had dropped us back home, and we set about making a very quick late dinner we both agreed it was fun and though it's not a pub we would normally choose it did the thing very well and suited the circumstances.  Sometimes, it doesn't need to be perfect - good will get the job done.