Not about beer at all

 ...not even tangentally.

Fact is, the boy and I are unlikely to even venture out today since he's currently lying on the sofa with a temperature and a cough. We're both hopeful it's not the C thing.

With that rather unfortunate start to the day, it could have been a bit of a bust.

And then, I looked out of the window (remembering we're on the 10th floor) and saw a cloud of...wait...what was that? White butterflies?  Blossom? ...

...then check again...

and see a pair of peregrine falcons at about the same level as I'm standing, across on the building opposite. One of them is plucking a bird - probably a pigeon/dove...hence the cloud of white feathers.

They've been there on and off all day - sometimes relocating to other eyries.  Sometime spooking the other birds around as they take flight.

I missed the second kill of the day, too - but caught sight of one of them plucking his unlucky grey victim (probably a feral pigeon, at a guess).

I knew there were some peregrines in residence nearby...but we've never seen them so close.

Lets hope they're regular residents.

Makes up for the lack of a beer outing today.

Just Like it Was

 It was time to come back up to the Western Homelands.

Orchids needed a bit of TLC, I needed some time away from TRHQ and we're giving our staff more chance to show what they can do in running the place. There are beer reasons too, obviously, but they're more incidental than purposeful.

We reverted to the EBN-VIC-PAD-BRI route, having visited London last week to meet up with a friend (beer venues fine but not really worthy of revisiting) and finding it pretty much OK.

As it turned out, we ended up in Bristol on the same train as if we'd gone the more circuitous route - but, as the boy said, it's nice to have the last leg of the journey start earlier - and at the train's starting place.

Train was busy, station was busy, Temple Quay was busy so our flat was a little oasis of calm.

Nevertheless, being Thursday we knew it would get busy at all the good drinking venues so we didn't dither.

We arrived at the pub shortly before 5pm and watched (quite smugly) as the after-workers arrived en masse.

There are some vestiges of behavioural change in this pub - there are fewer chairs and tables to ensure people can space out; the door to the courtyard stays open to ensure good ventillation and, generally speaking, people weren't standing and drinking inside.  Other than that, it all feels much like it did - and that's all to the good.

Pretty certain we'll be heading up to Moor this afternoon because there's a reasonable chance they'll have a cask beer on and it's quite rare to find that.  Also, it's usually a bit quieter and less frenetic than other venues on a Friday evening.

I know we should strike out, and ring the changes a bit but, d'you know what? sometimes familiarity and routine is calming.

On the mend

 Soooo...whilst my knee is still not back up to speed, the rest of me is fine.

Last Monday, me and the Boy decided it was high-time we tried the new incarnation of Ninkasi.

I arrived from work and was greeted by two blokes and Jo saying "crikey! we were just talking about you". That was a bit weird.  I'm not used to people know who I am and I find it a bit disconcerting - but it is what it is, I guess.

I settled down with a drink and marvelled at the new space which looks almost exactly like the old space but with an extension. It's got a cool, grown-up feel and yet feels like somewhere I'd like to be (I don't tend to like "cool" places much).

I reprised the visit on Thursday with a couple of ladies we'd been working with. It felt nice to share the place with new people - and they seemed to love it too.

 Friday, we were at the Crown (new cask usually comes on then - and it was Prohibition.  Result!)

On Saturday I had to work at HQ and the boy joined me later but said he didn't feel very well.  He suggested getting a beer so we went to Beerarama.  We sat down with beer but the boy's heart really wasn't in it.  He struggled to finish his 2/3rd of a rye IPA so I shared it with him.

The guys who run the place looked a little concerned when we left after one, but they had plenty of other customers to take care of.

By the time we got home, the boy didn't want more beer - clearly unwell.

After a few days, he's starting to pick up and is already planning to go somewhere after our board meeting on Tuesday so things are definitely looking up.

I guess it heartens me to see that, for both of us, when the chips are down and we're not well - we don't drink. It puts alcohol firmly in its place for us:  an activity of pleasure and enjoyment - not a physical or mental necessity. 

In Praise of the Landlord

 The first pub landlord I knew the name of was John Landsdel.  He was the landlord of my accidentally-found local when I moved to a new house in Bristol.

He was, outwardly at least, curmudgeonly and didn't suffer fools AT ALL.  I once saw him tell someone off for ringing the "time" bell.

He was well known in Bristol Beer circles for being fanatical about the condition of his beer.  He was definitely that.

He once berated my friend for accepting a mistakenly-given cauliflower cheese lunch when he'd asked for chilli.  Pretty much any time we went in after that, he'd make a joke at P's expense.  To P it got a little bit tired.  To John, it never did.

He was a director of Bath Ales and, over time, his duties changed so they appointed another landlord.

John was a superb landlord - he knew his customers, he knew his beer and he didn't take shit from anyone.

The landlord of my current local is Andy.  Altogether a different kind of a guy.  Seemingly more gentle but, again, you absolutely wouldn't mess with him.

He is also fanatical about the beer he sells - so when he came up to us yesterday and said did you have the L***** beer, what did you think?  I still marvelled that he'd remembered we'd bought a couple of pints.  Not only that but he broke off the "Sunday Meat Raffle" to serve us and then had a frenetic 15 minutes of play your cards right to offload a £200 jackpot to a crowded pub. 

He wouldn't truck any argument.  He said he wasn't happy with the beer (we'd put it down to just not being our taste) - its taste and condition so he was taking it off and immediately replaced it with a couple of pints of Gun Extra Pale - even though we'd almost finished our pints. 

Our local is an interesting place.  A broad range of clients - from plasterers and welders, to those working in Arts administration and well - us in Tech Ed.

The Sunday meet raffle brings the punters in.  It's a loud and raucous time and Andy fronts the show us like a veritable Bruce Forsyth.

But in his other place - the craft beer, whisky and cigar bar near the train station he's like a different man.  (he's also like that when the Crown's quiet).  Passionate about beer - both the serviing and the drinking - and always up for a chat about it but much quieter.

We don't see the other driving force of the business quite as much in the Crown - Jo.   She does make her presence felt, though - from the styling of the place (there are always flowers), to the occasional food bits offered.  We tend to see her more in the other place.

It's hard to imagine two drinking establishments, run by the same team which are more different.

I love both places for what they are and they are that because of the couple that are driving it.

A rare skill indeed.

Nervous Days

 So I've had a weird few days.

I either picked up a bug, or ate something that disagreed with me - or something else because for 5 or 6 days my digestive system was in turmoil.

This is highly unusual for me because generally I have the constitution of the proverbial horse and pretty much nothing disrupts my errrr regularity, shall we say.

For a couple of days I couldn't face drinking any alcohol - I pretty much stuck to water.  When it went on for more than 2 days and beer was tolerable but not much enjoyed I have to admit I got a little nervous.  Was this the thing I didn't "get over" and it just became something that older me had to learn to tolerate?

Beer is such a big part of my enjoyment of down-time.  No, I'm not dependent on it in any real sense, but it greases the wheels of being sociable because usually, I'm quite retiring other than when I have my professional head on.  If I didn't drink beer, I probably would socialise considerably less because I find it so incredibly hard to relax around people in a social sense.

Thankfully, the worst seems to have passed and I managed a pint and maybe 2/3rds of a lovely cask beer at the Crown last night (I topped the boy up with the rest).  I'm still being cautious, though because alcohol is an irritant so it would be stupid to hit the beer too hard until I'm sure everything is back in balance.

I've also had a problem with my knee and I had to lay off the Ibuprofen just to make sure that wasn't aggravating things but today I'm determined to try and make a short walk in the woods and then I think we're going to settle down in the garden with some fridge-beer that arrived earlier in the week.

I seem to be on the mend (in all the senses) - so I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Persisting

 So it's the weekend again.

Friday saw us risk the "Cornubia". By risk, I mean that we don't always fall in love with their beer but we like that they always have plenty of cask beer.

We hadn't been there since last summer with the sitting outside.

It was too chilly to do that and as we arrived we saw it was reasonably busy outside and in but could see a little space next to the window so we popped in.

This pub remains steadfastly old-fashioned and tends to serve beer which are less expensive we tend to drink these days.

I saw that a couple of Yeovil beers were on the bar - both sounding interesting.  Even though I didn't have much hope, I chose the pale beer - I've never been a fan of their beers but there wasn't a lot else I fancied.  He chose a porter.

We inveigled ourselves on the spare space in the window and I took a first mouthful.  It was really, really nice.  He approved of his porter, too so we both relaxed and watched the pub.  They've had a bit of a spruce-up and it feels a brighter and more widely-welcoming space.

The pub was very busy with the after-work crowd and unlike some of the other places we go we sat bang in the middle of age demographic.

We ended up in conversation with a fellow table-dweller - not exactly willingly but sometimes you know it has to be done.

I had a second pint of the pale and he switched to cider.

Still people rolled in and we watched people negotating the tricky door whilst wrangling drinks. Definitely a proper pub.

The garden filled up, the pub remained busy and the staff managed the bar really well.  We finished with a shared pint of Yeovil's other beer - at 7.2% it wasn't for the faint-hearted and then we strolled home.

Saturday we decided to try the Newtown Park brewery tap.  When they first started, I thought their beers were fine but didn't knock my socks off.  Also we'd wrangled with their remote ordering and paying service last summer and so we weren't sure whether or not we'd stay long - or even go in if it was busy.

We combined it with a very short stroll and approached via the cycle path.  This meant you could see and hear how busy it was as you approach the end of the path.  It looked really busy and sounded noisy.  Best Beer Buddy wasn't sure he wanted to run the gamut but at the last minute we decided to give it a try.

It was busy outside but there were a couple of tables inside (and apparently upstairs, too) so I ordered a couple of pints and we settled in.

The beer was much more accomplished than I'd remembered and they had about 12 beers on offer - all in a range of styles and including lager and a no alcohol.  These folk have been busy!

The staff were an absolute delight - really friendly withouth being obsequious. The demographic were very young-professional with kids.  As a result there were a few kids running around but the music was as good as the beer.

All in all, a really nice few hours and relaxing (the seats could be a tiny bit more comfy but it's a small gripe) to boot.  I can foresee us heading there again next time we're up.  It's always worth trying beers you don't think you're impressed by just to check whether they've changed.  In this case it was a two-for-two.

Craving Quiet

 Now look, we've always like to go to pubs (and their like) when it's quiet - this was a choice well before the ugly bug took hold of the world.

Our typical time to do this is to arrive between 4.30pm and 5pm and stay for 2 - 3 hours.

Yes, yes we have had occasions when we go places at a more conventional time but when given the choice (and mostly we have choice, these days) we're early fillers.

Is it because of places getting busy, or is it something else?  To be honest, I really don't know but it's what we do.

Obviously we know that the week has different dynamics throughout and that early in the week places are likely to be less busy, in any case.

I've always liked to think of us as being welcomed by a place that knows it's going to get busy later, with a bar crammed full but who are pleased that the place is earning its keep for now.

So on Wednesday we tootled off to Martha's thinking we'd get there before the after-work crowd.  We arrived and there were about 10 people already in there - which was nice.  Then suddenly more, and more people arrived. Clearly it was some sort of after-work thing but it consisted of about 30 -40 people.  All of whom queued like sheep at the bar - and completely overwhelmed the bar staff.  Sadly, this coincided us finishing our first drinks.  We abandoned all hope of us getting a second beer in anything like a timely fashion and braved the rain and popped around the corner to reprise the Barley Mow (well, obviously we'd gone to the BM on Tuesday when we'd arrived).

It was busy in the BM but not unpleasantly so.

Yesterday, admittedly a Saturday, we went for a longish walk in a place with no pubs (I know!) but it was a train journey away and, being a subburban line , there were opportunities on the way home.  So we stopped off in Montpelier.  We went to the Cadbury house - arriving around 4.45pm and the place was already humming. Nice brown beer on cask but not much variety so we weren't minded to stay for a second.  Instead we struck out through the now very busy pub and headed to New Bristol Brewery Taproom.  We arrived around 5.30 but there wasn't a seat to be had - the inside and outside spaces rammed to the gunwhales with 30-something blokes.  My knees were in no condition to stand for any length of time so we sighed, and headed around the corner to Basement Beer.

It was reasonably busy but I managed to snag a seat in a corner - the boy returned with beer to say we had about 20 mins to drink it since they were closing for a party.

After an abortive attempt to try the Crofters Rights (closed, again) we decided to cut losses, walk across town and come home.  We did pass LHG on the way and, unsurprisingly, it was also rammed with 30-something blokes.

I know it was Saturday and it was spring-feeling day so maybe it's not so surprising that the place was so busy but we found ourselves quite disappointed that "our" time of day for beer is increasingly becoming more popular.

Of course I'm happy for the great places in the industry who have been so badly hit by the last couple of years' disproportionate effect on the business model but I'm really craving the unfound but brilliant places at quiet times of the day.