134
134
'Beer is for all day, not just for breakfast'.
A couple of worthwhile trips in May gained me 27, taking the year's total to 115. Well down on what I used to think of as average but starting to look more respectable.
On leaving the bar, I felt a strong blow to the back of my head. Turning round, I discovered it was the pavement
It's usually a two horse race between me and Wittenden, for the least number of new pubs visited in a year. When he started to pull away, with 12, I knew things were bad! However, a recent visit to Saltaire / Shipley (3) and this weekend's sessions in Worcester (4) have brought me up to 11. Hopefully, I'll break 20 for the year, which would be back to pre-lurgy levels.
'And where he supped the past lived still. And where he sipped the glass brimmed full' John Barleycorn, Carol Ann Duffy.
"At that moment I would have given a kingdom, not for champagne or hock and soda, or hot coffee but for a glass of beer" Marquess Curzon of Kedlestone, Viceroy of India.
After a solo trip to Liverpool and Waterloo I collected 19 new pubs.
If Ms CAMRA hadn't unfortunately been unable to come it would probably have been about 5.
Now on 77 and need to catch up on some reviews.
A pub is for life not just for Christmas
Jinx lifted:Swan Inn reopened last week, so I took the opportunity to look in.Now on 14.
"At that moment I would have given a kingdom, not for champagne or hock and soda, or hot coffee but for a glass of beer" Marquess Curzon of Kedlestone, Viceroy of India.
After a couple of London trips and a couple of stray outliers ,moved on to 96, the ton is in sight.
"Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."
-W.C.Fields
180 bagged and posted, with 18 in the pipeline from my last Wales Coast Path walk in Carmarthenshire.
There'll be no new ticks in Winchester though!
166 including exploring Oxford's suburbs, which I'm rather regretting.
A slow start to June, with just 22 new pubs in the first half of the month, and with a holiday in Scotland and the Lake District (23rd to 29th) I knew I would have to pull my finger out. Five in the Rotherham suburbs followed by seven in Nottingham set me up for my hols, when I did a surprising 23 new pubs, including five out of six in Moffat (the other one had closed early because "with the emphasis on food now, everyone had gone home and we've had no one in for 45 minutes" - this at 21:45), three in Dunfermline and four in Kirkcaldy.
Prize tick, and quite unexpected, was the Stanley Arms at Calderbridge (near the entrance to the Sellafield nuclear processing works), a pub I have cycled or driven past about 20 times and never found it open. On this occasion it was 15:05 as I drove through this small village on the A595 and the pub had opened at 15:00. In my haste I drove into the wrong car park and had to back out again pronto. Luckily I was still sober. Review will follow.
Now on 326, and can relax with only 174 to do in the next six months. I can't see how I will be able to stick on exactly 500 though.
Come On You Hatters!