Must Get Out More

I'm a pub man as my readers know. I love the social interaction and the variety that the pub brings, quite possibly over the variety of beer that is available.  Like most people though, I'm a creature of habit. I tend to go to roughly the same places by and large, unless I'm in a strange town.  Funnily enough, though it is in the strange and seldom visited pub that you renew that connection with the randomness that is pub denizens, rather than in your own cosy local, where the assembled oddballs are comforting, though quite possibly, alarming to the outsider.

Yesterday I met an old mate in Manchester for an hour as he and his wife passed through.  It was in a pub near the main railway station that I visit now and then when I get a train. While waiting, an old guy came up to me and asked "What day is it?".  Tuesday I replied confidently.  "And what date?"  Aha. He had me there. Now that I'm retired dates have little daily significance.  My various electronic devices provide me with them. Dates are on a need to know basis for me now.  I consulted my phone and told him. "9th October."  Off he went. Some minutes later he was back with a scrap of paper on which he'd written his newly acquired information.  He presented it to me. "Check that for me will you?".  Priceless stuff which makes a nice little anecdote.

Today I'm off to Ironbridge and tomorrow Shrewsbury. Me and three old friends go off every year on such a journey.  I have written about some of it in this blog.  I'm glad about going to Ironbridge. We've been before quite a few times and as I always regard the Black Country in particular ,as a crucible, not just of the Industrial Revolution, but of good pubs, I'm looking forward to it.  Shrewsbury is a great place to drink too. It's another old haunt, but I'm sure that we'll find new places on the way.

I hope to have more anecdotes for you, but even if I don't, I'm going to the pub in a big way over the next three days. How good is that?

For those awaiting my post on the IndymanBeerCon. Next week. My verdict.