Mahinda’s Little World

Katy and Rick’s barbecue was a bit of a success. As is to be expected from those two, there was an awful lot of good quality meat, fine ales and random conversation. A fair crowd turned up in the end - Justin and Helen, Adam and Sarah, Pete, Rosy and Malcolm were all there, plus guest appearances from Katy and Rick’s neighbours, who seemed friendly enough - just what you want in your neighbours, really.

Malcolm (who’d cycled one and a half hours to get there) and I ended up crashing over - him in the spare room, and me on the seriously comfortable sofa. So comfortable, in fact, that I only awoke at 1.30pm. Ooops. Katy, angel that she is, quickly furnished me with a bacon sandwich, tea and croissant, and we settled down in front of the cricket for a while.

I eventually made my excuses and left, heading over to Stockport for a CAMRA U30 meet, at the Porter’s Railway. A lovely pub, with lovely beer. The Manchester CAMRA Under 30 crowd is a pretty good little bunch, and far removed from the “beards and beerguts” stereotype - obviously, we’re all fairly young, and we’re just a bunch of people who like good beer. Like you’d find in any pubs up and down the country. Tim, Kim, Matt, Amy and Richard have taken the mantle of the U30 group over from the legend that is Dave Hallows, and they seem to be doing a pretty good job.

Unfortunately, I was driving so could only have one pint…well, two halves - with a selection like they had there, I just had to try two beers. Half-pint glasses just feel wrong. Made it last though, and have just got home, via Tesco’s for a sandwich and an engagement card. My next port of call today is Simon and Debbie’s engagement party, which I’ll just pop into for an hour or so before joining Rachel and Richard for pretty much their last night in Manchester. The jazz (nice!) of Matt ‘n’ Phred’s beckons…