Mahinda’s Little World

It’s 10.15am on Saturday and I catch a bus to town, hoping to get to Piccadilly train station before the 10:54 to Macclesfield departs.

I got there in plenty of time, and eventually found Jen, Will, Owen, PhlAsh and Matt, MUGSS all. No sign of Little Gay Stu, but we were unexpectedly joined by Ian, who was catching a train for altogether different reasons.

Of the CAMRA U30 bunch, Jenny and Matthew came and joined us, with Matt, Amy and Peter coming along a bit later. We were slightly concerned at there being a 10:41 and an 11:02, but no 10:54…until it flashed up, as if by magic. So we all piled on, and walked the entire length of the train to find Ruth, Rick and Alex ensconced in the Quiet Carriage. Oops.

Got to Macc and headed to the bus station, finding Richard in the process, who was waiting for a friend. Zany Amy was running late, so would meet us there.

After a bit of a wait, we got a bus to the rugby club, which was quite possibly the most crowded bus in the world! The club turned out to be pretty far out of town, with the fest itself in a great big marquee.

A really great big marquee…with chuffing CHANDELIERS!

Tokens were purchased, and much beer consumed. We spent much of the sunny afternoon sitting on a grassy knoll. It was pretty close to idyllic. I’d list the beers I had…but I’ve lost my programme. Ones I can remember are:

• Bazens’ Knoll St. Porter - of course!
• Hanby Cherry Bomb - seriously lovely cherry taste.
• Iceni Men of Norfolk - the manliest beer around.
• Iceni Honey Mild - rather tasty.
• Grand Union Honey Porter - also very nice.
• Conwy Honey Fayre - a golden ale with honey, and not as nice as the darker ones.
• Tipples Ginger - a lovely golden ale with ginger, but not as nice as Blandford Fly.
• Deby Penny’s Porter - good and roasty.

I know I had eleven halves, so there must have been others!

In due course, Amy arrived, as did Dr.Kate and Adam.

I was dead chuffed to find a picture of myself in "Out Inn Cheshire", the Cheshire CAMRA magazine - the same one was in "Beer Matters", the Sheffield CAMRA equivalent, last month, and features Verity and I round the back of Bar Fringe, after the Saturday of the Winter Ales Fest.

I also got recognised by a chap who works downstairs from me…I didn’t recognise him at first, unfortunately. Turns out that he’s one of the organisers. I really must find out where he sits and say hello at some point.

3.30pm came, and it was time for us to leave, having been drinking copiously for just over three hours.

So, an even more crowded bus back to Macc, and the post-fest pub crawl started. Without going into too much detail, highlights of the crawl were:

• Walking for miles and miles and mies, past pub after pub after pub. A golden rule of pub crawls is that no leg should be longer than a mile, and preferably less than five minutes’ walk.
• Lovely lovely beers in a selection (four?) of pubs…after all the walking, anyway.
• Kiddies’ playground! En-route to the Dolphin, we spotted a huge long slide built on a slope. Jenny, Matthew, Amy and had fun sliding down it, then messing around on the seesaw and swings. Class!
• The landlord of the Dolphin being from the Watford / Hemel Hempsted area - I thought I recognised his accent. He served a fine pint of Old Tom.
• [In the Dolphin] Rick, an older chap from Bury branch, trying drunkenly to work out the relationship between Zany Amy and me. All very drunken.
• Peter massaging Ruth. Ruth enjoying it muchly.
• Chips. There was a Spurs programme on the counter, of all things, so I asked about it. It turns out that the bloke behind the counter was an organiser of the Macclesfield Spurs supporters’ groups! A URL then got scrawled on a bit of grease-proof paper.
• Leaving my phone in one of the pubs. First time I’ve done that, I reckon. Fortunately, Ruth had picked it up.

We got the train home at, well, I’m not sure what time. Think it must have been 10ish. My plan was then to join Alison and CAOS for their afterconcert drinks, at Kro 2. Well, I was wrong - they were drinking at Kro Piccadilly instead. So Jenny, Matthew and I headed to Sand Bar instead for a swift pint, before they went home and I staggered to Kro Piccadilly.

To be honest, I’m surprised they let me in. I was absolutely hammered, probably swaying slightly, and wearing shorts and sandals. Oh well. I found loads and loads of people there, and I was probably the drunkest! Had a pint of tapwater…maybe two…and eventually got the bus home with Pete and Rosy and others - Adrian and Emma? I kept falling asleep, headbutting a pole that was in front of me, waking up with a start, and falling asleep again.

Managed to get home, eventually, and it was straight to bed.