Pub Crawl : Runcorn’s Victorian Pubs

Participants : Kirsty, James, Mark, Biggers (plus Scowcroft brothers for 3 pubs) Pub 1/12 : The Dockside Inn We were due to start at half five to accommodate Biggers who had football duty but ended up at the Dockside at about 5.15pm where the only bitter on offer was John Smith’s. Two halves of John…

A Few Drinks in … Sheffield

Sheffield! Home of the Arctic Monkeys, Jessica Ennis, and Pulp. Home of two football teams, two universities, and no one sensible way of navigating the city centre. Anyone who has been unfortunate enough to spend time travelling with me will know I will avoid taxis as if they have live, hungry, cheetahs in the back…

A Few Beers in Australia : Part 4 : The Gold Coast

For the last part of my Australian adventure we were heading away from the snow and towards the subtropical Queensland coast, which has honest to goodness rainforests and temperatures in the twenties in the middle of winter. The Gold Coast is a city rather than a name for a locale and has quite a few…

Why Ladies Drink Beer, By Me, A Lady

Greetings gentle reader, my name is Ms Walker (spinster), and I am a lady. Now if, as I assume, you are of the gentlemanly persuasion and are reading this on the train on the way to your job as a coal miner or astronaut, you may be already quite perturbed by the idea of a…

A Few Drinks in Australia : Part 3 : Gerringong and Jindabyne

Our journey through the South East coast of Australia continued into the coast and the snow. Gerringong is a town of fewer than 4000 people on the coast of New South Wales but has  six wineries and two breweries within about 25 kilometres of it. One of the breweries, Hopdog, has a tap room attached…

A Few Drinks in Australia : Part 2 : Canberra

This statement has raised a few eyebrows on both sides of the world, but of all the places I visited in Australia, Canberra was my favourite. Maybe it’s just my contrary nature, as everyone I spoke to about Canberra seemed to apologise for its very existence, but on my last day in Australia, looking out…