The 14 Fish and Chip meals this month marked new extremes, namely the westernmost (Pig and Fiddle, Bath), southernmost (Star Fish Bar, Warminster) and northernmost (Ye Olde Black Bear, Tewkesbury) fried fish this year. I fully expect the German and Dutch visits to find either proper fish and chips or local delicacies (herring, of course) that fit into this challenges remit and blow the doors off the Eastern borders. Until then, the May tally included:
# |
Chippies |
||
| 51 | Gill’s Fish Bar | Swindon, Wiltshire | 03-May |
| 55 | Noffs Chippy | Swindon, Wiltshire | 13-May |
| 56 | Blue Sky Chinese Takeaway | Swindon, Wiltshire | 15-May |
| 57 | Roughmoor Village Fish and Chips | Swindon, Wiltshire | 17-May |
| 59 | Market Square Fish Bar | Bicester, Oxfordshire | 23-May |
| 61 | Star Fish Bar | Warminster, Wiltshire | 30-May |
# |
Pubs/Other |
||
| 58 | Dosa Park | Oxford, Oxfordshire | 19-May |
| 49 | Waggon and Horses | Southmoor, Oxfordshire | 01-May |
| 50 | Seacourt Bridge | Botley, Oxfordshire | 02-May |
| 52 | Far From the Madding Crowd | Oxford, Oxfordshire | 07-May |
| 53 | Pig and Fiddle | Bath, Somerset | 08-May |
| 54 | Wig and Pen | Oxford, Oxfordshire | 09-May |
| 60 | The Victoria | Oxford, Oxfordshire | 29-May |
| 62 | Ye Olde Black Bear | Tewkesbury, Gloucester | 31-May |
The DT’s continue unabated, as well, and while a colleague said of the Chippy Challenge that, “[I’m] going to swell up like a tick,” instead I think I’ve gained girth (though not weight) as a result of the daily drinking. Mind you, I always drank copious amounts but this challenge puts me on a daily path at many times that I might have skipped a day or two (or more!). Blasphemy, I know, but there you have it. The tally this month entailed:
BEER
DT # |
Date |
Name |
Type |
Venue |
| 121 | 01-May | Moreland’s Best | bitter | Waggon and Horses |
| 127 | 07-May | Monkholme Premium | bitter | Far From the Madding Crowd |
| 135 | 15-May | The Reverend James | bitter | The Steam Railway Company |
| 136 | 16-May | Wild Weather Little Wind | bitter | The Grapes |
| 143 | 23-May | That One | bitter | Penny Black |
| 149 | 29-May | Jenning’s Cumberland | bitter | The Victoria |
| 122 | 02-May | White Wych | blonde ale | Seacourt Bridge |
| 142 | 22-May | Wiltshire Gold | golden ale | New Inn |
| 137 | 17-May | Greene King IPA | IPA | Morris Street Club |
| 123 | 03-May | Staropraman | lager | house |
| 124 | 04-May | Peroni Nastro Azzurro | lager | house |
| 125 | 05-May | Bavaria Hofbrau | lager | house |
| 126 | 06-May | Singha | lager | house |
| 129 | 09-May | Keo | lager | house |
| 138 | 18-May | Stella Artois | lager | house |
| 147 | 27-May | Brutos Porter | porter | house |
| 141 | 21-May | Money For Old Rope | stout | Far From the Madding Crowd |
| 144 | 24-May | Mud City Stout | stout | house |
| 146 | 26-May | BV Stout | stout | house |
.
WINE
DT # |
Date |
Name |
Type |
Venue |
| 128 | 08-May | Footsteps Shiraz | red wine | The Pig and Fiddle |
| 130 | 10-May | Rèserve de Bonpas Côtes du Rhône | red wine | house |
| 133 | 13-May | Cape Peak Shiraz | red wine | house |
| 134 | 14-May | Manon Tempranillo | red wine | house |
| 140 | 20-May | Bush Telegraph Shiraz Viognier | red wine | house |
| 148 | 28-May | Chateau Vieux Manoir Bordeaux | red wine | house |
| 131 | 11-May | Baron de Ley Pink Rioja | rose wine | house |
| 132 | 12-May | Mondelli Pinot Grigio Blush | rose wine | house |
| 139 | 19-May | Les Jamelles Cinsault | rose wine | house |
| 151 | 31-May | Echo Falls White Zinfandel | rose wine | Ye Olde Black Bear |
'
CIDER
DT # |
Date |
Name |
Type |
Venue |
| 145 | 25-May | Mr Whitehead’s Toffee Apple | cider | The Steam Railway Company |
| 150 | 30-May | Happy Slapper | cider | The Ludlow Arms |
The Daily Haiku has been fun and I plan to continue through the year but I won’t review these till the end of the year, perhaps to rank a top ten or twenty of my favourites but so far all but a couple are rubbish even when including the background info that helps explain them. I become more and more convinced you don’t have to be clever to be a poet at the same time that this project steers me in the direction of poets I consider remarkably clever.
And, so art brings me to religion or, at a minimum, dogma. The G-Had has been going on for a while now since my initial treatise on Hashlam. The Combat Season has given way to the Summer, it seems, with only the Bicester Hash taking a hit in May. Still on 1-per-month or more, but the prophet hasn’t been speaking to me (or through me) these past few weeks; plus, no one is ever hashing near a pub I can add to the list at a time that I can set aside to help them find The Way. And, so on to June.
The Endless British Pub Crawl
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