AN OLD STORY FROM THE DUN COW

As it was a miserable rainy day yesterday I decided to have a drive and and survey some of the pubs in our branch. The final port of call was to belatedly drop some CAMRA magazines off at the Dun Cow Seaton, near Seaham. Sipping a very pleasant half of Black Sheep  bitter I got chatting to the manager. So we discussed pubs and beer and CAMRA, then I happened to mention this :-

" Last time I was here I was with some mates, it was a nice sunny day and we sat in the beer garden and one of the picnic tables went over, soaking one of the guys"

He said " Yes, I remember that, I was watching at the upstairs window and I was absolutely pissing myself, especially when your mate started taking his wet clothes off!"

 Anyhow, I posted a blog at the time, so here it is again.:-


The Dun Cow in Seaton Village is tucked away in a quiet cul de sac. Four handpulls and a large sunny garden with picnic tables greeted us. Ordering some Oakham JHB and a Guinness, the 6 of us headed for the ( as it turned out) most unstable table in the garden. 

Two were sitting opposite me ( so combined weight was greater than mine.) Someone said, "move along so we can all get on", so I dutifully stood up to move sideways. The opposite side of the bench was now heavier than my side, and being on slightly unstable ground, this resulted in a slight tilt towards the heavy side. 4 pints of nearly full glasses went flying , tipping most of the contents over one of the other two opposite. 

We were too busy laughing to offer any sympathy as the drowned rat proceeded to strip off his jeans to dry on a wall. 

I took the empty glasses back into the bar and relayed our incident to the barmaid. She said " Oh yes, I know which table you mean, that's happened before !"  We got free replacement drinks. So no profit for the Dun Cow from us then !

THREE PINTS OF MAXIMUS AND A RED HOT CURRY

Trying to throw of the remains of a cold and a chesty cough, I decided it was time for some proper medicine. In case it had escaped your notice, yesterday was Halloween and, trying to avoid the little darlings knocking on our door, Mrs Ken and I did our customary thing and did a runner. Luckily Halloween was on Thursday so time to attend the local Wetherspoons Curry Club.

Spoons, bless them, have introduced a new curry called "Naga Chilli Chicken Vindaloo" The local also sell as one of their house beers Maxim Brewery's wonderful Maximus, 6% and dangerously drinkable. 

So throwing caution to the wind I ordered the aforesaid beer and the aforesaid curry. This should sort out my ailments...what could possibly go wrong.

Enjoying the Maximus as usual, the curry arrived. I should point out that in the menu its given 5 chilli symbols . Mrs Ken said, - "are you sure about this ?" " Of course, this is going on my bucket list this". 

   

Well its difficult to describe the first taste...my lips were on fire, along with my tongue. Luckily there were poppadoms, nan bread and rice which offered some relief, but not much. Thank god for the beer.

By this time the sweat was cascading down my forehead and face, dripping onto the lenses of my specs. Any attempt at conversation was abandoned as I bravely and manly ploughed on. Finishing it all at the same time as the Maximus, I dashed to the bar for a a second pint. Chatting to the manager,  I mentioned the curry. "Well,  why do you think we sell it ? Its to make you come back to the bar." Quite.

 

The heat finally abated during the second pint, but as it was too early to leave (in case of any trick or treat stragglers), a third was soon was washing this lethal curry down.

As I said, it was added to my bucket list , so I could cross it off. Next time , it will be back to the Chicken Jalfrezi! Oh, and the Maximus of course.

 

A QUIET AFTERNOON IN A COUNTRY PUB- NO CHANCE

To celebrate the visit of one our mates from Australia, we decided to go on a pub crawl...surprise surprise !. Looking for something different and trying to avoid city centre pubs, we opted for trip up Weardale. 

So the weekend just gone we caught a bus from Durham to Crook, had a Spoons breakfast then another bus to Stanhope, then retraced our steps via Frosterley on the bus and then Wolsingham on the Weardale Railway.

One of ours guys had compiled a quiz, which we took part in in Stanhope ( Grey Bull) and Frosterley (Black Bull). All very gentile and civilised. Thinking the same we got of the train at Wolsingham and strolled up the the Black Lion, a back street local I had visited before - see the tranquil scene above. Despite a rainy start it was nice and sunny so I thought a few beers in the pub garden out the back would be great.

We walked in to be confronted by a group of lads on a stag do ...there was about 15 of them. As i was getting the beers in Mr Quizmaster challenged the aforesaid half drunk guys to a quiz ! 

So we retired to the garden, although on reflection retired is the wrong word. At the start there was 6 of us in our team and 5 of them ined up against each other. One of their party was flat out on a bench just inside the pub giving it the zzzz's.

As the quiz began, there number swelled by ones and twos till eventually there was the whole 15, taking on us 6. By now it was all rather raucous, but with good humour. The lads were from London, in their 30s and staying in a farmhouse somewhere, Despite the booze they were reasonably sensible and entered into the spirit of the occasion. Then their mate on the bench woke up and he staggered in to join  the throng. On his bald head his so called mates had written in black ink some very descriptive words. When it was his question he took so long to answer everyone gave up on him!

Then the stag subject appeared -he was the soberest of the lot, He looked like he was bricking it and had realised what he had let himself in for.

I went to the gents and one of them said to me they were planning on going 2 hours ago but the beer and the pub were so good they stayed.

Despite the overwhelming odds stacked against us we won by one point.

This was one of the questions - in the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch, which creature did Michael Palin offer to sell John Cleese as a replacement to the parrot * 

We left after about 90 mins to get our bus home reflecting on a riotous but good natured time we had. I only hope the future groom cheered up !

* A slug . 

  

CAMRA ANGLE 57

The Autumn edition of CAMRA Angle , the quarterly magazine of the Sunderland and South Tyneside branch of CAMRA, has  just been published. Copies will be distributed to real ale pubs throughout the area , and beyond from today. As usual , this is another full issue and well worth a read. 

The front cover highlights the fact that the next Sunderland Beer & Cider Festival is not far away. Keep an eye out for regular social media posts. On a slightly larger scale, there is a report about the Great British Beer Festival plus a visit to a beer festival in Lancaster University ! 

There is  news of the Pub of the Year and the start of voting for the next Champion Beer Of Britain. Did you ever wonder what "Keykeg" is . Well find out within!

There are a couple of pub crawls, Bill Quay and Beverley and a film review ! Read the magazine to find out more. 

There are the usual pub and breweries updates, as well as Locale pubs and CAMRA's new extended discount scheme. Issue 57 is rounded off by the regular pub quiz.  

Click on this link to download the issue, and to read other branch news. 
http://sst.camra.org.uk/wordpress/ 

A BRIEF ENCOUNTER IN A LEFT LUGGAGE ROOM

There is a pub in Monkseaton Metro Station called The Left Luggage Room.

A group of us visited it as part of  a pub crawl earlier this month.While I was at the bar getting the drinks a Chinese guy came in pulling a large metal suitcase. In broken English he asked one of the bar staff where he could leave his case, as he needed to nip to the shops before travelling to Newcastle Airport to fly eventually to China.
 

He thought the pub was an actual railway left luggage room, and he was prepared to pay, with great persistence,  for them to look after his case for half an hour. She refused to take any payment and locked his case away while he toddled off to the nearest shops in Monkseaton.  
 

Now it was his bad luck that the Tyne & Wear Metros were off between Regent Centre and Airport stations for track relaying that day so,  when he returned,  she had to explain to him how to get to the Airport using two metro trains and a replacement bus service. She was very patient - it took three attempts. Then he bought a pint and a muffin to steel himself for what would have been for him a complicated journey.

He left soon after dragging his case after him to catch his train on the opposite platform - good luck to him!
 

Recommend the pub by the way.

ANNUAL VISIT TO GREAT BRITISH BEER FESTIVAL

Yesterday ( Thursday 8th October) I visited the Great British Beer Festival again, having been every year since 2005 ! This year, it was held again in Olympia. I always meet up with the same crowd every year. This time it was different as Mrs Ken wanted to come, to keep an eye on me.

We arrived about 20 minutes before opening and slowly snaked our way into the building. Security was tight, our bags were searched. Mine was full of CAMRA magazine, Mrs Kens full of food. 

"Having a picnic are we ?" said the steward. Outside there was a guy in a hi viz jacket , with a sniffer dog, also wearing a hi viz jacket, with the word explosives on it !

According to publicity gumph there were over 1000 beers, ciders and perrys in the vast hall. As friends arrived and sensing some confusion over glasses, I put an elastice band round mine, which proved useful later.

Keen to spot our local brewers beers ( Maxim) who had sent down Double Maxim and Raspberry Porter. The bar for these was nearby so sauntered over to find the latter had sold out the day before. ie. at the end of day one for the general public, which I consider amazing !

There were a lot of food-stalls selling everything from pasties to seafood to pickled eggs. As these are normally pricey, I always take my own and its been a running a joke over the years that I turn up with some discount out of date pies. These had a date of 7th August. Not too bad but there is no year printed !

 Most of the beer pricing was what you would expect for London, but one beer stunned me. CAMRA had set up a large key keg bar with over 50 beers. Looking at the programme, Chai Latte Masala White Stout at 7.4% looked interesting in the programme, till I walked up the bar and saw the price ...£12.60 a pint. WTF? That is taking the piss. In fact one brave soul at our table actually tried some, and confirmed it tasted like it as well !

Back to the beer glass, each glass has a third pint, a half and a full pint marker. As an experiment I moved my elastic band up above between the half and full pint lines to see what would happen. Well nothing till the last drink ( see picture). Not applicable to GBBF but how many times do we get a short measure plonked down in front of you, and having to ask for a top up . Victory for the common man.

It was great catching up with old friends, and making new ones. All to soon it was time to leave to get tube back to Kings Cross. Boarding the train back to the North East , we found our reserved seats were occupied ; there were 2 women sitting in them . They were in the wrong coach ! On the table was one of those metal/wicker  animal things about 2 feet high sitting on its back legs with its head and ears up. As they got up to move I said.

."And dont forget to take your kangaroo with you !!"

 

"Its not a kangaroo, its a rabbit!"

 

Of course Mrs Ken took their side and said it was cute! As they scuttled off I said " Still looks like a kangaroo !"

Already looking forward to next year.  

  

A PINT OF ORANGES AND LEMONS AND AN ELECTRIC LAWN SCARIFIER

 

Last night Mrs Ken and I attended a Maxim Brewery open night, which they hold once a month. 8 real ales were on offer . 

Arriving early into the main bar, we were greeted as I ordered a pint of Oranges & Lemons, a new beer. It was mentioned there were so freebies ?  Thinking this referred to bottles of beer it grabbed my interest. 

"Would you like an lawn scarifier for nothing"

Sorry       

"A lawn scarifier"...its next door ( in the main brewery hall)

What on earth is a lawn scarifier ?

Its for raking the lawn and getting all the moss up - I was told

So Mrs Ken disappeared to view our potential new toy while I continued enjoying my beer. She came back saying its ours. There were other giveaways as well. Again, expecting some beer I went to have a look ...at a box of old vinyl albums.

Mostly Bing Crosby, Perry Como and KTEL presents ( remember them ?) Mrs Ken suggested one of these would make a great birthday pressie for one of my mates.

Lets explain that last sentence. 6 of us meet every Tuesday night and when its someones birthday, the other 5 provide gifts, usually something rescued from a charity shop and usually a few beers. One guy always bring out a vinyl album as a gift. Last time for mine I got an LP by Henry Cooper singing ( yes, the boxer). Its still upstairs somewhere. So time to get my own back. 

I selected "Million Seller Hits of 69, Carlini's World of Strings !" --- no me neither. Being released in 1970 it had the obligatory female model on the front to make people look at the cover. Tracks include Guantanamera, Windmills of your mind and My Way.....Cant wait to play it later

Anyhow, back to the scarifier... We were there about 2 hours as the brewery got fuller and fuller of locals from the surrounding area out for the night drinking great beer. Suddenly something  dawned on the wife  - "we are going have to wheel that thing out to the car in front of all these people"

" What do you mean we?...Ive got the LP to carry "  

Anyhow, time to leave as she grabbed the new toy and trundled it outside ( I held the doors open) . There were 2 smokers outside who looked on with mild amusement as we struggled to get the thing in the back of the car.

We may well go back next month...could do with a new strimmer.