Went to the excellent Flying Fish Beer Festival last Saturday. Tried 12 different ales - half pint of each - and felt bloody awful the day after. Think the variation might have had something to do with it.
Not that I wasn't inebriated - I was sufficiently merry to enjoy a dance and spill a drink down my new T-shirt - but I felt a little hard done to by the severity of my hangover.
In a move that I hoped would portray me as a raffish eccentric, but actually saw me treated with contempt, I took a fountain pen and wrote short critiques on the ales, marking them out of ten. Anyway, my scribblings tell me that Festival Bitter - described as a 'well balanced and refreshing beer' and Wobbly Bob - 'malty, fruity aroma and flavour' were tied for first place.
Also this month, I tried my luck at the Frog and Bucket in Manchester, telling this joke:
"I hear Prince William has renounced his claim to the throne, and relinquished all royal titles and privileges. He says he's going to Paris for a few months, to concentrate on painting and sculpting... They're calling him the artist formerly known as prince."
Which elicited groans from the crowd. Needless to say, I was soon booted off.
