#g-had

The blog in the rear view mirror

Warmest regards to Fatty from Tucson for spotting this beer label (if anyone knows where to get Fat Tire in Swindon or Oxford please get in touch)

  It has been a good run — one of nearly 6 years, nearly 1300 different pubs, a few marathons and a bunch of halves (and shorter races), good entertainment, fulfilling work, and a couple of laughs.  But, it is over … at this address, anyway: I’ll…

Butcher’s Arms, Oxford, Chippy Challenge #119

[The Chippy Challenge: to eat more fish and chips in 2014; see original post for details.]

Fish: cod Sides: chips and mushy peas Evaluation: Very good for a pub, especially good for a pub with so many mouthy youths around.  Spectacular landlord here, though. You should go there.

I had originally planned on the Butcher’s Arms for the lunch at the mid-point of a 7 mile or so runbut this was…

DT #281, 8 October 2014 (Inycon Pinot Grigio Grecanico)

Hiding/subterfuge. Do not deny the True Path. G-Had is patient.

Name: Inycon Pinot Grigio Grecanico Type: white wine Venue: house

Review/notes: Rushing from the bus to “Rodbourne” which I found as the location of the Moonrakers Hash House Harriers trailby using the cached version of their page (thanks, Google), I easily found powder but wanted to know which way they were going to run.  I made a…

The Red Admiral, Hilperton, Wiltshire

  A modern Marston’s pub looks like any other modern Marston’s pub, but the help at the Red Admiralwere attentive, intelligent, and funny.  You can’t ask for much more than that.  I was in the Hilperton shops to grab a cod snack but with my bus stop only a quarter mile away thought it worthwhile to pop in.  As it is more restaurant than anything else, I stashed the fish in my backpack until I…

DT #267, 24 September 2014 (Marston’s Pedigree)

Dennis Hopper says, “Heineken Schmeineken, fuck That shit. Pabst. Blue. Ribbon.”

Name: Marston’s Pedigree Type: bitter Venue: The Red Admiral, Hilperton

Review/notes: Two G-Hads in about 3 hours with a 1 hour and 20 minute bus ride between them makes for a thirsty bunny.  Pedigree was the only thing on the taps that hasn’t already been represented in the Daily Tipple but it is a completely…

DT #253, 10 September 2014 (Popham’s Pride)

  The lesson today: Whining gets you what you want. So sayeth Twitter.

Name: Popham’s Pride Type: bitter Venue: New Calley Arms, Wanborough

Review/notes: So, I was going to tweet about my Swindonian adventures for the next two weeks anyway and had decided this long before the ADMIN post requesting volunteers ever went up.  The post on this blog, yesterday, had no more merit (nor should have been…

The Fox and Hounds, Colerne, Wiltshire

The approach to Colerne from Corsham was steep downhill to a creek and steep uphill to the village and about four miles of rocks, mud and pasture.  Except for getting a brief start on the G-Had HHH trail as I reached the area near the church, I made a more-or-less direct path to the Fox and Hounds for a well-deserved (I thought) beer.

There were four ales on tap although the gents lining the bar…

The Raven, Bath, Somerset

  I had never seen the Raven although I have passed it dozens of times on visits to town.  From the outside, it looks like a very posh shop perhaps dealing in corsets or lavender scented bath items, but inside it is a regular boozer with wood floors and a grand landlord with a spectacular West-country accent.

  I was in town to ‘do’ a G-Had trail over and in addition to the North Wilts Hash…