The Australian themed bar Walkabout is one of the few original remaining bars from the launch of Broad Street as Birmingham's premier entertainment area. It was heavily featured in the national news last year as it was the venue where Australian cricketer David Warner punched England batsmen Joe Root because he was wearing a green and gold wig.
We met friends Gray, Jule and Andrea in there just after midday which in reality was the last thing I wanted given the fact that we had spent the previous day drinking copious amounts of beer at the Cheltenham Festival but the Italy v England six nations rugby international was kicking off at 12.30 so my first pint was a kill or cure potion.
I didn't give a Castlemaine XXXX for the choice of beer in Walkabout, the lack of real ale meant that I had to resort to pints of Becks Vier, however my Shelia, Shelley was jumping up and down like Skippy when she saw that draught Aspall cider was on offer.
Upstairs quickly filled up but we were at the head of the queue when downstairs opened up and we managed to secure prime position ready to cheer on a convincing England victory and hope for an Irish loss later that day.
Unfortunately our move downstairs did little to improve the quality of the beer. The downstairs beer taps presumably don't see much action as my next pint was as flat as the proverbial witches ...
Pint number three (yes, okay, I was feeling better by this stage) was even worse, Jule, noting the quality of the beer in round two, ventured upstairs for the next one and came back with drinks in plastic glasses. Maybe the pub was worried about a return visit from David Warner !!
Thankfully we got the result from the England game that we were hoping for so we decided to have the last one on the balcony overlooking the canal hoping to catch some Australian style sunshine though not too much as I don't think any of us had followed the Antipodean directive of slip, slop, slap
Pubs of 2014
Right, here we go...... The purpose of this blog is to log all the pubs that I have visited and consumed an alcoholic beverage in during 2014. The rules are quite simple, the establishment needs to be a public house, it sounds straightforward but it may get complicated for example things that wouldn't count are a visit to the bar at the cricket, a pre gig drink in a concert venue, a drink at the Birmingham German market etc. As judge and jury my decision is final, and if I'm in any doubt I won't count it.
My prediction as at the start of the year is that the final number will be somewhere around the 200 mark though I won't go to pubs just to get the numbers up, it will be a true reflection of my pub visting year.
My posts will include information about the pub, the ambience of the surroundings, the choice and quality of the beer, any interesting or amusing anecdotes about my visit and, where possible, photographic evidence.
I will try and keep the information as accurate as possible noting that alcohol consumption means that at times this may prove difficult !!
The format of the posts is simple, the first visit to the pub will be the blog entry and that post will be updated for any subsequent visit.
Hope you enjoy it...
Cheers
UPDATE January 2015
Right, that's it, it's finally finished, some 259 pubs later !! It's been hard work but it's nice being able to look back and relive the drinking experiences of 2014.
I am pleased with the final result and whilst I've been reviewing it, I have actually laughed a few times at my own jokes !!
A word of warning, it does start off a bit slow (some of my posts from Bath are a bit dull) but stick with it. In hindsight the format of posting repeat visits to a pub on the original post at times doesn't work very well when reading the blog in its' entirety but on the whole I'm pleased with it and I hope that you enjoy it.
I have stated this in the blog but I will say it again, thanks to anyone that I have had a beer with in 2014 and special thanks to Shelley for her patience !!
My prediction as at the start of the year is that the final number will be somewhere around the 200 mark though I won't go to pubs just to get the numbers up, it will be a true reflection of my pub visting year.
My posts will include information about the pub, the ambience of the surroundings, the choice and quality of the beer, any interesting or amusing anecdotes about my visit and, where possible, photographic evidence.
I will try and keep the information as accurate as possible noting that alcohol consumption means that at times this may prove difficult !!
The format of the posts is simple, the first visit to the pub will be the blog entry and that post will be updated for any subsequent visit.
Hope you enjoy it...
Cheers
UPDATE January 2015
Right, that's it, it's finally finished, some 259 pubs later !! It's been hard work but it's nice being able to look back and relive the drinking experiences of 2014.
I am pleased with the final result and whilst I've been reviewing it, I have actually laughed a few times at my own jokes !!
A word of warning, it does start off a bit slow (some of my posts from Bath are a bit dull) but stick with it. In hindsight the format of posting repeat visits to a pub on the original post at times doesn't work very well when reading the blog in its' entirety but on the whole I'm pleased with it and I hope that you enjoy it.
I have stated this in the blog but I will say it again, thanks to anyone that I have had a beer with in 2014 and special thanks to Shelley for her patience !!
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