A quiet drink at Christmas.

I went for a quiet Saturday night drink with Ian, Damien, Alan, Steve and Marc last night; somehow very early in the evening I managed to find myself inadvertently wearing an almost full pint of lager down the front of my brand new Fuller's ESB rugby shirt. It dried pretty quickly, but the smell was not too pleasant - it was lager after all. We started off in the Royal Standard in Upper Belvedere (where the accidental spillage happened) they serve a very nice pint of Fuller's London Pride - not a real ale I am normally that enamoured of, but last night it was extremely pleasant. After this we repaired to the Victoria. This is a pub that I have had some nice times in over half a dozen visits; it is an old fashioned back street boozer that holds Casque Marque certification for its' draft Adnams Best Bitter and Shepherd Neame Spitfire. Unfortunately the pint of Spitfire I was served was on the turn. I took it back and told the landlord. He got a bit sniffy and said it was all right (which it wasn't - it was halfway to vinegar). He did change the barrel, but then pulled me a replacement drink without clearing the pipes first. I reminded him of the stale beer that had to be cleared before a clean pint would come through, so he replaced my drink again - but with some bad grace. I may have words with Bexley CAMRA - the pub has been good, but the landlord does not have much experience and may be getting into bad habits.

You can see some more photos of the evening by visiting my Flickr photo website. Please leave comments if you feel the urge. Once again, sorry work colleagues, for some reason Flickr is blocked by the Websense content management system. You will have to use a non work computer if you wish to have a look.

I just discovered that my former boss, Peter Moore, Radio Caroline station manager accomplished the almost impossible last Monday night. He managed to successfully gate crash the Led Zeppelin gig at the O2 Arena! You can read about his very amusing exploits along with a few photos here. I wish I had been there too.

The long awaited coffee shop has now opened in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre - it has been launched in a very low key manner, and could probably do with a bit of publicity to attract customers.