Beer

Very pleasant weekend. After a really good Italian meal out for a friend's pre-nuptial bash on Friday night (she's getting married in Mauritius, so it's the nearest we'll come to the actual wedding), we headed over to the other side of the country on Saturday morning, to meet up with other friends for the East Anglian Beer Festival in Bury St Edmunds.

This was a smaller affair than the Bristol equivalent, and what's more had been going on since Wednesday, such that a number of the more interesting-sounding beers were sold out by the Saturday. Nevertheless, we got to sample some decent beerish substances, including Iceni's Ported Porter, which was very dark and complex, and Buffy's Roger's Ruin, a mild-tasting and extremely drinkable golden beer which just happens to be 6.5% strength and capable of putting you under the table.

We followed this up in the evening with a visit to the Old Cannon in BSE, a pub-cum-brewery which does two excellent beers of its own, Gunner's Daughter and Powder Monkey, as well as some nice guest ales. On Sunday we visited some other friends in Cambridgeshire, ate a very nice Thai meal and looked around their lovely house before heading home.

OK, so it's not what you'd call thrilling, but I'm 32. Frankly, anything which gets me out of the house and / or my slippers is something to be thankful for.