Demo and a few pints

"By the time we got to Piccadilly, we were half a million strong..." as Joni Mitchell didn't quite sing. Unfortunately Chris and I had to leave the big demo there, as we couldn't get to Hyde Park and then return in time to catch our train back to the north. However we did get to Euston with over 30 minutes to spare, so we went into the Britannia in the station which had four real ales on: Fullers ESB and London Pride, Speckled Hen and I forget the fourth. ESB it was, but at an eye-watering £3.70 a pint. It was served in a special pint glass, which looked a bit like an oversized brandy glass, but okay when you got used to it. Full-flavoured and bitter without being astringent, it went down a treat. Pity we can't get it in Southport.

I had to change trains at Wigan, but we decided to have a couple of pints first. The John Bull Chop House, down a narrow alley off Market Place, is a local rock pub.  "Get It On" by T-Rex was playing on the juke box while we ordered our Thwaites Bomber, which was fine. Then to the Moon Under Water where I bought two Elgoods Thin Ice, using one Wetherspoons coupon for 50p off. The barmaid gave me the wrong change, so I began to point this out, but she and a colleague both cut me off, saying, "It's gone through the till and that's what came up." I replied, "Okay, but I thought you'd given me too much change." I went back and checked and she had.  Well, I tried...

Chris left to go home at this point so I went to have a pint in the Boulevard, a cellar bar that sometimes puts on live music.  After that, I caught my train to finish the night off in the Guest House in Southport with 3Bs Brewery Doff Cocker.  I was one of the last to drink up, and the landlady shouted at me: "Neville, you've still got a full pint!" 

"No, I haven't," I replied, "It's a short measure!"  But I drank up quickly anyway.  After a day of marching, and good beer in three towns, I had no trouble getting to sleep last night.