Saturday, September 03, 2005

The Glossop Victorian Weekend And The Railway, Buxton

I am shortly off to work at our loacal CAMRA Branch festival in Glossop at the Victorian Weekend today/tomorrow. Here is the Beer List.

The latest local news for Buxton is that The Railway is now open with three handpumps on all serving real ale. The downside as I found out last night is that they have decided to have a duel pricing policy, Cheap in the week and Expensive at the weekend, more on this later in a full report. Do you want to guess when I will be visiting?


Friday, September 02, 2005

Peterborough CAMRA Beer Festival: Report Of The Trip (Part Four)

Saturday 27th August

Up early today as it is time to pack up the tent which has stood up quite well dispite the disappointing weather (food etc.) and head back home. The jury is still out the sucsess of this years festival, only time and a few more beers will tell. I may add an update later to this post, but I hope to be back even if we don't work next year.


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Thursday, September 01, 2005

Peterborough CAMRA Beer Festival: Report Of The Trip (Part Three)

Friday 26th August

Well I awoke late again after another deep sleep feeling much beter today, good stuff this real ale. After a good strong cup of tea or three the Friday work plan was settled upon. Even though I had booked in, it was decided that moral for working at the festival this year was at an all time low as we would find out toninght (Shame really).

Off to the Brewery Tap for the best meal of the trip, a Tai Curry, Yumm Yumm with all the side dishes we could manage and some of the new Oakham IPA.

That evening at the festival the shortage of willing volenteers was very apparent as the festival got fuller, the hard working (Hum! Hum!) Cellar Staff all in with their matching uniforms had to help out serving beer to the public, some of whom did not like this. And finally at the end of the evening when you need them most the toiltes on the whole site packed for a short while and it was back to nature!

After a few beers in the staff bar it was off to bed in the tent for the last time this year.

Part four continued...


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Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Peterborough CAMRA Beer Festival: Report Of The Trip (Part Two)

Thursday 25th August

Woke up late on Thursday in need of some breakfast, so into town it was. If any of the food vendors is reading this then they could make a small fortune selling bacon butties every morning at the festival. After a couple of rounds of bacon it was off to the Parmaston Arms for out traditional pint of mild to start the day. We met up with Henry (Another Buxton local) here and so started a small stagger close to the festival site around Peterborough, including the Coalheavers Arms, Charters (Still boat of the trip!). Then it was back to the festival for a short rest before the evening session wich turned out to be a short affair as tea (As it's now know) was taken early and I did not feel much like working after that, as so did many others.

Part three continued...


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Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Peterborough CAMRA Beer Festival: Report Of The Trip (Part One)

Wednesday 24th August

After driving through the rain we arrived at 11:30am to a dry sky but very wet ground at the festival site. After just enough time to put the tents up the rain started again, this was going to be a soggy few days. We worked the afternoon session and we set for lunch at 2pm.

This is where things stared to go a miss this year as the food (provided free for staff) seemed to have been taken over by a bunch of wives and their children (who were served first before the hard working staff). We had been warned by our bar manager that there had been rumblings of discontent the night before as there had not been any food left when they finished the evening session. Lunch was ok but it had changed to the previous years buffet sytle (Help yourself) to ask and it will be dished up for you. So after a small lunch it was back to work on our usual bar for the rest of the day/evening.

After the end of the evening session (Spot on 11pm) we headed for the rush for our eveing meal. What a difference a year makes! the kitchen was deserted and all that was left out for us to eat was smallpaper plates of salad with either a piece of ham or cheese on each one. Where was the hearty warm food of previous years (We had worked several hours on the bar after all). Usually the are up to 100+ volenteers waiting to be fed. This is where we found out that this year things we going to be done differently and no one had told us! Things were so bad that some of the staff were having a whip round to buy food themselves for the next night! So off to a good nights sleep in a wet tent.

Part two continued...


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