Modest Indulgence...

I realised this weekend that sometimes, it's possible to really enjoy yourself without being particularly extravagant.

Yesterday we celebrated Rob's 40th by re-enacting our latter day tradition of attending the Cleethorpes Beer Festival. I'm certain I won't be alone in thinking that the festival itself was quite a disappointment in terms of small choice of beer available and little variety amongst those on offer. Worse still, they were all served in plastic cups which I'm sure tainted the flavours.

That said, we had a table to ourselves, large enough to seat around 15 people at one point and we had a very enjoyable afternoon affording the chance for the birthday boy to catch up with family and friends old and new and for many of us to meet his lovely new wife Sharon for the first time.

Coincidentally, there was a European market on the seafront that afternoon which meant we could enjoy spicy sausages, garlic bread and a variety of stuffed olives for tea, rather than the usual fish & chips out of newspaper. Before catching the train back into town we called in at the local CAMRA pub of the year where aside from a decent glass of real ale, we tried some Penderyn malt whisky and Merlyn whisky liqueur, both rather unique in the fact that they hail from Wales.

To finish the day, we returned to the Tap (our unofficial pub of the year - and longer for that matter) where we met up with more old friends and enjoyed several pints of excellent real ale until the last of us wandered out of the door around 11:30pm.

Today by complete contrast I've done bugger all other than catch up on some sleep, watch the usual repeats on ABC1 and tuck into a few rounds of eggy bread for tea.

Overall an excellent weekend, offering something a little different from the norm and somehow, I managed to spend considerably less than normal...