Good things to come

Pub visits have been somewhat curtailed over the past week, for a variety of reasons, most of which have been family related. There’s also been quite a lot of boring, DIY – home improvement projects going on, nothing major, but still time-consuming and not the stuff that people will necessarily want to read about. On the plus side though, there are a number of out of town* events on the horizon, so there is plenty to look forward to. *Out of Tonbridge.

This coming Tuesday, Mrs PBT’s has bought tickets for us to attend a presentation, at the Assembly Hall, Tunbridge Wells. The event relates to the Channel 4 series - the Great Pottery Throwdown, and is hosted by the show’s presenter, Keith Brymer Jones, aided and abetted by his partner Marj Hogarth. Keith is an experienced potter and ceramic designer whilst Marj is an actor and artistic designer. Eileen’s been an avid follower of this series, which is about pottery and all things ceramic. Keith and Marj’s latest, and most ambitious project, is the restoration of Capel Salem, a Grade II listed 19th-century chapel in North Wales. I haven’t watched all of the series, but the project certainly seems a mammoth endeavour, and the presentation itself promises to be an interesting one.

The following afternoon-evening, the company I work for will be holding its Summer Party. The event is a first for the firm, and follows on from a failed attempt last year, that had to be cancelled due to inclement weather. This time around, the event is being hosted by the Greyhound at Charcot, an award-winning pub, approximately 15 minutes’ walk from the factory.  Despite the pub’s proximity to the factory, it’s been quite some time since I last set foot in the place. This is because I tend to give lunchtime pub sessions during working hours, a miss these days, not because the company frowns upon the practice, but more for the fact that I feel sleepy enough as it is – without the soporific effect of a couple of pints of beer (or even one). I’m therefore looking forward to seeing how the Greyhound is doing. these days.

In three weeks’, time the British Guild of Beer Writers, will be holding its annual summer get-together, an event that historically took place the night before the opening of CAMRA’S Great British Beer Festival. Sadly, the Campaign’s flagship event has bitten the dust, for reasons I’m sure most of us are familiar with, but the Guild’s party promises to be an interesting one. It’s an easy “do” for me to get to, being hosted by Bermondsey brewer, Ansbach & Hobday at their Arch House Taproom, in Druid Street, close to London Bridge station. I’m therefore looking forward to catching up with those BGBW members whom I still know, and to sampling some interesting beers.

The following week, I’ve a lunchtime appointment with an old friend from Maidstone. Neither of us live in the county town any more, and my pal John now lives in East Kent, close to the town of Hythe. We shall be rendezvousing at the Red Lion, in the large village of Lenham, which lies between Maidstone and Ashford, so the pub is sort of halfway. 

John has a collection of vintage military vehicles, and in recent years has been quite heavily involved in publishing. Now after publishing a murder-mystery, plus a 3-volume series on the history of nearby (to where he lives), Lympne Airfield, John has turned his pen to matters closer to home, with a book detailing his uncle’s experiences as a prisoner of the Japanese, during WWII, where he was forced to work on the construction of the infamous Burma Railway – Bridge Over the River Kwai, and all that.

John’s relation survived, otherwise there’d be no tale to tell, but Uncle Jack had the unfortunate ordeal of being onboard a Japanese cargo vessel, that was torpedoed and sunk by an American submarine, in the South China Sea. “Rescued” by another Japanese ship, Jack and his fellow survivors spent the rest of the war, working for their captors in the docks of the port city of Sakata, in northern Honshu.

Finally, the first Friday in August, should see me joining members from West Kent CAMRA on a day out, at the seaside, in Hastings. I visited this perennial south-east coast resort, at the start of the year, so it will be interesting to see the difference in the town, at the peak of the summer season. I haven’t a clue as to which pubs we’ll be visiting, but I’m content to go with the flow and see where we end up. We’ll be travelling by train, of course, so there’s always the opportunity to stop off somewhere on the way home. That’s probably not the wisest of suggestions, but you never know, as with a belly full of beer, a little bit of spontaneity often seems like a good idea.