EER's tour of COVID secure and Tier 2 friendly hostelries brought us to the Swan at Totham yesterday evening.
The Swan is one of an increasing number of pubs that has laid on covered and heated outside seating that allows us to continue to meet as a group of 6 as the weather deteroriates whilst keeping everyone on the right side of the rules.
I arrived to be welcomed by a large but friendly dog and an equally friendly and licky but slighly less furry Fandango. He had managed to make it all the way from Colchester by bike.
We were soon joined by the Blase Brewer, the Serene Sex Whale and Serge Fondler. Evenutally EER's answer to Ferdinand Magellan completed our party having managed to navigate his way there from all of 7 miles away by a series of searching loops.
It was pleasantly warm under the heater which was just as well as Serge was buffless and feeling a bit lost without the usual comfort of something warm and hairy close to his face.
Many pubs at the moment are either short of supplies of cask beer or unwilling to stock too much of it but the Swan presented us with a choice of 4. We sampled Crouch Vale's Ten 64, Mighty Oak's Captain Bob and Crouch Vale's Brewers Gold. With a rare full quorum of the Quaffers' Committee on hand to judge (only our office junior was missing), Ten 64 was duly anointed as the Quaffers' Choice. Magellan, meanwhile, was sitting at a separate table nurturing a pint of Guinness and muttering to himself about iron deficiency.
Inevitably, much of the evening was taken up with planning and rehearsing our off off off Broadway musical. I can't reveal too much at this stage other than it is set in Russia and will feature the return of Epiphany hearthrob Svetlana as a special guest star. Those Russians !
As seems to be tradition now, we were joined by the landlord towards the end of the evening. It seems to be a mixture of being pleased to see a group of new people turn up and a chance to vent about the precarious state of the hospitality trade. Who knew that EER/MEMWNs would become so welcome - even with Magellan in tow
The Swan is another to add to the list of pubs that deserve our support.
It was a wet and blustery ride home but mainly with a welcome tailwind. I had to chaperone Fandango back towards Colchester - it's not easy towing someone home when they are already 500 yards ahead of you and their twinkling tail light is disappearing fast. I think I really helped him though.