journal of a writing man

Friday June 15, 2007

To St Audrie’s early, dropping Graham off for the weekend.

This is the last of the single weekends. Next Friday marks the start of the season proper, and Graham will be away five nights a week until September. In some ways the longer absences will be easier to handle in that there’s longer to adjust. We shall see.

In Sainsbury’s, on the way back home, I scanned the beer and lager shelves rather glumly. I have to cut down on the wine when I’m home alone and it seems sensible to experiment with other types of booze. I really enjoy a good ale, always have, and there’s a fabulous range of them on the shelves, as there should be in a country that has as good a claim as any to have invented the stuff. Problem is, they aren’t cheap. Not in the least cheap. I can buy a fair-to-decent wine for the price of many of those beers.

So, I turned to the lagers and was much amused to find Sainsbury’s own Basics lager at 88p for a four-pack. When you’re experimenting, 88p is a good place to start.

Or so I thought. This evening, when I took my first bite at the stuff, I began to wonder. It’s a beer, I suppose, but not as I’ve ever known it. I persevered through to the end of the first can, hoping it’d grow on me. By the time I got to the end of the second can, it had grown on me alright, in the painfully visible form of a hugely bloated tummy. It took three mugs of peppermint tea to clear that.

I think I shall use the remaining two cans to clean the loo. As a lager it’s good for very little else.

I shall give the cheap ciders a miss, I think, and study the ales rather more closely.

I wish I could find a reliable, and affordable, source of English country wines. I can sip my way happily through a bottle of cowslip, or dandelion, over two or three nights with no ill-effect at all. And I can savour a bottle of elderberry over a full week. They are all available, but price out at roughly twice my budget.

Hey ho. I’m beginning to find that a nice cup of tea is more desirable than ever.