Tonight and possibly tomorrow night are my only chances to take in the Cambridge Beer Fesival. I pick up Charles just before it opens in a conveniently nearby location. How late we stay will depend on his behaviour and just how laughably small my alcohol tolerance has got.

I lack a beer usericon; this should be remedied.

( Weekend friends and family )
Sunday evening I was incredibly useful and sorted out lots of stuff that had been lurking in my inbox for ages ... with the notable exception of anything wedding related. That's the first time in a while I've caught myself productively procrastinating. Among other things I checked through our phone bills for the first time in a year and decided the quarterly call costs weren't worth chasing lodgers for. I also realised just how cheap it can be to ring my parents these days, and as my main reluctance to do so on the landline has been the quality of our handset, I bought a new handset. And an answerphone, so that my parents can ring me at home and be able to leave messages.

Monday was busy at work and I was feeling a bit tired and under the weather for the beer festival, so finished my second read-through of Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow instead.

Yesterday continued busy at work. I went to the beer festival afterward and had a very enjoyable time, running into several sets of people during the evening. Tony & I have now joined CAMRA because the joint membership is a bargain compared to single memberships (21 and 18 pounds respectively). I started off with Holden's Black Country Mild (on the North Bar) which is rather lighter and easier to drink than most milds and I approve. My next choice was Boelens Bieken Honingbier from the Foreign Beers stand, which was described as "Gorgeous Honey beer" and was. I thoroughly approve and wish to find more. When I went back to the foreign beers, all the honey beers had gone, all my backup choices from the Lambics had gone, and I tried Orval because I could see it was there. It was drinkable and had nice texture, but nothing amazing. I had sips of other people's drinks now and again, those that stuck in memory overnight were the Espresso Stout from Dark Star which Alex (climber, but not the one atreic knows) had, and the Rauch beer that ptc24 chose (both good). Helen (climber) had a cranberry wheat beer which was very thin-tasting and I found disappointing but she liked.

I may or may not get to beer tonight. It will depend on how sociable and energetic I am feeling - there was a plan for work people to go, but the colleague most enthusiastic about it is off sick.