20 February 2011 (Sunday) - Folkestone

A rather restless night – popping to the loo far more often that I should in the night. I blame the gallon of ale and the curry I had yesterday. The plan for yesterday was to spend an hour or so in the pub; we ended up being in Deal for about nine hours. It has been said that I do tend to organise my life somewhat, and that’s a fair criticism. So often the best days are those that just “sort of happen”, which is what occurred yesterday. A brill day in Deal with friends old and new. I woke this morning feeling a tad under the weather, but then, such is so often life in my world.

I’ve now subscribed to another blog. So far it does seem that 2011 is fast becoming “The Year of the Blog”; a lot of friends and families have started recording what’s going on in their lives. Being a nosey kind of chap, I for one think it’s great. I wish more people would record what they are up to, if only for my vicarious entertainment.

“My Boy ^TM ” announced he was off to the market – did I want to go with him? I did: since the market moved half way across the town I rarely go there, and I fancied having a nose around. I also needed to get a gadget to hold my mobile phone in my car for when I’m using it as a Sat-Nav. They were selling those gadgets cheaply so I got one. Whether or not it will do the job remains to be seen. I’ve used Sat-Nav whilst I’ve been driving twice in the past, and both times I found the thing to be a major distraction. But I’ll give it a chance.

And then to Folkestone. Having picked up people along the way, five of us found our way to the Samuel Peto for Sunday lunch. Folkestone is a town in which I love to go drinking: the pubs there are of a particularly high standard. Were I to list my current top ten pubs I suspect half of them would be Folkestone pubs. I’ve not been to the Samuel Peto for some years. How can I describe it? There's two ways of looking at this pub. One can take the traditional method of dismissing it entirely out of hand simply because it's a Wetherspoons. There is a school of thought that anyone who thinks that they know anything about pubs knows that Wetherspoons are totally crap pubs. However one might take the radical step of actually going into the place and trying the food and beer and finding that one might be mistaken in one's preconceptions. I won't say it's the best pub in Folkestone, because it isn't. But it is far from being the worst, and will appear in future pub crawls around Folkestone (and that’s against some pretty stiff competition).

Within minutes of arriving we were sitting up in the balcony area enjoying Hook Norton’s Double Stout, and within minutes of that our dinner had arrived. I won’t pretend it was haute cuisine, but six quid for a decent roast dinner and a pint of very decent stout isn’t to be sniffed at.

Pausing only briefly for two of us to indulge in chocolate pudding and profiteroles, we then wandered down to the harbour to have a look-see. I love Folkestone harbour. We then walked along to the coastal park, the idea being that “Daddies Little Angel ^TM ” was going to play in the zip-lines. However she didn’t want to get grubby, so we contented ourselves with just enjoying the scenery. We then made our way through the caves and a zig-zagging path up to the Leas, and on to Folkestone’s premier bar. And we were disappointed. Chambers is closed on a Sunday, so instead we adjourned to the Pullman for a pint of pudding. The Pullman is not so much a pub as a rather posh bar, but the prices aren’t those that you’d pay in a posh bar and they had a rather decent ale selection too. I’m reliably informed that I’ve been there before, but I have very little recollection of what happened at last year’s Good Friday beer festival.

The Pullman had a fire going, and it was a good place to warm up whilst waiting for girls to do their shopping.

Back to the Admiralty for coffee and cakes, and then home. With ‘er indoors ^TM gone bowling I settled in front of the telly to watch more “Gavin & Stacey” DVDs…