Farnham Beerex

On Saturday, April 17th, Sid and I met up with Matt & Carolyn, Jeff & Eve in Farnham after taking a short train ride to get there. The plan was to go to the Farnham Beerex on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. There was not a cloud in the sky (and still no plane contrails....this is an unprecedented closing of the UK airspace). Once inside the hall, we received our ½ pint beer glasses and then purchased £10 worth of tickets. The ticketing system seemed to be designed to confuse the average beer drinker. All beer festivals I’ve been to before have used a ticketing or token system and one token gets you one sample, well not here. Beers ranged from being 12-14 tickets; however we received 4 big strips of tickets with two 5s and ten 1s on each so you had to tear off the appropriate amount. Well before I’d clued in on the 5s at the top of the strip, I gave the whole strip plus a couple ripped off another one to a vendor and therefore spent 24 tickets for one worth 14...and I was completely sober! Never mind, after a couple beers in the inside area where an octogenarian driven jazz band had started up, we walked outside to enjoy the beautiful sun in a jam packed courtyard. After each beer, Jeff had one of the beer guides which listed each brew and had a happy, straight and sad face beside it so he took our evaluation. There was also a cider section but I didn’t venture there after having a small taste of one of Matt’s. I thought it tasted like it could power a small rocket into orbit!

The outside courtyard:

The first session of the Beerex (the one we were in) ended at 3pm. I was impressed how nice and friendly all of the attendees were. Afterwards we walked to a nearby park where I introduced Sid, Matt and Jeff to my chungee (no bad thoughts now!)...the chungee is a Nepalese version of a hacky sack made from a cut up bicycle inner tube. We were pretty sad at it but it was fun nonetheless...until one kick blew the thing apart! Thankfully we were able to pick up the pieces (thanks guys & Carolyn) and put it back together. That’s it, off to a pub! First stop was the William Cobbett where we sat out in the back and thankfully in the shade. Then it was on to The Mulberry where again we were able to sit outside. We met up with some other friends there, Paul and Bex. Paul was quite entertaining that’s for sure, thanks for the laughs Paul.

The park:

Heading to the Cobbett:

A Jeff sandwich:

The awkward turtle came out more than once:

We caught the train back to Aldershot and then hopped a stone wall to get into Matt and Carolyn’s complex. I made the mistake of hopping the wrong wall and found myself by a parked city bus and then had to repeat the jump in the proper direction. We hung out at their place for an hour or so then....come on, guess...yes, another pub, the main watering hole for this group, the Garden Gate. Some other friends were there: Claire and Dave, Glenn & Ana. We enjoyed a few more and then eventually stumbled home.

Finishing off at the Garden Gate:

Needless to say it was a super fun, yet marathon day...thanks fellow beer lovers!