I’m not a big drinker. It’s not that I don’t drink for a particular reason, I just never feel the need. I don’t go out clubbing or go to pubs to drink. I tend to go to pubs to eat! Ben loves a glass of red at the weekend but I just don’t have the taste for wine.
I like a crisp cold G&T occasionally, and an exciting cocktail on a special occasion but otherwise I’m good. Except last week sucked. I was stressed and had a few down moments and was looking forward the weekend like crazy. Ben finishes at 12.30 on a Friday so had planned a boy’s afternoon/night down the pub leaving me pretty much a spinster on Friday night. I’d planned to watch a film and just go to bed early. Humph.
Until he graciously extended the invite to me as well when he realised I needed a bit of cheering up. Go to the pub? Well why not! That’ll definitely de-stress me. We decided to take a day off from parkrun the next day and actually get a lie-in for once so I didn’t need to worry about what time to get to bed as I had no set time to get up. Perfecto.
After work I headed straight for the pub and joined the drinking wagon (which by this point was merrily trucking along). I ordered and drank my first ever Desperados. And it went down a treat.
We hadn’t eaten dinner yet so we ordered food. Two huge sharing platters of Mexican chicken, chicken dipper things and other fried goodies. Then on to the main event.
I was hugely surprised that the menu had quite a few salad options (you know how I love my salads) but even more surprising was that you could order a side of BBQ ribs. I mean seriously this menu was made for me. So I got my chickpea chicken salad with a side of ribs. As you do.
The evening was good fun and a lot of laughs. Ben got fairly drunk, which was hugely amusing. I must say I did get fairly tipsy (I managed 4 Desperados). My lie in until 9am the next day was blissful and entirely necessary.
We’d planned a walk in the New Forest and invited our friend Nathan with us (also in attendance at the pub).
All looking a little tired and delicate
Ben and Nathan was somewhat delicate but I think the fresh air really helped. Or at least I told them it would and stop moaning 😉
We took Alfie along as well and he absolutely loved it. Incidentally it turns out this was the same route we ran for the MarathonTalk weekend long run! We didn’t realise until we arrived.
We walked 3.75miles and stopped for lunch in a lovely little pub called the Royal Oaks. The menu was small and all home-made. No chips (fries) in sight. Just ploughman’s, dressed crab (!), fresh sausage rolls and pork pies. Nath and I went for crab with salad, Ben went for a sausage roll and we shared a cheese and gammon ploughman’s because we were hungry (and hello my name is Anna the food machine).
It was so tasty. Everything fresh and homemade (even the chutney in little mini jam jars – and there was an apple as well!).
My crab was amazing. The boys had salted caramel and honeycomb ice cream and we were raring to go again. It was funny because we’d all forgotten to turn off our Garmins when we first arrived which we was a bit annoying as our pace had been quite consistent and then we all had to keep clicking our watches every so often to stop them from power saving and turning off. So there was a lot of beeping during our meal.
A Ben selife
We continued on our set route which was actually quite tough. Some gradual inclines and deep sandy tracks. Glad I wasn’t running it!
The full route was 8.5 miles and we did it in around 2 hours 43 minutes. Not too shabby. Though obvious we had a break in the middle!
We were all shattered at the end, Alfie included. And stupidly thirsty. We had to stop at the services on the way home to buy drinks. I unwisely chose Diet Mountain Dew. The luminous colour of the bottle should have been a warning to me, it tasted so chemical and wrong. Bad choice. Not Fanta Zero for sure.
We dropped Nathan off and Ben and I promptly flopped on the sofa for some quality relaxing time watching How to Train Your Dragon (this film is AMAZING, I want a dragon!!).
Do you enjoy going for a long walk in the countryside?
What’s your favourite pub meal?
Do you drink? What’s your beverage of choice?
I love having a good hike, this sounds like a lovely route. I don’t drink really, only about 3-4 times a year, when I catch up with friends and get absolutely hammered, subsequently regret it and vow to never drink again ha! I do like the odd cherry beer after a hard race too.
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Haha yeah it’s always the way, you forget how bad the hangover really is!
Your hike sounds amazing and I love the picture of Alfie looking delighted as he skips along! Lunch also looks lush, those little jars of chutney are too cute.
I don’t drink at all, will be coming up three years without a drop this winter. It just isn’t something that has ever bothered me, especially after getting my drink spiked at uni.
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Alfie was absolutely loving it. It was like his best day ever haha.
Sounds horrific about your drink being spiked, how awful 🙁
Im with you on the drinking front. Im always the ‘odd one out’ with my friends, but I embrace it! Who wants a hangover anyway? Your hike looks amazing though, as does your crab salad!
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Yeah drinking just doesn’t have the draw for me. I never get the urge unless I’m very very stressed.
UGH diet Mountain Dew! That sounds terrible after a long hike haha. So sweet and sticky! Looks like you guys had a great time (even Alfie!!) and I’m glad you guys had fun at the bar (pub)!
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Haha so funny you guys call pubs bars. It is so far from what I’d describe a bar to be!
That sounds like a nice way to get rid of a hangover! I do enjoy a drink but rarely drink and obviously haven’t drank a drop since being pregnant. I’ve only missed it on occasion and usually it’s a nice glass of red or a cocktail I fancy. My best friend is even making us mocktails this weekend for my birthday bless her!
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Ahh that’s lovely about your friend. I think I might even prefer mocktails to cocktails. Especially if they’re super sweet 😉
That looks like such a lovely walk. I do enjoy walks on the fell where I live, but I always end up wishing I was running them! Sometimes the terrain is a mess – it’s a bog right now because it’s been raining so much – and then I’m quite happy to walk for safety purposes 😉
I have to admit that I don’t drink, and I’ve had precisely two alcoholic drinks in my entire life. I actually have a very strange allergic reaction to alcohol that is more commonly found in people of Asian genetic descent (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_flush_reaction), so even if I wanted to drink I’d be in severe trouble afterwards.
I’m so glad you had some good days to balance out the stressful ones.
xxx
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Yeah I know what you mean. I think I was quite happy to just walk it and be thankful I wasn’t running as I was quite tired and it was quite undulating hehe.
Wow, yeah fair enough you don’t drink! Don’t blame you!
I don’t drink- I never liked the taste- my parents always offered me a sip of beer or wine, but I never liked it (and don’t like the smell now)- when I was younger I had to explain myself a bit, but I don’t think it is that unusual now. Although it means I am not a huge fan of going to pubs because I don’t really like fizzy drinks either, and they get annoyed if you keep asking for tap water, plus when everyone else is having more drinks I don’t want one because I am not thirsty!
I love a walk in the countryside- we reserve that sort of thing for holidays or weekends away as it is pretty urban around here.
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Yeah I know what you mean about it pubs. Luckily (sort of?) I really enjoy a Diet Coke from the pub taps so I’ll always go for that. It’s rare when I do drink, I just hate that drunken feeling and the sickness afterwards or the swaying of the room when you lie in bed.
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