The Royal Andtediluvian Order of Buffaloes Invited Gail and I into their rather nice home in Harrogate for a rather ordinary but quite nice dinner. We were given a few drinks by the grand master of the lodge and have a guided tour of which these photos show only a small part. Gail discovered an ad for them and we went one cold winters night for a very warm welcome. The RAOB have been a charitable bunch for years, originally lawyers and thespians providing orphanage and charity services, now not so much. Sort of Masonic but different it was a delight to roam the old halls and rooms.
We also dropped in to see Ann and Peter again in Cheltnham, went for a n ice walk up a very big hill and down again. Past a stone quarry and looked out over the valley to Malvern
Another thing, We went back to the Empire Bar in Leeds, gees I love that city, the empire was where we saw Jamie playing with the Otiks in the cellar there. It is going to drop it's live music licence and become an international beer hall and Gail found an invite to sample what the bar will be offering in it's new guise. We were two of a small group, before a Saturday night of some 50 couples. We were encouraged to taste and comment.
The first beer up was an Aussie brew from Freo WA. I had had this before but it was a great drink and a pleasant memory, served with cooked soy and honey prawns. Every beer was served with a food accompanying and Music to match, at the end of this blog page I've inserted a audio vid of the Aussie song so you get a feel of the process.
That was followed by a Mexican drop which was somewhat overpowered by the Aussie and took a while for us to get a proper taste of it. Telling the organiser we couldn't taste it properly and explaining about how tastings should go from lighter sweeter to heavier stronger he agreed and gave us a bottle to try later. What a great host huh?
After the Mexican we crossed the boarder to the USA and here is our Host bringing the Blue moon which was served with a slice of orange and had a strong citrus finish. a cold dog and sauce was strangely strange.
The Tiger Beer from Singapore was just a Tiger beer as anyone who has been there will tell you it's not the best available....'nuff sed.
Chouffe, a fantastic Belgian and one we have had on our travels to that fine country. Our Host bought his bar fixture over for our photo, Nice man. You may note there is a Belgian waffle and ice cream, I tell you, some people. This was a superb beer and regrettably I could say nothing to solicit another free bottle being gifted to us.
Finally we were given a beer cocktail with white rum and strawberry fiz. A great finish
This is the vid I was speaking of, hope it works...
