That must be a bit of a pain, eru.  I haven't been asked for ID since I was 19.  I do think most places have tightened it up since then - first there was the "Challenge 21" scheme (so if they think you look under 21 you have to prove you are over 18) and now there are even some places, supermarkets mainly, where they'll ask for proof of age from anybody who looks under 25.

If you go for a drink after the Proms, do you go to the Nines?  I just find the range of beer very unimaginative there.  Imperial College normally has some really good guest ales on, especially in the corner bar - I can't remember the name of the lovely light summer ale I imbibed last night (though Lady_DHS had some too and may remember).  They do have a tendency to run out, though.  Last night there was a beer advertised on the board called "Last Pint of the Proms" - ironically, it appeared that somebody had already drunk the last pint of it...

As for right this minute, I am mid-cup of tea.  My boss is back from his hols on Monday, and I think I am going to have to have words with him, because while he's been away I have been getting through one cup a day, sometimes two.  When he's here we end up taking it in turns to make each other a cuppa every hour or so...

Oh dear. 10.30 and still no word, I fear the worst Our Martle has morphed into a Green bridge! Sob. But he appears to have found some new friends.

PHEW!! As you were everyone. <wipes away a tell-tale tear from eye>

I'm not much of a cider drinker.  It's one of those things for which I am occasionally in the mood, given the right circumstances and the availability of decent stuff.

Cider was my tipple of choice when I was in my mid to late teens.  When I was in the sixth form, our first port of call after Friday-evening choir practice (Durham County Youth Choir) was the Market Porter in Durham, where they had Bulmers on tap.  The proper scrumpy stuff by that name, I hasten to add, not the Magners-type bottled stuff which now goes by that name.  The bar staff were used to people coming in and asking for a pint of cider expecting something like Blackthorn or Woodpecker, as when one asked for a pint of Bulmers, the first response from the barmaid was always "You do realise it's cloudy and flat?"  Errrr... yes, thank goodness! 

I go to the occasional beer festival, and one thing I always mean to do is go on two separate days so as to have a "beer day" and a "cider day" (as mixing the two within the same session is a surefire recipe for a killer hangover, regardless of the quantity involved).  I've never got round to doing this because I can never find two free nights in the same week...   

Old Rosie is rather nice and pretty lethal - about 7.5% I think?

And you a new dad, trj. Tsk tsk. 

And a new dad whose body knows this morning that that was its first night out in over a month 

Geraldine?