Diaby "in desperate battle to be fit for FA Cup Final".

[Mo Britain less Europe]

['Neg]

[Pat Vegas]

and it's the 89th min and we've only used 2 subs.

[TRENT COLTON]

I'll be getting a headache in the upper tier after all :-)

['Neg]

I really don't want to go :-(

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Think he may have been flying in from Australia.

Maybe not.

[TRENT COLTON]

:rubchin:

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

My plan is to drink many glasses of fine Belgian lagerbeer, then partake of some exceptional seafood in a little place on the Place St Catherine. Champagne will not doubt be taken with the piscean feast. After this I will retire to O'Reilly's for 6 or 7 pints of Guinness.

I don't want to go :-(

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Next day will be f**king awful mind you.

['Neg]

I did share some of the beef with the wife tbh.

[redgunamo]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

I end up almost in tears on the motorway to Calais.

Once I had to pull into a service station and sleep in the car for 3 hours.

['Neg]

(apologies for the missing accents, but awimb can't handle them) in Ghent last Saturday

I did share some of the beef and bone with the good wife tbh.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

['Neg]

[Berni]

things imo.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Actually this will be my last scheduled trip on this project and it may be some time until I am en Belgique again. Perhaps I should have a carbonnade at lunchtime. With frites. And a side order of mussels.

[redgunamo]

I can't do the accent, of course.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

I enjoy the wheat beers and, indeed, the ordinaire. It's nice to be able to walk into any bar and enjoy a glass of lager without being in danger of being subjected to Carling/Fosters type crap.

['Neg]

Came with simple but lovely proper bearnaise and mushroom cream sauce.

Probably was nicer than the expensive dinner with foams and truffles the night before.

[Berni]

However, I just find most of their beers too sweet and I find the taste of wheat beer unpleasant and cloying, too.

['Neg]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

I swear they have the biggest lobsters in northern europe.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

I need to give it a break. It's just winding me up now.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

dishwater.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

This is also my last opportunity to stop at Adinkerke for cheap fags :-(

[Berni]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

is clearly struggling with the subtleties of Belgian beer.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

But have always found the more obvious ones to be very drinable.

Duvel, Leffe, Affligem, Orval, Kwak, the various Chimays.

[Berni]

['Neg]

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Tribute and Proper Job, so I kind of cleaned them out, rather embarrassing it was at the till.

And now they have ceased in favour or many various and some quite f**king awful Irish ‘craft beers’. I am all for helping local economies but when it comes to alcohol you sometimes have to accept that a wider market offering is better.

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

And don't f**k about.

[Berni]

Even where it's not, you've never heard of it, so you're unlikely to find the good one even if it's there.

Nothing more depressing than walking into a pub in London only to find a range of ****ty, overpriced craft beers being served rather than anything you know you like. If I'm on a session, I'm not interested in trying new things or being given a selection of tiny glasses to try. I want the stuff I like in great quantity.

f**k craft beers.

['Neg]

And other concoctions such as Duvel, Kasteel tripel, Karmeliet tripel, Delirium Tremens...

[Jake]

All you have to do is drink in the right pubs for a few sessions and you know what's good and what isn't.

You're being stupid.

[Berni]

If I walk into a pub, I don't want to have to ask about the beer. I want to order it and have a fair idea what it tastes like (and that doesn't include some bull**** scrawled on a chalkboard by a ponce).

The sooner this craft beer fad dies out, the better. I can see a value in it in somewhere like the states, where the beer is all piss, but in a country such as this one that already offers a wide range of very good, mass-market ales, it's just superfluous, pretentious poncery.

[IUFG]

[Jake]

It's exactly the same concept but people find it poncey because it has the word "craft" behind it.

As you say, it's been about in the states and is seen as completely normal. Why shouldn't we have wider choice of beers as well? If people looked at it from outside of the fact it's trendy, it's basically something that's giving us a wider choice of good quality beers. That can only be a good thing.

[Ashberto]

[Berni]

I look at the strength (3.7% to about 4.5% is my sweetspot - I've no interest in heavy ales) and I look at the brewery. I watch out for anything Christmas related, since it's always **** and anything involving suggestions of fruit, chocolate, honey or anything else that doesn't belong in an ale. I don't like anything too malty, I avoid milds (it's pissy dishwater) and am pretty careful in my choice of stout.

I will then give it a go. If I don't like it, I won't order it again.

However, such gymnastics are boring. I would rather go into a pub, see 'Doom Bar', London Pride, Harvey's, Timothy Taylor's Landlord or anything else I know I'll enjoy rather than go through them.

[Jake]

Consider that approach with food: "I know what I like what's the point in bothering to try other things".

It doesn't lend itself well to anything tbh.

[Berni]

If you're spending too much time tasting it, you're missing the point imo.

[Jake]

It was delicious and also quite potent.

Perfect combo, imo.

[Ashberto]

There's rather a lot of things that people call food that I don't like, and whenever I try something different there's a good chance that I will have spent a load of money on something I find inedible, which vexes me greatly and leaves me hungry. I'm rarely so disappointed in a beer that isn't quite to my tastes.

Obviously I won't waste time and money on some those Belgian comedy beers though.

[Berni]

Blood orange IPA. f**k off.

[Jake]

I have to say, there isn't really anything food or drink-wise I dislike.

Even those Belgian comedy beers.

[Frimmers]

[Mo Britain less Europe]