A daytime crawl on New Year's Eve avoids all the nonsense connected with the festivities later that day. Avril, Richard and I therefore decided to plan one for the Chelsea area. Starting off at the Chelsea Potter, we sat outside to await Richard. It was not a bad day and not too cold and we enjoyed a couple of beers. We moved inside for another, and managed to find a seat. For some reason I had an expensive craft beer. Overall, a slightly rougher and readier pub than many others nearby but enjoyable, even though it is a Taylor Walker.

The Coopers Arms has been visited a few times before and is a very reliable if slightly gastro establishment which always as decent Young's beers available. We ended up chatting to some Canadians for a bit while enjoying a couple of well kept pints in comfortable surroundings. The Surprise is a pub that is not that far away and another from the reasonably good Geronimo Inns stable. Much smaller than one typically finds, but similar decor with an emphasis on comfortable gastropub surroundings and a couple of interesting beers. There is enough room for an area dedicated to beer rather than having to awkwardly sit in the dining area.

Retracing our steps through the obscure back streets we reached the Phene which is another one that we have been to before through its Made in Chelsea links. Nobody famous here on this day alas but nice enough and we managed to get a decent seat fairly near the bar and enjoy some lager which was not too extortionately priced. I think they even had some bitter too, although the irony is that the trendy craft beer which is fizzy and keeps in the barrel for ages is more expensive than the normal bitter, but perhaps this is some disguised hipster tax. We've still not been in the garden though.

A visit to the Cadogan Arms is also advisable when in these parts. This is quite a boisterous and sprawling pub on the main road with snooker tables upstairs, and a few decent beers downstairs as well as a good view over the King's Road which for some reason we didn't really bother about. With the evening rabble starting to come out we decided to hit just a couple more before beating a hasty retreat to see the new year in at home, and the first of these was 'Scandibird' a 'pop up' Swedish themed bar outside the Bluebird, oft visited by people on Made in Chelsea. Despite all these factors that on the face of it do not appear to work, it actually wasn't too bad and I enjoyed some rather expensive gravlax with a Guinness - indeed we stayed for a second.

After bidding Richard farewell, final stop of the day, which was really just to empty bladders and have a swift half, was the Botanist on Sloane Square. We were actually pleasantly surprised to get in and indeed even found a table, but with there not being much beer and plenty of irritating people our stay at this brasserie style establishment was rather brief before getting a train and an extortionately priced taxi home.