After last year's successful weekend in Norwich, Dave, Smiley and I decided to pay another visit to Graham and Elizabeth in East Anglia in an attempt to recreate the best parts of it. Driving up on the Friday evening was an arduous run, but there was time for a reward in the Dog at Horsford, quite a lively local which was doing Theakston's Old Peculier amongst other things, and had a very good array of bar snacks including pickled eggs and pork scratchings of which I made sure that I had a sample. A decent pub to settle in for an evening with a number of cosy chairs and an exceedingly hot and somewhat dangerous hand dryer in the gents'.

The following day we decided to make a start at noon, as Graham and Elizabeth were going to the barbers. Fortunately we got a couple in before this episode of coiffeurary. Our first stop was the magnificent Fat Cat in Norwich in time for the pre-FA Cup football focus. As before, this is an excellent pub with a fantastic array of beers, I'd say at least two dozen, some on hand pump, some direct from the barrel. The interior is very good too, and we managed to get ourselves into a sort of converted outhouse type structure with flagstone floor and wall mounted TV, which we shared with some old soaks. As it was early, most people had the lightest offerings, but I was feeling a little silly, so decided to go for some sort of extremely heavy thing that tasted of syrup and might have been brewed by Gales. Fortunately we had only stayed for halves. Walking towards the centre of town, there was time for us to pop into the City Gate, an ex-Wetherspoons pub, for a pint. This is in a converted cinema and I am told that the ladies' upstairs fills most of this floor. The gents' is not bad either though could have been looked after a little better. Sadly, the beer selection was a little disappointing and though there were some moderately interesting beers it seemed that many were off despite it being Saturday morning.

We all walked to the city centre after this, whereupon G and Elizabeth fulfilled their appointments with the coiffeurs. Dave, Smiley and me felt that to opportunity to get a dodgy pub done should not be missed and this we did by paying a visit to the Vine - allegedly a gay bar though we saw no evidence of this - which specialised in Adnams fayre. This pub was on a narrow shopping thoroughfare and most of it was frontage, a single room with scattered tables. The selection of music was excellent, with the Stone Roses 'She bangs the drum' being amongst the playlist. The toilet was rather small however and I think that there were problems with the lock on the door. A pub full of character.

G had finished his haircut, so the next step taken was towards the Gardeners Arms, popularly known as the Murderers. This is a very large and quite busy, but rather good, pub with a huge number of rooms, nooks and crannies, and they did a good bit of food. They also had a very good beer selection of about six different ales that I could not be arsed to record, and there was an excellent array of dry snacks. For such a well known pub, it is surprisingly untouristy and well worth a visit. Elizabeth arrived during the latter stages of our stay, so we took the chance to have another pint, this time in a snug area with cosy chairs near the back of the pub. A quick stop at Refreshers was next. Despite being a bit of a shithole and having such a dearth of beer that we had to have Guinness, it did have a few noteworthy features. These include the ornate light fittings, blood red ceiling and sauna-like ante-room before the toilet. We sat at a long table whilst Elizabeth's brother and his girlfriend joined us.

Things on the beer front were looking up when pints of Rumpus all round were ordered in the Coach and Horses, replete with quiz machine. This was a smart but not trendy pub with an ample range of well kept ales. Of particular note in this establishment was the strange isolated seat found between the left and right halves of the bar and pictured below. Their range of board games was also pleasing. Not that we could be bothered to partake. With the televised Luton v. Liverpool match about to start we dived into the award winning Champion to catch the first half. The range of beer was good in this rather simply decorated but solid pub, and they had one beer on offer that was very well kept. The atmosphere was good and we could have stayed in there all night had we chosen to do so. It was however time to move onto the Coachmakers' Arms around the corner which even had barrels of beer behind the bar (see photo) though it was a little disappointing to find that the bulk of these were not yet ready to be consumed by us. We did however get some very good pints in anyway, and see the end of the match.

A bit of a walk back to roughly from where we had originated followed, and the chance to pay a visit to the Black Horse. Most of us chose sensible beers, but somewhere along the line there was a glass of hot Pimms and apple juice. A ridiculous notion yes, but one that was strangely satisfying. The pub itself was OK, quite busy with a bit of beer available but nothing overly special. We found ourselves on a very exposed table in the middle of the room and were glad to drink up and get out. A little further on was the Alexandra with a few ales on. We had been here before and it was satisfyingly unchanged. The crowd remained in boisterous mood, but on the whole it was an OK place. Almost with a studenty air actually. I think G may have commenced on the spirits in here as he was feeling anomalously sober for his birthday eve. When we left, we decreed that it was time to visit the nearby chippy 'The Chip Shop'. This is a magnificent establishment and is just how a chip shop should be. The picture below depicts all tucking in heartily to their battered bounty. As per usual I decided to be abstract - I think I had small chips, pickled egg and cod roe (for which I did not have to wait).

Only a few yards away was the Belle Vue that we had visited before which was a much quieter and cosier pub and we were able to sample some fine ales though sadly they had not got a local mild on. I like this pub on account of its welcoming yet old-mannish interior, and because it has two bars. Soon leaving time was upon us, and we headed towards the Mad Moose, though we did pause for a G birthday shot at the Garden House, another from last time. G had a vodka or something equally silly and went for a piss, whilst I had a half of some hopefully unimportant ale. Two minutes later we were out and heading into the Mad Moose, a Y shaped pub with a large bar serving a few ales at the apex. A shabby yet trendy establishment, they had made a shit job of glass washing as we sat in one of their soppy old sofas admiring the marks on the vessels. After a final abortive attempt to get into a pub with a very gay landlord with a tight vest, we managed to get last orders at the Rose Tavern which was serving till midnight. This is another busy quite studenty type pub and had a couple of interesting beers on - I think that I opted for something like Leffe, and a spiked lager for G. Fortunately on this occasion, G had not consumed too much or smoked too much and we made a much more sedate journey home with a man in a speeding Mercedes minicab. We didn't even pause to take a picture of the Old Falace Road sign. We did however have a good laugh as we hurtled past, so we haven't lapsed out of the old ways just yet.