Only here for the beer

Poor Mr A wasn't feeling well today; I think he's got what I had over Christmas, so I can sympathise.

I offered him a duvet day, but he wanted some fresh air. After much deliberation of what to do/where to go, we walked into Accrington town centre.

We came across some stray cats as we passed the Arndale Centre; as much as I'm not a cat fan, they tugged at my heart strings as they looked so dishevelled. So much so, we called into a shop to buy dried cat food to put down for them. They actually lived in the bushes. Poor things :-(

We had a look in the Market Hall and at the brick press machine (sorry Richyf) before wandering onto Broadway for a warm up in Costa.

The Christmas lights are still up, and looked lovely against the sunset.

Our walk home took us past our local (though we haven't been in for ages). We both fancied a Guinness so stopped off for one.
The bar has had a bit of a refurb over the last few months; what was the pool room is now a micro brewery, although it's not up and running just yet. The landlord hopes this will be ready by the end of the month, and has planned a 'beer and sausage' evening (FisherKing - you must come for that!) for the grand opening.
They always have a great selection of guest beers and since our last visit, have introduced 'taster' platters of either 3 or 7 samples. Each sample is a third of a pint and the triple sampler was only £2.40 so we decided to try.
We chose a 'Lancaster Black' (stout), and a couple of other ales called 'Rudolph's revenge' and 'Blonde Moment' (had to really!).
The stout was by far the nicest.

By this time, we'd been out much longer than we'd planned, so it was off home for corned beef hash, crusty bread and crap tv.

Perfect!