Of Beer and Wheeled Transport....

I got a lift into Hereford with Mary, who was going down to see her mum. She dropped me off near the bus station, and I went into Rockfields to see if they had any sort of trolley for Islay (she didn't like Plan A, which was a bit cobbled together; Plan B came without any wheels because I hadn't read the advert properly - and if Plan C doesn't work we'll go for Plan 9 From Outer Space!).
Nothing there, so I moved on to the Early Learning Centre, and just about every other shop in Hereford that sold anything with wheels.
I came close a couple of times, but didn't see anything ideal - so I went to drown my sorrows at Beer on the Wye, the Hereford Beer and Cider Festival at the Rowing Club.
This turned out to be a very good idea.
I started with a Norfolk beer, a mild from the Wolf brewery called Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, which was a nice, tasty one to start with. I drank Wolf's beer many years ago when I was an archaeologist in Norwich. He was the brewer at the Reindeer pub, and that was the diggers' pub of choice (apart from the Rouen, aka The Ruin, which was perched right on the edge of the big pit which would shortly become the Castle Mall shopping centre).
For an encore, I saw that they had a barrel of Continuum there, from the Hardknott brewery. After the taste sensation at the Rake in London, I had to try that one! It wasn't quite as 'bright' as I remembered, but then Dave the brewer was on hand at the Rake to make sure it was served at its absolute best, whereas at the beer festival it was only one of 120 different beers - and 70 ciders and perrys - and 39 foreign bottled beers. It still went down very pleasantly, though.
And finally, a beer I hadn't tried before (I was gradually working my way northwards up the country). Lia Fail is from the Inveralmond brewery in Perth, and the tasting notes say "A dark, robust beer with a deep malty taste and balanced finish."
And that was where I called a halt, though there were many more beers there that I would have liked to have tried.
Instead, I went back into town, and went for the least awful of the trolley choices. It's a big, square shopping trolley with four wheels, so it'll be nice and stable, and once I've padded it up with cushions I reckon Islay won't complain too loudly when I put her in it. Road trials tomorrow evening....