Last month was when we had a partial lifting of the lockdown and could drink outside a pub. This time we could go back inside.
My girlfriend had booked this week off. But her dress rehearsal for today’s grand opening lasted well into today’s early hours. So she was left sloshed up in bed when I set off down town at ten o’clock. This was good timing; rain had been falling since my rising five hours earlier. Not that rain was going to deter my trip out today. Getting wet last month didn’t stop me much then.
In Blackburn town centre there looked to be more people about. My port of call was the Postal Order, quashing daft rumours of it closing down. It was like time had stopped still in here and this lockdown never really happened. Usual faces were behind the bar and its usual suspects were also in the pub. My first pint in here was a Golden Hobgoblin. Blackburn’s own Doff Cocker was my next one.
It was a nice feeling being sat at a table in the Posty. Despite images of barcodes and technology on my table and all over the place, I still filled in one of their slips of paper. This gave my details and was good enough. On previous visits, last year, my mobile phone was my usual way of entry into this place, although it could be a long wait until my phone picked up Wetherspoon’s WiFi and I figured out how to use their app. No doubt it would be put into use again on future visits, especially with my allocation of CAMRA tokens arriving with my new membership card.
During April’s outside pub re-opening, the Sun, Charles Napier and Rock Box received visits from me. After today’s couple in the Posty, it was this latter pub which was visited by me next. A nice blond pint of Optimum was my first pint back inside the Rock Box. A really good darker bitter was downed later, called D-Day Dodger, from Wigan’s Martland Brewery.
It was great to be back drinking inside Blackburn’s pubs again. Even more so during our current autumnal Spring. This year’s has been like a spring of another kind, one which spews from the ground and is wet. But like the season, perhaps being allowed back inside pubs again will make us feel this lockdown is finally coming to an end and give us back this sunshine most of us have been longing for.