Sierra Nevada Harvest was off so Trashy Blonde formed part of my hangover cure in York yesterday

Friday’s trip to London was a hectic one. I woke up knowing that it would be 13 and a half hours until my return journey commenced, about as depressing a thought as you can have at 6am. I was on a late train home from the capital and after rushing between meetings all day and frantically trying to find wi-fi around Marble Arch in the afternoon, I  spent a couple of hours with Glyn from the Rake sampling an eclectic mix of their finest beers and chatting about the busy few months we both have ahead of us. That was the eye of the storm as I then rushed up to Kings Cross for the home bound leg, eventually crawling into Morley just before the new day started.

The morning brought with it a heavy head from staying up with a nightcap to watch Mad Men on iPlayer (not to mention a quick half at Leeds Brewery Tap because I’m incapable of timing transport links with any degree of coordination). It was off to York for the day then with Sarah with the promise of a nice lunch and a slow paced amble around the cobbled streets.

No day trip to York is complete without nipping into one of the pubs around the minster and checking the guest beers at Pivo. Similarly I can’t pass the Oxfam book shop on Micklegate without spending an inordinate amount of time browsing through the Penguin Modern Classics before delving into their travel section, which on a good day could rival Borders (which isn’t hard these days I guess).

Just as you can guarantee that every charity shop has at least one copy of Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding, nine times out of ten you can rely on York’s Oxfam on having a couple of beer books in stock.

Yesterday two books caught my eye, The Good Beer Guide 2008, which on it’s own wasn’t enough to tempt me to part with £6. However the well worn copy had the endearing quality of having previously belonged to a beer ticker and I  couldn’t resist my geeky urges as I started to compare my beer drinking with his (or hers).

A window into beer geekery, littered with comments and ticks galore

You gotta love charity book shops...

The geekery didn’t last long though as my wandering eyes were caught by this absolute gem: a paperback dedicated to hangover cures, written by the late and eccentric Keith Floyd.

Floyd is a chap who simultaneously extracts mixed emotions from me. I wouldn’t say I love and loathe him (I’m not that bothered), but I do find his haphazard aproach to…well…everything, quite charming, whilst also verging on the distasteful at times.  I’m not sure this book shares the highs and lows of his passionate creativity, rather his irreverence and a perhaps lackadaisical attitude to alcohol.

Amongst the hangover cures (mostly all of which seemed to include a hair of the dog, obviously) was this one below for the somewhat legendary Prairie Oyster, oft cited in films and popular culture. If you think it sounds bad enough, try searching Google images for a picture of one, they look flipping horrendous.

I'm not sure I'd trust a hangover cure called a Prairie Oyster, especially if recommended by Keith Floyd

Suffice to say, chicken fajitas in the shadow of the imposing York Minster and a cheeky Trashy Blonde were enough to sort me out (or maybe it was the snooze on the way home?!). I didn’t buy any books in the end, I saved my money for some locally made Halifax Town memorabilia which will make a cracking birthday present for my brother.

Roger Protz's Ultimate Encyclopedia of Beer from Oxfam in York

There’s a great little Oxfam bookshop that I tend to pop into each Christmas in the hope of some eco-friendly, altruistic and (hopefully) cheap chrimbo presents.

Previous years have resulted in some gems of presents and some great popular science finds for myself. There seems to be a continuous supply of Good Beer Guides stretching back into the nineties and noughties and is one of the only charity shops that doesn’t have a token copy of Bridget Jones on the shelf (I dare you to find a charity shop that doesn’t carry this permanently!).

Today didn’t let me down, coming across not only one but two copies of Roger Protz’s The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Beer. In the end I opted for the pictured copy as it was £3.99 (the Yorkshire side of me made the decision based on the fact the other copy was £4.99!).

I’m actually going back for the other copy on Tuesday as a gift but I had my hands full today and was short of coppers…hopefully it’s still there!

http://www.viewleeds.co.uk/prizes/win-a-copy-of-a-new-book-on-londons-best-pubs-details-379.html

Gotta be worth an entry to complement my notebook for my next expedition to the capital!