Recipe for Sunday bliss (From York Press)

Recipe for Sunday bliss

10:20am Saturday 14th January 2012 in Pints of View By Guzzling Gav

GAVIN AITCHISON reveals his plan for a perfect Sunday.

OI! No smiling. Yes, you. We’ve got to be miserable – the tabloids say so. Don’t you remember? We’re heading for the most depressing day of the year.

Any minute now, the redtops will be wheeling out spurious stories about ‘Blue Monday’, telling us how glum we’re meant to be and wallowing in the nation’s debt and dejection.

If it doesn’t happen this Monday, it’ll be the next one, you’ll see. Either way, it’s coming.

January, it seems, is no time for fun. We’re supposed to be ruing our festive excess and trying to get fitter.

Haven’t you seen all those self-help guides doing the rounds? Three easy steps to detox; five ways to fight the flab; your ten-point plan to happiness? Everybody seems to be at it – bookshops, newspapers and bloggers alike.

Well, if you can’t beat them, join them; that’s what I say. Or at least, it is today. And if that’s what people want, then here goes.

Don’t panic, I’m not straying too far from our usual focus. There will be no broccoli, zumba or herbal teas in this column, you can rest assured.

Nope, instead I offer you this: an easy-to-follow four-point plan.... to the perfect Sunday afternoon.

Step 1) Buy the papers. Step 2) Find a nice pub. Step 3) Order a big roast dinner. Step 4) Pick a pint.

That, dear readers, is it – your failsafe guide to a happy few hours in a potentially gloomy month. Just four ingredients: papers, pub, lunch, pint. I’m sure other factors (family, friends, sunshine etc) could help, don’t get me wrong. But those four are the vital essentials.

Working Sunday shifts means I can’t enjoy such days as often as I’d like but when I can, as I will tomorrow, I grab the chance with both hands.

I arm myself with the Saturday Press and a couple of the weighty Sunday broadsheets, and proceed to eat, read and drink my way through the afternoon, hour by hour, mouthful by mouthful, supplement by supplement.

You may have guessed I’m no novice at this game, but I am always on the hunt for new venues conducive to such loafing. So I was a happy man indeed when I visited The Ship Inn at Strensall.

A lot has changed at this place since it last featured on these pages, almost two years ago. Martin and Irene Capeling have taken over, the menu has been relaunched and the beer quality has won national recognition, earning the pub a place in Camra’s Good Beer Guide for the first time.

I had the full pork roast and two pints – one Doom Bar from Sharp’s in Cornwall and one Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, two excellent ales that were in very good condition.

A publican I know claims you can judge an entire pub by how it keeps its Landlord and, if so, The Ship is in fine fettle. Check it out, and apply yourself to that simple four-step plan above, and you could see results as soon as tomorrow, and have a perfect lazy afternoon just like mine.

Follow Gav on twitter @pintsofview for beery news, views and chat.

York CAMRA award

WINNERS: George Wells, left, presents The York CAMRA award to Steve and Ellisif Wilhelmsen-Bradley, at the Fulford Arms.

ALTHOUGH 2011 was another tough year for the pub industry, York’s drinkers had much to smile about, with a series of refurbishments meaning several pubs are in far better shape than 12 months ago.

The Spread Eagle, The Volunteer Arms, The Cross Keys in Goodramgate and The Golden Lion were among those to benefit, but one of the biggest overhauls was at The Fulford Arms.

Landlord Steve Wilhelmsen-Bradley was rewarded on Thursday night, when the York Campaign for Real Ale presented him with its quarterly “pub of the season” award.

Steve, who runs the pub with his Norwegian wife Ellisif, said: “It’s an honour to win such an award. We must be doing something right!”