In recognition of the festive season, today I recall Jona Lewie’s classic smash from 1980 (No.73 in Germany). Offers for the rare 5″ version welcome. Leicester’s stay at the top of the League will surely be as momentary as the attention the city gained by digging up a car park recently. Merging the team with Hull… Continue reading BIG SHOT (MOMENTARILY)
Month: December 2015
CONSISTENCY IN COLCHESTER
Only one Essex pub to go in the 2016 Beer Guide, and Colchester is always worth a visit, though few potential tourists seem to agree. A bit like Essex in general, Colchester suffers a bit from being not quite as good as other historic towns like Chester or Lincoln. The coast to the south and east is… Continue reading CONSISTENCY IN COLCHESTER
SEAL CUBS, MICRO PUBS
Saturday was wet and blustery, a great day to go to Cleethorpes and count baby seals (c. 2,000 of them). Donna Nook is an area of salt marshes, used by the RAF for bombing practice and, more secretly, by grey seals for breeding. It’s all very cute, though whether it was worth a nearly six hour… Continue reading SEAL CUBS, MICRO PUBS
TOP 100 PUBS – ‘FRONT, FALMOUTH
My 3rd trip to Falmouth this year, and I found the town as vibrant as ever, albeit slightly quieter just before the Christmas festivities kick in. It really is a place where you discover new views, walks and bars on each new visit. There’s probably as much creative energy here, on a small scale, as anywhere. This time my… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – ‘FRONT, FALMOUTH
MARTHA & JOANNA IN HACKNEY
The End of the Road Christmas gig in Hackney last night allowed me to finish the Beer Guide pubs in East London. The Adam & Eve on Homerton High Street is a cracker, beautiful and bustling with a very mixed early evening crowd. Plenty of seating of all varieties too, meaning it felt as much boozer… Continue reading MARTHA & JOANNA IN HACKNEY
PENZANCE REDEEMED BY BASS
My Sis wanted to explore Penzance, on the assumption that it must have an “independent” quarter. Even Glossop and Mansfield have one of those now, and surely Falmouth can’t have all the alternative scene. We didn’t find it. Only in the attractive but scruffy square housing the Beer Guide-listed Crown did we see much of… Continue reading PENZANCE REDEEMED BY BASS
A STAR IN ST JUST
My sister in Falmouth is putting up with me for a few days, and in return I’m chauffeuring her to a few pubs on Cornwall’s west coast. On our list was the stretch of coastal path above Land’s End, which itself isn’t somewhere I need to return to anytime soon. The hour-long journey takes you past… Continue reading A STAR IN ST JUST
PROPER JOB
On my way down to Cornwall I stopped for a walk north of Bodmin, an area I only really know for the famous Blisland Inn, former national pub of the year and home of a friendly lizard when I was last there. Altarnun is just off the A30 but the pace slows as you get… Continue reading PROPER JOB
GRECIAN 2000
Not much beats arriving in a town you don’t know, with an evening to explore it, £15 in your pocket and a bed for the night paid for. I parked up in Exeter‘s White Hart just as fans of the Grecians were returning from their massive FA Cup giant-killing in the next round. Carlisle away… Continue reading GRECIAN 2000
AN ALTERNATIVE PRESTON
I wrote about my love for Preston and its wonderful pubs in September, without prompting any noticeable surge in house prices there. You may also be aware of Preston through the eyes of the See the Lizards blog, an advert for the inspirational qualities of the Moorbrook (http://seeingthelizards.blogspot.co.uk). The city has plenty of unpretentious boozers to accompany your pie on… Continue reading AN ALTERNATIVE PRESTON
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