FIRST OF THE SUMMER WHINE

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Sunday’s beer garden joy in Welford reminded me we’re coming to the time when non-smokers suddenly wish smokers were back in the pub, instead of contaminating their fresh air. Whingers.

Pub Curmudgeon’s blog is your primary source for this debate.  Start here.

Smoking is a killer. I’ve never smoked, don’t like smoke and support efforts to help people give up.  But it’s a legal substance many folk get enjoyment out of, and I’ve always supported allowing smoking in separate rooms in pubs, where they exist.

I was having this very debate with Mrs RM in the beer garden at the Regal, the only Spoons in Cambridge since the wonderful Tivoli was fire damaged a couple of years back.  Quite a decent Beer Fest range on, too.

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It was packed with diners, there was detritus on the few spare tables, and it’s a dark mess of a pub. So we were happy to join the smokers, most of them Italian students, in the courtyard with it’s magnificent Cambridge views.

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Magnificent Cambridge views

Not sure if the beer was better because of a late rush on cask to use the vouchers, but the Bitter & Twisted (I can’t spell Harviestoun so won’t try) was cool and tasty, a clear NBSS 4.  Mrs RM had that one then, I had a slightly less stellar oaty thing from Hilden.

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Neither of us speak Italian (beyond “Si” and “Calcio”), but the Italians were having a great time, and the old boy who brought his own handle for his John Smiths Smooth wasn’t far behind.

Mrs RM could only agree that smokers make more interesting material for bloggers, but was horrified when I suggested they be allowed back in to smoke in their own room.

“But it would upset the upholstery  !!”   She really did say that.  After one pint.  What can you say to that ? (that won’t end in divorce).

The march on Parliament to protect the rights of upholstery can’t be far off.

Published by retiredmartin

Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.

11 thoughts on “FIRST OF THE SUMMER WHINE”

  5. When me and the wife went to one of her relatives wedding in Scotland at Fintry castle,we stayed in a lodge there over the weekend,the Castle bar which is open to the public only had one real ale on Harvistoun Bitter & Twisted,we must have shipped gallons of it over the weekend,which was great,we did some barn dancing and other complicated dances at what the Scottish half of the wedding group called a caley or somthing similar which was also good fun,i was so *issed at the end of the wedding night i put my wifes jacket on,which she thought was really funny and fell into a ditch while walking back to the lodge.

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      1. I have not done a blog on it,but there is more to it.
        We went there by train so had a drink in a few pubs in Stirling on the Friday night before getting a taxi to Fintry,when we arrived at the castle a young man told us the lodges were past a few trees,it was pitch black and there must have been thousands of trees,we kept walking up a road and past a lake,i was getting *issed off,so as usual my wife thought it funny while i was carrying the cases,we then saw some headlights in the distance so decided to see if we could find out where we was,it was a foreign lorry driver parked up,i was by now well fed up and decided to walk back the way we had come,when there was some headlights heading very fast towards us,no pavements so we had to move to the side of the road as we had not seen any cars on it,the car skidded to a halt just past us and man got out and said are you the couple who were looking for the lodge,we said yes,he then said he was the owner of the castle and lodges and could hire staff but not his own children,he then gave us a lift back to the castle and shown us up to the lodges.

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