More holiday snaps from Manchester. It really is a treat to visit when you’re not a bag of nerves.
Worth remembering is that this blog is basically a diary, like Pepys without the lechery (that’s BRAPA) so you occasionally get posts without pubs. NO, you can’t have your subscription back.
Sunday evening after that quick pint two schooners in Track was a battle to get the rest of the family to leave the comfort of a room with WiFi.
Eventually, we set off for Spinningfields. Grief, what a dump.
Mrs RM and Matt were adamant they weren’t hungry (having pigged out at the Cutlery Works in Sheffield) but half an hour later were getting irritable at how many places in Manchester were shut on the Sunday before the Bank Holiday. And the open ones were packed. Same thing the Southworths noted at New Year. Odd.
Me stopping every two minutes to coo over the architecture probably didn’t help.
Thank goodness,then, for the Hungarian community, serving up sausages and chips outside the Town Hall.
Not quite This & That bargain prices, but warming and with a Magyar folk band performing Kangaroo Air Force Ventilator covers.
In the morning, I took Matt out for some father and son shopping. You know how much men love shopping. We’d completed that malarkey in seven minutes.
On the way back I pointed out the artistic highlights of Oldham Street.
Matt is 18 tomorrow so will legally be able to drink four pints of Old Tom in the Castle. But I bet he doesn’t. He’ll be in Cambridge Spoons drinking milk.
Talking of milk.
“Ugh, that’s mayo” screamed Mrs RM.
This is the house coffee at Ca Phe Viet, where Mrs RM enjoyed the noodle soup while I stuck to Bahn Mi, the hipster’s choice.
There then followed the most tortuous two hours of my life, at least since my Certified Accountancy Costing exam in 1984, as Mrs RM forlornly tried to buy me a casual jacket.
By the end, as we finally found our way out of the posh shops opposite Sinclairs, even Mrs RM needed a beer.
retiredmartin 
Surely you meant Matt will legally be able to buy you four pints of Old Tom?
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Ah. That as well 😉
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The flyer asks “fed up of hammering?” (e.g. at a door, as to get in). SC Condor are a football club, I understand. No, it still means nothing to me.
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Actually, it could mean “fancy having a crack?”
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I was going to cancel my subscription but then I realised I have Life Membership.
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So have I. A bargain.
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You’re going to make a reservation yet in your life.
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As Van Morrison sang in 1986 “No taxi, no taster, no reservation”.
NB I believe we may have booked the church when we got married.
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And, as he sang last Autumn, “yodel-ay-ee, yodel-ay-ee, yodel-ay-ee, yodel-ay-ee”
Thought I’d never see the day. Frank Ifield eat your heart out.
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If you’re going to do one, that is the right one.
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Prepare for disappointment.
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Ah … Penny Dropping at last … yes, most of Manchester is a dump isn’t it.
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“Even Mrs RM needed a drink”.
Hallelujah.
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“like Pepys without the lechery (that’s BRAPA)”
And the occasional commenter. 😉
“Name that pub”
Gotta be a Spoons.
“…but filling”
Finest kind.
“and with a Magyar folk band performing Kangaroo Air Force Ventilator covers.”
Blimey. They’re turning out to be band of the year.
“We’d completed that malarkey in seven minutes.”
My youngest and I could probably do it in 5.
(my eldest on the other hand…)
“I have no idea”
Something about free riding on mountain bikes with a Hamburg football team?
“By the end, as we finally found our way out of the posh shops opposite Sinclairs, even Mrs RM needed a beer.”
Cunningly done sir.
(doffs hat)
Cheers
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Surely it would be eight halves of Old Tom, instead of four pints in the Castle Hotel.
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Halves?!
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Last time I was in there (it was a while back) they would only sell me a half of Old Tom. Not sure if it’s still the case.
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Wes,
I had that problem in one of the three Stockport pubs where I’ve drunk Old Tom these past two winters.
( No more winters in Stockport )
Maybe two out of three ain’t bad.
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> “…this blog is basically a diary..
Yes indeed, although many diaries are published on an annual and retrospective basis.
You are only about twelve months behind ?
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Twelve and a bit, but catching up!
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> Name that pub…
Looks a bit like a ‘Spoons to me.
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It does.
I think it’s the fancy German bierkeller place.
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>…as Mrs RM forlornly tried to buy me a casual jacket.
When online shopping reaches Waterbeach, then you won’t have to endure that !
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Ugh
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Eight weeks ago I was on Timothy Taylors Ram Tam – proper Yorkshire beer – in that Mr Thomas Chop House.
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