retiredmartin

 

I awoke (no pun) to find the Lake District the Number 1 trending item on Twitter.

Oddly, it’s not because the Lakers are building a wall to keep BRAPA out, merely that the Lakes are racist or something.  So that’s OK.

I’m quite diverse, I don’t wear a pashmina or read the Telegraph, and I continued my pursuit of GBG ticks on the edge of Keswick.

Braithwaite has views to the newly racist hills from the gardens of the Middle Ruddings Hotel, which has been calling my name from Page 92 or thereabouts of the Guide for decades.

The best thing about the Lakes, apart from the hilly bits, is that the “pubs” opens when the micropubs in Wiltshire are shut, sometimes before noon !

The hotel manager was in his office when I tipped up at 10:46, but seemed unusually pleased to leave the VAT return to open up the bar especially for my half of Haystacks.

Sometimes hotel bars are the quietest places on earth.  I at least had a chatty Landlord, who took the fact I’d spent the previous night in Workington in his stride, as if suggesting that paled compared to an afternoon in Maryport.

If you ever want to compile a league table of Black Eye Friday destinations, this is the chap to visit for research.

Sadly, I had the hotel bar to myself, with the Christmas trade arriving from Farnham and Fleet later that day.

At least there were no pashminas blocking my view of the hills. Or the mulled wine machine.