retiredmartin

I’m keeping this a Covid-free zone and pressing on with (a pub-less) life. But after last night our Matthew has decided that he’s not going to be cutting any more hair in Manchester for a while yet, even with masks on.

His Instagram video on how to cut your own hair is essential viewing;

I could do with my barnet being cut; I look like Ian Gillan c.1981.

Talking of barnets;

Goalscoring hero Kelly Haag had the most out-of-control hair, in an otherwise immaculate looking Bees team, when I saw Cambridge nick a last minute winner (Flatts) at Underhill in October 1993.

I made it to the match a mere 3 hours after moving house from Letchworth.  Mrs RM was delighted to be left at home in Hitchin to unpack, as I recall.

Barnet, in its various incarnations, was only 20 minutes from my office south of St Albans in the late 90s and I’d often pop in for a match, kosher deli or half of AK at the Sebright Arms.

But the new Guide entries dried up in the new millennium and the Bees left the slopes of Underhill for edgy Edgware (some people never learn from Yeovil) and I’ve only been back once in ten years.

In 2017 we took the tube from High Barnet, into Kings Cross, and revisited this gem.

The Mitre to you and me, one of the classic London coaching inns.  Occasionally you have to grit your teeth and revisit an old favourite when a town hasn’t had a new GBG pub for years, and the Mitre lures you in with its classic windows and promise of professional drinkers.

It was 1995 when I first came here, and the beer range is as traditional now as it was then.  Punk IPA on tap is the only sign we’re in a craft world now.

Mrs RM found the best seat.

The chap before me ordered the Landlord, so obviously I followed his lead.  The guy next up was more adventurous;

“Pint and a half of Abbot”

“In the same glass mate ?”

The chap pretends to ask his friend is that’s OK. “No, two glasses please”

This was one of the best pints of Landlord I’d had for ages (NBSS 4); sticking to the knitting pays. And a landlord that serves a good Landlord runs a good pub.

The North-West London chapter of the GBG is very thin.  Mainly Spoons and few if any new entries.  Good for the GBG ticker but dull for the pub blogger.