I know how many of you have missed my musical interludes, and that a bit of Mozart hasn’t made up for those nu-folkie gig reviews you love. I’d started a little post of some of the great music released since mid-March; if you’ve got Spotify (and if you haven’t your name is either Peter… Continue reading KEEP IT CHILL ! (IN THE EAST VILL)
Month: June 2020
SWAFFHAM PRIOR – TWO WINDMILLS, TWO CHURCHES, ONE PUB, ONE DITCH
Nine days to go and counting until life returns. I’m positive, even if I’ve yet to find a single person on CAMRA Discourse who intends to be in a pub on the 4th. They’re all too busy staying at home, saving pubs by slagging off Wetherspoons. My latest jaunt into the modest charms of the… Continue reading SWAFFHAM PRIOR – TWO WINDMILLS, TWO CHURCHES, ONE PUB, ONE DITCH
STREET DRINKING IN CHIPPING SODBURY
“Welcome back to Chipping Sodbury You can have another chance It must all seem like second nature Chopping down the people where they stand” (John Cale – Graham Greene from Paris 1919) Good grief, prescient lyrics 47 years on, as Chipping Sodbury once more makes the front pages of Bristol Live and CAMRA Discourse. I realise… Continue reading STREET DRINKING IN CHIPPING SODBURY
CONEY ISLAND CRIMINALS
Another 30 degree scorcher today, as the sun gets it all out of its system before 4 July. A year ago we were also sizzling in 30 degrees in Coney Island, the highlight of every trip to New York (joking, it’s the Bass in the Ear). Brought up on songs from Lou Reed, the Ramones… Continue reading CONEY ISLAND CRIMINALS
BRIXTON TO BRESCIA
I’ve checked my “Blog Post Request Book“, and “Opera and shopping malls in Brescia” has zero votes. So here its is while I countdown to the glorious 4th. At the tail-end of my illustrious NHS career I managed to cadge a couple of lecturing gigs at the University of Pavia just south of Milan. … Continue reading BRIXTON TO BRESCIA
REGISTERING FOR PUB VISITS – ALL 1,128 OF THEM ?
Some reflections on the New Normal, but more importantly the answer to the question posed 2 months ago – How many pubs did I visit last year ? I’m wary of speculation about what pubs will be like on 4th July (if they even open). In fact I’m not sure I’ll be rushing back. You… Continue reading REGISTERING FOR PUB VISITS – ALL 1,128 OF THEM ?
DYKE’S END, PUBS RESTART
4th July, then. No, after YOU. Politicians, radio hosts and royalty think all pubs look like this; rather than this; Talking of royalty, across the Bottisham Fen (5 minutes by crow, 20 by car) is the Dyke’s End, a pub graced by Prince Charles when the community rescued it 20 years ago (see also :Hesket… Continue reading DYKE’S END, PUBS RESTART
FINCHAM PUTS THE BABY OUT
If you thought blogging on those unsung Fenland villages was tough, welcome to West Norfolk. Fincham (pop.496) is one of those places you drive past at 39 29 mph, take a look at the Swan with its Abbot sign and Thai deals and think “I wonder“. Then you get distracted by the sound of… Continue reading FINCHAM PUTS THE BABY OUT
QUAFF ‘EM IN SWAFFHAM
Pubs serving beer again ! Sort of. Kentish Paul requested this trip out to Swaffham, capital of the, er, North Brecks. I had Swaffham down as a town of at least 10,000, with eight pubs, three supermarkets and a lucrative trade in selling fish and chips to pilgrims/gentlefolk on their way to Walsingham and… Continue reading QUAFF ‘EM IN SWAFFHAM
THE ROVERS RETURN
Less than a week after that lightning birthday mission to Salford to see Matt, we were back today, this time with Mrs RM in tow (not literally, that would slow us down). Leaving the house bang on 12, stopping only for 2 packets of Doritos and some diesel in Birchencliffe, we still made Ordsall Park… Continue reading THE ROVERS RETURN
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