Thanks for all your ideas on blogging to keep me out of trouble. Some of them seem semi-legal.
Unlike folk in the plague-infected north I hope to move to some day (just as it enters Tier 4+ I expect), I follow those silly rules the 80 seat majority Government impose on us.
So I’m staying within the county boundary, reading National Geographics back to 1966 and NOT drinking.
And planning a triumphant return to the fray on the 2nd.
I’ve started another giant spreadsheet with my pub “wants”, like you used to do with Panini World Cup ’82 stickers, and scoured Facebook for clues as to opening times.
These are the first four counties.
Who knows where I’ll be able to go on the 3rd (if anywhere) but the temptation to do some Wales in the campervan before it goes to pot is very strong. I’ve left Baa Baa Toure in the van since Dereham and I’m sure he’d love Merthyr.
Goodness knows how Simon and Duncan are planning their Decembers; will it be worth booking that 6am train to London ?
Here’s a few unexpected highlights of GBG21 I might be tempted by;
KENDAL – SIX (6) pubs in one town, but NONE of the four pubs I’ve used over the years are in the Guide. This was the last pub I visited in Kendal;
If all six re-open in December that’ll be by first big night out.
HEANOR – Where ? What ? Two new micropubs put Heanor back on the GBG map. Not far from there to Holbrook for an emotional return to the Dead Poets.
BARNSLEY – THREE new entries, as the micro craze sweeping northern South Yorkshire comes to the town best known for serving Mrs RM a Cinzano Coffee on New Year’s Eve 1995. She might join me for this.
SOUTHAMPTON – THREE new entries here as well, and one of them ISN’T a micropub. We demand an inquiry !
EARL SHILTON – I walked past the Shilton Vaults last year when the Constitutional Club got in the Guide, unaware I was walking past Bass. I need to remedy that error.
THE ISLE OF WIGHT – It does not exist.
THE ISLE OF MAN – Let me in !
Loads to look forward to. In theory.
As our Katherine would have it “December will be-he-he, ma-ha-ha-ha-gic again”
And don’t forget my birthday is on the 22nd. Anyone stops my birthday being anything less than brilliant is in big trouble.
retiredmartin 
Not a flat pint in sight in those pics!
Yes, I’ve been to Kendal several times but never in any of those 6 somehow.
3 in Barnsley – Does that include the one in that fellas garage?
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Jolly Tap at the Arcade, Tipsy Cow, Miner’s Rest, not sure any of those are in a garage. Tin Oyle ?
Barnsley on WhatPub looks a different world to the one I remember !
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Jolly Tap was Arcade Alehouse wasn’t it? Sure you’ve been there!
Smithy Arms, Oxspring is the one in a garage.
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Maybe the pub in Kendal was dropped for subscribing to The S*n?
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Oooh, CAMRA GBG selection intrigue.
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Ah, the Isle of Wight…Elton John is really called Reginald Dwight… the twilight of the gods…Götterdämmerung…Richard Wagner’s repeated indebtedness and unhappy love life made him easily impressed, by what he understood to be Schopenhauer’s philosophy, a deeply pessimistic view of the human condition, and he remained a devotee of the thinker for the rest of his life.
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At least Richard didn’t have to suffer those seats at Bayreuth.
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A trifle hard on the derrière, perchance?
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Kissen sind verboten.
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Pillows are prohibited? 🤔
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Oh cushions. I read this comments without context!
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Not one of Kate’s best, although it does grow on one after a while.
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No, but at least an original Christmas single. Not many of those in the ’80s (except Jona Lewie, obvs).
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“and NOT drinking.”‘
Egads man! (or do I detect a slight ‘wink, wink’ there)
“but the temptation to do some Wales in the campervan before it goes to pot is very strong.”
Is Wales on the cusp of legalising marijuana or did you mean your campervan is soon for the scrap heap?
“Goodness knows how Simon and Duncan are planning their Decembers; will it be worth booking that 6am train to London ?”
Plan away I say!
(we’re rolling the dice with regards to spending time over the Christmas holidays with our lads… and grandson!)
“If all six re-open in December that’ll be by first big night out.”
My advice? Don’t stop to get takeaway to take home! 🙂
“She might join me for this.”
Staying overnight? Or maybe the campervan? Or will Mrs RM be having the coffee again? 😉
“unaware I was walking past Bass. I need to remedy that error.”
Indeed!
“Anyone stops my birthday being anything less than brilliant is in big trouble.”
Agreed!
Cheers
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That line on Wales could have done with a comma (though not sure where !). I meant get to Wales before they close it down again because their first lockdown didn’t work. Do you have the phrase “go to pot” meaning end badly ?
And no, I don’t drink at home. No alcohol in the house. Occasionally I’ll bring Mrs Mrs RM something back and might help her finish it, like that 4 litres keg the other week. You missed all that debate in the first half of the year !
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“Do you have the phrase “go to pot” meaning end badly ?”
Go to pot, at least for me, means to deteriorate, mainly thru neglect.
With regards to helping Mrs RM ‘finish it’, there’s my wink, wink. 😉
And as for missing the debate. Sigh. Mea culpa.
Cheers
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(I really don’t drink at home)
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Hmm, half the new entries in Cheshire are established pubs, and the Wickstead Arms has (or had) Bass 😋🔺 Are the Cheshire branches feeling well?
I have fond memories of the Boot from forty years ago. All changed now, although the idyllic location is still the same.
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Cheshire (excluding Stockport, obviously) seems to have avoided the plague of micropubs sweeping the cheaper regions.
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Cheshire is more new trendy bars in prosperous commuter towns. But there are plenty of new crafty bars in Chester. Here’s the original brief blog I wrote about the Boot:
https://pubcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2009/07/cheshire-plain.html
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Chester is a bit of a law unto itself, isn’t it ?
Yes, bottle shops in Knutsford and Holmes Chapel are what I expect every year. Even Crewe had a go at going craft, though I don’t think the market will be there for that until about 2137.
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T’other Mudgie,
Well yes, that’s another argument for Stockport to make a clean break from Cheshire and take on all those SK postcoded villages in the Peak District.
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T’other Mudgie,
I remember the Wickstead Arms in the 1970s as the only Boddingtons pub in Nantwich.
On a coach trip from my branch the landlord replied to “and one for yourself ?” with an abrupt “I don’t drink with CAMRA” so a member or members must have upset him in some way.
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