Tomorrow the pubs open their doors so that us bloggers will have something more to blog about than complaints about wine gardens and ordering by apps. I can’t wait, and I’d better make a decision about where I’ll be tomorrow. Go on, guess.
Some will complain about table service and social distancing remaining in pubs, but I can live with that. But after the Heaventeenth I’ll just be missing gigs and football.
I’ve given up football since last March, as football without fans is pointless, and with games scheduled for every time except 3pm on a Saturday I didn’t even know City had won the League on Tuesday night due to United’s noble (but doomed) attempt to keep Liverpool out of the Champions League..
More importantly, the Scouse bus-wreckers had lost it, which prompted a tiny celebratory can of Kirkstall at midnight. Never drink at midnight folks.
The next day I’d arranged to meet Quosh in the Eternal City and get my hair cut, the perfect opportunity to see Manchester celebrating bringing home the League.
A short hop across the Peak via the art of Sheffield Station and some more natural beauty near Hope.
I’ll be honest, Piccadilly always feels like home; I almost envy Matt living here.
Look, he’s getting a new craft bar soon ! When will it stop ? (A : It won’t).
I tried to pick up a copy of the Manchester Evening News in the WH Smiths at the station to see their coverage of the League triumph, but I’d forgotten that WH Smiths are no longer a newsagent and don’t sell papers.
And then I jumped on a local train and headed to Cheadle Hulme, hoping the sun I’d brought with me across the Pennines would last till I was seated in my next pub.
And, of course, it did.
retiredmartin 
My parents got married in Cheadle Hulme with their wedding reception in what’s now a Greene King pub.
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That would be the Governor’s House, Paul ?
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Yes, that’s it, though I wasn’t about then !
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Many of us do envy Matt…
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One of my friends even stopped watching the televised parlour games that are his beloved snooker and darts because they have no crowds and he won’t be going back to watch live darts any time soon simply because the rules take all the fun out of actually being there.
As for other rules, pubs near me seem to be very relaxed about them (with the exception of shutting very early), one pub even seemed confused so as to allow us to order at the bar but had to insist they had to bring them out to us ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
My regular haunts reopen from tomorrow and as I was telling Mudgie, I may even venture to Bolton.
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Forget where, but one pub was writing this week to the effect that you could buy your own pint as long as you drank it sitting down and wore a mask inside, which would have meant avoiding the dreaded table service (and eased life for wet-led pubs). That’s not right though, surely ?
I can confirm that Bolton is as good as anywhere to re-start pub life indoors.
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I tend to do most of my pubbing during the day when the pubs are quiet. The bar staff in my regular haunt know what I drink so just come with it and offer refills without me having to ask. Makes table service bearable.
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But where’s the JOY in that, Bill ?
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Bill,
Yes, there’s something very comforting at my time of life to ( in normal times ) walk into a pub two miles from home and a pint glass is being filled with 6X as I approach the bar or it’s a “Bass, is it?” on walking inside.
Youngsters wouldn’t understand that.
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I wouldn’t like that at all, Paul.
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I had forty years of going after ‘interesting’ or ‘unusual’ – but never ‘inspiring’ – beers.
Not any more.
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