A year ago retiredmartin was in a bad way.
Pubs had just closed as the unexpected Lockdown 2 hit as dark descended, and after a final hurrah in London my blog material dried up. Both of our lads were kicking their heels, and our move north to Sheffield hit an unexpected snag due to an overhanging tree.
So I will never take normality for granted, or condemn photos from a dullish pub visit to the bin, waiting for something more exciting to come along. Something like a Wetherspoons curry in Swindon.
In that spirit of gratitude, here’s the Swan in Clewer.
Readers who bother to look at the words as well as the pictures on this blog may realise that I was parked 10 minutes from Clewer just a month ago, but was too wiped out to do it. BRAPA would have done it.
The Swan is a community pub, with its own 6th form school teaching NBSS scoring and cheese tastings. Community pubs are a shoe-in (shu-in) for the Guide, and often rightly so.
Expect to meet some or all of Clewer’s many famous residents in the public bar;
So does Blackjack Brewery, here providing its Tart Stout (don’t, Russ. Russ ?) to a neighbourhood bar in in Berks.
The welcome is great, the pub is quiet, I wish I could always visit pubs at their busiest time like BRAPA.
I felt obliged to go cask; the imminent arrival of the new GBG is the only time in the year I feel “CAMRA”,
and the Guardsman is a lovely cool, rich drop which dispels memories of some rather dull Windsor & Eton beer in gastropubs.
One other chap is in the corner, working on his laptop. It’s not Jimmy Page so by deduction I work out it must be Sir Daniel Gooch.
But HE has his own pub in Swindon, that I’ve just visited. Surely you’d live in your own pub, wouldn’t you ? Even if it was in Swindon.
retiredmartin 
Natalie Imbruglia must have made quite an impression at the time, because when we did a Thames boat tour in the summer, a great fuss was made about pointing out the house she used to live in (Jimmy Page was a previous owner).
I agree that Windsor and Eton (like Rebellion) can unfairly suffer from gastro neglect. One of the best beers I have ever had was pint of W&E’s Old Father Thames in the Wetherspoons at Victoria Station.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There you go, Spoons volumes are not to be sniffed at. Fairly sure I had a great pint of W & E in that one at the services off the M40. In gastropubs, the pumps are often there for show, like horse brasses.
LikeLike
I’d always imagined that White Lilies Island was some kind of wafty New Age concept, not an actual place.
Did you know that CD was the first to contain copy protection software? Although I never noticed because obviously I’d never been minded to rip anything from it. It’s a bit in one ear and out the other.
I think later releases of Windows Media Player and similar software override it anyway.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have a vague recollection about one of her CDs having some feature, but I wouldn’t have recalled it in a music quiz.
I never knew that Eel Pie Island was an actual place till I walked to a dreadful pub in Hammersmith.
LikeLike
Yes, I’ve dug it out of the box and can confirm that the copy protection no longer works. I’ll give it a spin before putting it back in again.
LikeLike
“…so by deduction I work out it must be Sir Daniel Gooch.”
He’s held up well for a man of his age.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Folk called Dan often do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Going to the pub every day helps you stay young.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Speak for yourself, Will.
LikeLike
Agreed. At least I still have hair and most of my teeth.
LikeLike
Glad you have re-hired your original title writer. Good appointment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I picked them up in a charity shop in Evesham, 12 for a quid. Might still have some left if you’re quick.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bargain. Think I know the shop.
LikeLiked by 1 person