It seems I don’t always do a separate December review, but as you know I like order, and it gives me a few more hours to think about the awards issue. HIGHLIGHTS A more exciting travel map than a year ago, anyway, even if it looks a bit squeezed into the middle. I did see… Continue reading DECEMBER ’21 STOCKTAKE + JANUARY ’22 PREVIEW
Month: December 2021
THIS IS THE K.I.T.
It’s just dawned on me I have to actually write the 2021 Review, it doesn’t produce itself spontaneously out of thin air like the whole of creation apparently did. Looking at my “liked” Spotify tracks the first one is this positive track encouraging us to hold on till the pubs re-opened by This is the… Continue reading THIS IS THE K.I.T.
SALT BAO
One day left to catch up with the blogs AND write my famous 2021 Awards Post (or at least Part 1/14). I’d nearly caught up, but I’ve just done another dozen pubs in Durham and Edinburgh, because you don’t save pubs from the comfort of your home. This must be December 27th, a fifth day… Continue reading SALT BAO
BOXING DAY – BALTIKA & BELGIAN BLUE
Boxing Day is “traditionally” the day that blokes go to football while their wives clear up the mess from Christmas Day and make up an inedible casserole from turkey and Brussel sprout leftovers. You can guess what the retiredmartin household thinks of “tradition”. Talking of football, saw this on the Manchester City Blue Moon forum;… Continue reading BOXING DAY – BALTIKA & BELGIAN BLUE
THE QUEENS SPEECH, OR A PINT IN THE BLAKE?
You left us on Christmas Day just as we’re about to be kicked out of our new Sheffield local and forced to watch the Queens Speech and eat Long Clawson cheese all afternoon. In desperation, I scoured the Facebook pages of the nearest GBG pub. Well, well, as Jimmy Saville used to say. Open till… Continue reading THE QUEENS SPEECH, OR A PINT IN THE BLAKE?
CHRISTMAS LUNCH
3 days off from pubs after my birthday, with trips to see the families and deliver presents. Christmas Eve in Tunbridge Wells, where the in-laws decreed it’s not safe to visit pubs. They’ll be first to complain when they’re all shut. At least on the way down to Kent we’d stopped over at Cambridge’s brutalised… Continue reading CHRISTMAS LUNCH
PAISLEY – PINTS, PIES & A HARD-WON POINT
The last post from my epic birthday (22/12) and the Pub of the Day, an award that will be on display in the Paisley Art Gallery until 23 July. The Wee Howf (stop E) was just a short hop from the crowded Bull, just past Church Hill. The best pubs are the ones you can’t… Continue reading PAISLEY – PINTS, PIES & A HARD-WON POINT
DON’T STAND AT THE BAR
When I watch City at the Etihad they urge me to get there an hour before kick-off to subject myself to scanners, Covid pass checks and the delay caused by tourists who are queueing for the wrong block. I return they were offering half-price Amstel for my efforts. In Paisley, Duncan is determined to get… Continue reading DON’T STAND AT THE BAR
PAISLEY – THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BUDDIES
Perhaps it was the effect of the 11.2% Imperial Brown Ale, but Paisley looked stunning as I set off in the mizzle to find the Northern Way, my last Greater Glasgow tick in GBG21, before a trip to St Mirren Park to see the Buddies smashed by Celtic. All it lacks is a statue commemorating… Continue reading PAISLEY – THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BUDDIES
ALL THE LEAVES ARE BROWN
One more tick to complete Greater Glasgow‘s chapter in the Guide. Tickers dream of finishing chapters in towns as attractive and mysterious as Paisley, they really do. It looked magical. After checking in at the astonishingly good Motel Air I got the evening under way. Beer, curry, football, architecture, in the company of pub royalty.… Continue reading ALL THE LEAVES ARE BROWN