Day 1 of our Sussex Saunter and a night in Horsham Travelodge. #LivingTheDream
Sadly, Mrs RM had to prep for phone calls with angry Frenchmen, so I set off for the GBG fleshpots of Worthing on my own.
Nearly an hour on the train, as it has to wobble down to the edge of Bognor and get me to make a 7 minute connection on the coastal rattler towards Brighton.
Sadly, it was 8 minutes late leaving Worthing, so I arrived just in time to miss that connection;
Half an hour to fill in Barnham, whose Trip Advisor highlight is a Tesco Express.
Actually, that’s OK, there’s a deserted old house,
and one of the best sign posts in England.
And a pub I’ve never been in. What has the Murrell Arms done to so effectively avoid Beer Guide selection over the years ? It’s not as if Bognor is flush with GBG entries.
Presumably it’s a bit too gastro ?
Well, no, it’s very village pub;
And a decent pint of foamy Pride.
Pub games, historic pub interior of notes, Bass mirror,
and at 16:40 packed with laughing locals of all ages.
I’m lucky to get a seat tight against the bar in the lounge, and reckon my 17 minutes is just the right time to get the feel of the place.
The regulars watch me attentively, waiting for me to declare “The Pride is drinking well“. They don’t see me scribble down NBSS 3+, and would no doubt tell me “It’s always 5+ here, mate” if they did.
Their own concerns are tea, gas leaks, and tea, in that order.
My only concern is when the landlady opens the hatch (marked “THE QUEEN GOD BLESS HER”) to the bar against my table, sending the foamy Pride over the jumper my Dad lent me because I’m too tight to buy new clothes.
“My fault !” I say.
A proper boozer, but take a raincoat.
retiredmartin 
It’s always ‘my’ fault innit. Out of interest, do you get that imposter syndrome thing in pubs, like you don’t really belong there and everyone else is a local but you. I suspect some people never get it, a true sense of pubgoing entitlement, but I get this a lot…
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yes, particularly down south.
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A lot of people claim to have Impostor Syndrome at events such as weddings, christenings, and funerals..
Yes, that must be unsettling, especially at your own.
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Horsham? Yikes. You should’ve said. We might have been able to offer you a better deal than the Travelodge. Did you make it to the Anchor Tap, now reopened under new (Malt Shovel) management?
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Didn’t do anything in Horsham, nothing new. Just used it for train to Worthing as we had to be at the campervan place in the morning !
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