
Yes, we’ve been off for a short break to a mystical land WITHOUT BEER GUIDE ENTRIES, at the insistence of Mrs RM who’s bored of Sheffield, and also of Pro Properties of Hillsborough who want to get on with finishing off our downstairs en-suite garage conversion (special rates for Patronised readers of this blog).
It was the first time I’d ever been to Manchester Airport.

Easy rail journey from Sheffield via Piccadilly*, just the one stop heading south in Heald Green. “What’s in Heald Green ?” asked Mrs RM. I honestly had no idea.
I sort of knew what to expect of the airport. Mrs RM’s laptop will OF COURSE get taken aside for questioning and then forgotten about, meaning a 20 minute trip through security.
Good job we got to the airport three (3) hours before the flight. Really, who does that ? I remember being on the beach at Troon an hour before our flights home from Prestwick 20 years ago and still making boarding with time to spare.
How do you kill 2 hours once you’re airside, when you’re not even at the terminal with that Seven Bro7hers beer house ? To be fair, it takes 23 minutes to get through then duty free shops to the closed restaurants.
Our only option is the Grain Loft, which sounds like a Spoons but isn’t, and makes you remember just how good Airport Spoons are.

There’s five handpumps on the bar, all empty except a turned round Doom Bar.
And look at these prices;

The chicken burger and upgraded fries with Moretti cost more than the flight.
There is no upside. Oh, the soundtrack wasn’t bad,

the burger was edible, and my Moretti was better than Mrs RM’s Camden. What is the point of Camden ? (take that question in its wider sense if you must).
But the combination of App ordering and that joy of life you get in an Airside Spoons mean this is a dull hour.
Mrs RM has something to lift her spirits when she discovers there’s no puddings. Let that sink in.

I consider winning Simon a new mascot.

And then we take to the skies.

For just £9, they’d have let me sit next to a drunk Mrs RM on the plane. This is the best £9 I’ve ever not spent.
*Though I nearly missed the train after a mad dash to find a post box in which to deposit Mrs RM’s Mother’s Day card I’d wrote on the tram.
“And look at these prices”
Oof..
LikeLike
I live in Heald Green, but even I’d be hard pushed to answer your wife’s question. Its proximity to the airport is the biggest advantage of what is otherwise a pretty anonymous suburb on the Stockport/south Manchester border.
LikeLike
Robinson’s Airport Pub would have been a good bet but of course it’s outside the airport complex and mainly used by plane spotters !
LikeLiked by 1 person
The cask outlets in the passenger terminals at the airport are in our branch area and listed on WhatPub, although I don’t know how many scores they attract. I doubt they’ll ever appear in the GBG.
LikeLike
Would the “Robinson’s Airport Pub” be the Windmill at Tabley where I stopped for a pint in June 2018 as Mrs TSM and Miss TSM hadn’t quite landed ?
LikeLike
You’re headed to Shetland at last?
LikeLiked by 1 person
East Midlands Airport. Off to do that Coalville pub Beermat raves about.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And there’s no internet it seems.
LikeLike
Just as I reply he wakes up.
LikeLike
I wake up less and less these days, Mick.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just what I was going to say. The joys of the Thule Bar await. (Actually, I like the Thule, it’s a basic, unpretentious pub for drinking lager in.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
I ended up in Dublin the last time that I flew west from Manchester.
LikeLike
Loads of new Wetherspoons in Greater Dublin. All potential new GBG entries.
LikeLike
Well you can easily get there without a passport, so why not?
LikeLike