23rd Manchester 2022.
We’d paid for our prime site Manchester hotel the night before Christmas Eve (£59, pushing the boat out) and we were going to use it.
Or not.
Mrs RM had work to do, she’d catch up with me and Matt for tea later. I contemplated the trio of Proper Pubs on Portland Street;
but then decided to make some headway into Manchester’s GBG23 entries. But am I actually ticking the Guide this year ?
St Peter’s Square was looking very lovely, the trams were running,
I could probably do Altrincham AND Chorlton’s new bars in a couple of hours and be back in time for another new eatery in the Northern Quarter.
The tram had just passed the monstrosity that is Old Trafford when Mrs RM phoned.
“I’ve lost my purse, can’t buy unnecessary stuff in the Arndale, can you come back ?”.
“Don’t worry, That’s OK, meet you at the central library in half an hour.” Grrrrrr.
I reckoned I could run to the Fell Bar in Chorlton, have a half, and be back on the next tram in 10 minutes.
It was raining by now (In Manchester ! I know !), so I didn’t really pause to admire Chorlton’s main strip, which a decade ago was seemingly converted into a row of single word modern bars called things like “Automatic” and “Electrik” and “Dulcimer”, doubling the town’s GBG entries overnight.
Fell fits in well, but had no sense of being consumed by Black Eyed Friday fever as a mellow crowd sat sipping Cumbria’s finest.
But what are those prices on the board, I read 11, and 14, and 25 !
Oh, they were prices for the LITRE, an odd concept, probably for takeaways. Prices for the humble pint, weren’t too bad at all (£5.50 for 6.3%), and the Tinderbox was a cool, rich NBSS 3.5. Always order the beer you’ve just seen pulled, folks.
Probably should have stuck to a half, mind. Perhaps I’ll go back to Chorlton and give you a proper review of the wholefood knitwear shops and such. It’s overdue.
Back at St Peter’s Square 20 minutes later, Mrs RM was nowhere to be seen.
retiredmartin 
Were you humming this on the tram back to town? 🙂
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Excellent work, Matthew.
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Did you find the purse?
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(spoiler) under the car seat. Thanks for your concern, Ann !
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Is it actually legal to sell beer by the litre in a pub? Mudgie will know.
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It was to take-out, Bill. Odd having the main price list showing takeaway prices, but they opened in 2020 so probably a Covid factor.
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Draught beer, lager and cider are to be sold in pints, half pints (or half pint multiples), third of a pint or the new two-thirds of a pint.
Other measures may be used if the beer is properly packaged and labelled.
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Surely there are no stupid laws now we’ve left the evil EU ?
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Why have you spelt only as “no”?
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A pub sells pints during fifty years of EEC / EU memberships and now there’s litres after we’ve left.
What’s gone wrong ?
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It’s easy to drop things between the gap in the car seats. I do that sometimes. Glad you found it though. I’ll let my husband know when he comes back from the dog walk. He was worried.
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I’d hate your husband to be worried.
Please keep the comments coming.
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Looking at the decorations, do they allow Bees supporters in Manchester?
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Not after that 2-1 win at the Etihad, Dan.
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