retiredmartin

May 2023.

Well done West Ham. David Moyes is finally a football genius.

Couldn’t happen to better fans. UEFA ought to introduce a returnable deposit on those plastic pint glasses, though.

Four weeks ago I was in West Ham land, taking two (2) new ticks from what has been a bit of a beer desert, never mind a GBG wilderness. The three cask pubs you can see on this map are all in the Guide; draw your own conclusions.

I walked the mile up Green Street from the Boleyn to Forest Gate, passing a lone (keg) Taylor Walker pub, some terrific architecture,

ancient fontage,

and endless clothes markets.

Yes, Green Street aka the A114 is the capital of the South Asian fashion market, a delight to stroll along and not have to worry about pre-emptive ticking.

If you ever need to choose a sari, this is the place to come.

Oddly, despite the wealth of sweet shops places for a sit-down curry were less obvious, so I nipped in the modern shopping centre (still mostly saris) for some Singapore noodles from East Wok.

I know next-to-nothing about Forest Gate, bar the fact its Spoons has (almost) taken longer to reach the Guide than West Ham took to win another trophy.

It’s one of those (I guess) early ’90s models that supply the only cask in half of North-West London, the sort of place like Ruislip where everyone is drinking Guinness, and if there’s a buoyant market for cask I didn’t see it on my fleeting visit.

But, despite that Portobello Porter looking a little “indistinct”, it was a solid 3, and I really should have stretched to a pint so I could get rid of that welter of Spoons vouchers clogging up my new Fjallraven Kanken wallet that Mrs RM bought me because she doesn’t like me carrying round pound coins in a plastic bag.

“Whatever. Just show us the carpet”. OK.