retiredmartin

“At the age of thirty-seven
She realised she’d never ride
Through Paris in a sports car
With the warm wind in her hair”

The Ballad of Lucy Jordan

Well, at the age of fifty-eight and a half, June 2023 was the month I realised I wouldn’t be completing the Good Beer Guide by the time the Iron Maiden themed GBG 24 drops (ugh). So that leaves the door open for Duncan or Ian or Eddie (not the Iron Maiden one) or BRAPA or Malt to take the crown I claimed on Rousay last year.

My travel map in June contains nothing as exciting as Rousay, but starting in Gateshead and ending in Sinclairs Oysters Bar (just wait for the report on that !) it doesn’t look too bad a month.

And it still saw a few Guide chapters completed in pleasing pink marker.

But most of June was spent at Sussex-by-the-sea,

and taking Dad out for brunch in rural Cambridgeshire.

Dad turned 88 on Friday, and is probably getting fed as well as he ever has or will, and long may it continue.

My father-in-law had a good pub visit or two as well, including a first ever trip to the Crown Posada which was as good as I’ve ever known it.

Other pub highlights included a return to the Red Lion in Snargate after 23 years,

and in complete contrast to Snargate an afternoon with the in-laws in our very own Walkley Beer Co. sampling juice rockets and imperial chocolate sours or similar.

Pub of the Month was the chaotic but brilliant Smugglers Records in Deal, where the “wow” moment was the charming relationship between young landlady and gentlefolk. You must go.

Beer of the Month goes to the Doom Bar in the Spoons in Rochester.

Of course it does. That £3.13 simple burger wasn’t quite pub meal of the month, a crown held by the Eggs Royale at the Merry Monk. So good we went back last week.

June was also the month I got the music back, as Mrs RM reconnected Tidal to my Hi-Fi via the Sonos box, none of which makes any sense to me, and I was able to hear the Keaton Henson record recommended by the lovely young folk at Three Sheets to the Wind, another great new pub.

But in a month where the BBC’s coverage of “Glasto” (ugh) focused on folk old enough to be the audience’s grandparents, my record of the month comes from a young whippersnapper;

July Preview

The only item on my list so far is to give Baa Baa Toure an overdue wash.

Alfie has said he will join him in the washing machine.

Oh, and by th by, my “e” on th keyboard seems to have got stuck. Expect unintentional hilarity.