retiredmartin

July 2023. New Street Station, Birmingham.

I can see how Simon gets so easily persuaded to do a seventh pint at the Parcel Yard when he does those long days by train via London.

You’ve invested enough funds to feed Colin the Cauliflower for a month, dealt with the stress of that Kent pub you had to walk to in the rain, at least one micro was closed for a wake, and here you are at the station with 20 minutes till a return to the grim reality of York/Sheffield/whatever.

I had 19 minutes before Platform 10 called, time for the Welly or the Colmore (if I’m allowed in) or that new Bundobust.

I’d managed about sixteen strides, apparently climbing some 300 feet, narrowly missing an oncoming metro (when did they put those there ?),

when I saw it.

Is this the Parcel Yard of the Midlands ?

Not really, it’s just a bog-standard Nicholson’s, so more a White Swan (Covent Garden), but I always feel a slight urge to pop in when in Brum, knowing I’ll regret it an wish I’d done the other pub of the same name.

Hey ! What about doing all the Shakespeares in the UK ? There’s some really awful ones. It’d be fun.

Early Saturday evening, folk are having F.U.N. in here, the closest pub as you stumble out of New Street.

Let’s be the ONLY bloke ordering cask, shall we. What an uninspiring line-up, and that’s from Mr “One Beer Is Plenty”.

I pick the one that sounds least likely to be “selling like hotcakes”,

and sure enough that Dark Star Skylab (what ?) is OK but lacking the crispness of actual sales.

The barman waves the card reader in front of me; I see the figure 5.55 just before I swipe.

Tiny place, and in the Gents a young chap convivially says “It’s very small, isn’t it ?“.

I think he was talking about the loos.

That five minute pint seems such a good idea at the time, doesn’t it ?

Oh, well, it’s full of life, and that’s what I love to see in 2023.

Even if 37% of the trade is hen parties from Four Oaks.

Next up, Shakespeare, Manchester.