retiredmartin

A year on from The Great Completion, September 2023 was less dramatic, though the travel map looks scarcely less exhausting.

No trips to Scotland, or Wales, or the South-West, which pretty much sums up my dire attempt to repeat 2022’s heroics on Rousay.

And yes, Duncan, you will get a full spreadsheet. Soon.

A new Beer Guide landed (“ugh”) in Sheffield mid-month and I thought “Well, I won’t DO it, but there’s no harm USING it for inspiration, is there ?”. But of fifty-five (55) different pubs visited in September, only twenty were GBG ticks. Pathetic.

September felt like a month ploughing up and down the M1 and A1 to tend to parents, but looking back there were many highlights, not least the glorious weather that crowned the annual trip to Cranborne Chase,

and fantastic nights out in Farnborough,

and Tunbridge Wells.

T’Wells, in particular, looked very lovely on the hill up to the Grove.

On the walk back from the Grove we were lured into Southborough’s Imperial for a glass of Newcastle Brown Ale with the irrepressible Ernie, who is putting in a late pitch for the Pub Man of the Year. As it is, Newky Brown Ale is beer of the month.

Two culinary crackers. The lemon twist in Scarborough as the Indian Summer had an Indian Summer,

and the bellwether Crispy Beef and Singapore Rice from Chopsticks in Hasland, enjoyed in the rain on a park bench near Chesterfield.

I’m SURE Richard Harris sang a song about that in 1967.

Martin the Maltmeister would know. He knows everything. Mrs RM and I met him for an early tick in GBG24 near Malt’s Newmarket base and scoffed free roasties. The Tharp Arms was, unexpectedly, my new Pub of the Month.

Someone I wish I hadn’t met was a chap who persuaded me to “mind his bags” while he searched for a scratch card in (not-Royal) Tonbridge. The bags were safely destroyed by Kent military.

All of which leaves London. Nothing beats the exploration of new GBG pubs in the City in Autumn, and the approach to the Ship On Crutched Friars is as good as the capital gets.

In October, I will mostly be spotted in pubs. Say hello if you see me, I’m hard to miss.