retiredmartin

November, the cruellest month. Or something.

Mrs RM spent the entire month in Kent and Sussex, mainly at Tunbridge Wells Hospital, while I spent most of the month overseeing my own father’s recuperation in Waterbeach, where at least I had the compensations of the Sun and Chung Hwa;

So my travel map for the month perhaps looks better than I might have expected.

Now that the GBG is a Guide, rather than the Holy Grail, my progress is much slower towards Good Beer Guide completion, though I did finish Cambridgeshire, an ultra-rare Wisbech newbie.

Forty-eight (48) pub visits, three of them to the Sun, but only twenty-one of them GBG ticks. But I don’t care about that. If I really wanted to do GBG24 I’d need a week in Scotland and a week in Devon, and I doubt that’s going to happen this year.

Tell you something though; beer quality is as good as I’ve ever known it. Just had three pints in the Blind Monkey (can you tell ?), all between 3.5 and 4. What can it mean ?

Highlights

We should have been in Albania at the end of the month, but instead found ourselves confined to (Waterbeach) barracks and local trips, though admittedly Ely looked stunning.

No-one reads those foreign blog posts anyway, and in a month without exotic travel the views reached a 2 year high. People really do like to read about lacings, you know.

I enjoyed revisiting Kettering, 99p pints and all, and loved this shot;

even though I personally would burn all your flags.

Pub of the Month – The Army and Navy, Stoke Newington

A night out in London watching Haley Blaise play solo in a church, followed by a pint of Guinness enjoyed while Irish Old Boys slagged off Chris de Burgh, was a reminder of how great London pubs are.

Highly Commended – Champion, Norwich (revisit). Norwich, always an enigma with its dreadful “City of Beer” nonsense, delivered the goods on a Sunday afternoon when this Bateman local was alive with karaoke and crisps.

Beer of the Month – Fairytale of Brew York, Harrogate Tap

OK, I’ve scored beer even higher than this one, but I must give credit to Brew York, whose tap in their hometown I hated with a passion but who seem unable to produce dull beer.

Highly Commended – Sam Smiths OBB in the Sun In September, Burnage. But obviously I can’t bring you photos from there. You’ll just have to take my word for it; this is the best Sam Smiths in the world.

Pie of the Month – Pie and peas, Brudenell Social Club

OK, that’ll do,

In December, I shall be mostly counting down to the most important day of the year (22/12), when I hope to be somewhere new and exciting.

Did you know there are two (2) GBG entries to do in Cannock ?