A QUICK GREEN DEVIL IN THE LIVE AND LET LIVE

May 2024. Cambridge.

Sometimes I really think I really should slow down, like my mum keeps telling me to. But it’s the slowing down, and sitting down, that kills you, so keep moving.

Actually, 2 snatched hours in Cambridge, 3.8 miles walked, some shopping at Sainsbury’s, a beer festival and two pubs (and missing last orders in another) does sound a tad manic.

The problem with walking so quick is that you create slack in the itinerary, so the 1hr 12min that Google says you need becomes 47 minutes and you’ve suddenly got time for a half in the backstreets of Mill Road.

Ah, the Live. In 2022 (just after it re-opened) I wrote “The Live & Let Live is to Cambridge what the Wellington is to Sheffield, the Angel to Manchester, the Old Vic to Stockport“, the cosy, charismatic place more interested in beer quality than beer tickers (boo !).

There are a few recent Untappd check-ins, mind;

Oakham, Orkney and Nethergate are what you might have found here 20 years ago, and the Citra picks itself.

Unless there’s Green Devil on, of course.

Just a cool, chewy half (NBSS 3.5), common sense kicking in, enjoyed in that seat in the middle of the room I always plump for as you can see everything.

A pub for the well-dressed man, the solo drinker as much as the group of Science graduates,

a place with classy art in the Gents.

And the same breweraniaiana on the walls as there’s been for 3 decades.

Reassuringly, I seem to report the same things on every occasional visit; lived-in feel, warm welcome, Thwaites tat, cool, rich Oakham beer.

Long live the Live.

16 thoughts on “A QUICK GREEN DEVIL IN THE LIVE AND LET LIVE

  1. I remember the Live & Let Live as a keg Ind Coope pub, firstly when at college and later when working for Benskins in Watford; Cambridge was our easterly outpost, where we had four pubs.

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  2. My mantra is 10000 steps at least a day & keep doing the stairs. If I don’t do that I start to stiffen up very quickly. Having said that now I’m closer to 70 than 60 these targets are becoming harder to achieve. Hey ho – keep on beetling around as long as you can . Pauline

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    1. Keep at it, Pauline. I’m a similar age, and it’s true what you say about stiffening up.

      7,500 steps is my normal daily total, unless I’m going out somewhere special.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. It occurs to me that with Untappd check-ins you no longer have to look for the dripping tap. You just look at Untappd and know what to order. The beauty of technology. It isn’t as romantic though.

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  4. 20,000 steps a day to stay sane?

    That’s the kind of logic that I like.

    If I breathe in and out 25,000 times a day then maybe I’ll stay solvent.

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      1. Literal humour’s good too Dave.

        If I’m solvent then I should be able to dissolve things.

        I’ll start with this excuse for a government and all their baleful works, maybe.

        Liked by 1 person

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