retiredmartin

May 2024. Sheffield.

The rain stopped on Monday afternoon.Time for a lengthy walk, I think.

Often I’ll just head off randomly uphill, and today I found myself up Bole Hill Road for this view over the Rivelin.

But never mind bucolic valleys, there’s alpacas at the top of that walk. No, not you lot;

Actually, I don’t wish to walk with alpacas, thank you; a cuddle will do.

At the top of the hill you reach the A57 and the posh suburbs of Crosspool, where they can afford rhododendrons and the Ember Inn on the way out to the Snake Pass.

Nice views, but lacking the pubs and tram links of north Sheffield, though I did get my first Covid booster at St Columba which may have kept Covid at bay during my rush to tick the GBG.

And then you’re descending to Endcliffe‘s student village, and Broomhill’s leafy suburbs,

where the charity shops sell Du Pré albums for £25.

Twenty-five pounds for a second-hand vinyl ! The world’s gone mad. I did a circuit of less than affluent Hillsborough’s charity shops and couldn’t find a used LP for less that a fiver. And that was Val Doonican.

It made the new vinyl at Record Collector a few doors down seem a bargain,

I’d been meaning to revisit the Itchy Pig for a while. Actually, I’d forgot I was here in 2021, but that’s 3 years ago and was a “distress revisit” during a downpour.

Nothing much has changed. Fantastically cheery guvnor, old pennies on the counter,

beers from solid breweries you’ve heard of,

and a soundtrack so quiet I mistook the Kinks for Dylan.

I do the little dance at the bar;

“How would you prefer I pay, cash or card ?“

“YOU decide, whatever YOU prefer”

and hoping handing over a twenty for a pint of Anarchy and a packet of poppadoms won’t decimate his change too much. He gives me a collectors card as well. I think you should always accept collectors cards but refuse tasters.

The Citra Star is cool and rich, and settles at a 3.5 after looking like a 4 at one stage.

Those poppadoms need a dip, mind.

I loved the Itchy Pig. Despite it feeling it a little less lived in than I remember, and the low tables not being perfect, it felt really, really, pubby. And I know what I mean by that. One customer’s lad at the bar treated like the regular he was, couples in the corner, chat if you wanted it, quiet if you didn’t.

And as in 2021, loads of really intelligent banter, like you get with that Sheffield Hatter bloke, though some of it did verge on cruelty when the Leeds United came in.

There’s a sister Itchy Pig in the even posher suburb of west Sheff I really must visit.

I bet the street art in Banner Cross is a bit less intriguing though.