January 2025. Norfolk.
A traumatic day yesterday, one I can’t bring myself to write about just yet. But I need to write to stay sane, so here’s Thursday’s £13.40 rail trip into darkest Norfolk.
I’d targeted a first visit to King’s Lynn since just after Covid, after a couple of years when Lynn had looked like a boom town for pubs, and it was all Duncan’s fault.
Look at all the pubs in the centre;
There must be a couple of pre-emptive ticks I can do tonight, surely ?
But as the train trundled past Littleport I stared at What Pub at a sea of closed pubs.
And if they weren’t closed, they were keg, which of course is worse because at least a closed pub can be the subject of a Lynn Inquirer article with a photo of glum locals outside their “beloved” boozer.
I just counted thirty-five (35) closed pubs within a mile of the station.
And the only GBG entries in a town of 41,000 are the sailing club by the ferry, and the venerable but basic “Live And Let Live“.
What’s gone wrong in 3 years ? I looked in vain at that list for pre-emptives, thought I’d leave that Doom Bar in the Porterhouse for a brighter day,
and jumped off at Downham Market.
retiredmartin 
That is a pretty grim listing. Wow. I’ve not seen a town like that in my searches.
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I remember Pub Curmudgeon starting a conversation about towns with almost entirely keg pubs recently but that’s around half the pubs in Kings Lynn closed. Possibly it’s a list over more that a few years but still…
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It’s not all madness in the East https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/jan/14/norwich-restaurant-charges-100-for-hawaiian-pineapple-pizza
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I like pineapple on pizza, and also put the milk on the tea bag before the water. As with my musical choices, history will prove me right.
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I like pineapple on a pizza too but milk on the teabag before the water is just WRONG. Sorry you’re having a traumatic time, RM, look after yourself.
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One of very few true mysteries is why folk are so opposed to people who put the milk on the tea bag when I’ve never met ANYONE else who does it.
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I just can’t understand why ANYONE would put milk in tea, or have tea instead of a proper coffee.
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I can’t understand why anyone would want smelly tea/coffee instead of a nice palate-cleansing diet pop!
Monster Sugar Free is very welcome in my Moon Under Water.
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Bill has Iron Bru up his way. Not sure if that comes in diet version.
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SP, a tea can occasionally be a welcome break if you’re up to 8 espressos by 10am.
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I can’t understand why anyone would want tea or coffee instead of a pint of proper beer in pubs that open at 9am.
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Never change, Paul !
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https://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/food/100-pineapple-pizza-to-be-bought-by-twat-influencer-20250115253984
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They do that in the Harbour Café in Lerwick. The bacon rolls are excellent but the tea is awful.
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I made tea and coffee (and bacon rolls) for old folk at the Salvation Army.
The odd thing was they all want their tea stewed (water in first) but their coffee anaemic (more milk than coffee).
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You can get diet Irn Bru but it’s rubbish. They did bring out a proper in your face full fat hard as nails version a few years ago but I haven’t seen it about for a while.
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Bill, on the rare occasions my wife drinks it she rightly insists on the proper ‘full fat’ 1901 version.
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That’s it, the 1901 version. Made in Scotland from girders.
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I read that as girdles, Bill.
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