January 2025. Leighton Buzzard. It’s hard writing these posts so close to Mum’s death, but the blog is a diary, and I’d be lying to the diary if I didn’t tell it I felt a strong need to maintain a sense of normality as chaos ensued all around. And Mrs RM, bless her, was dealing… Continue reading BASS IN BUZZARD AT THE BLACK LION

January 2025. Leighton Buzzard. Death sets in motion a whole chain of events, many outside your control. The only thing I knew on Monday after a day of interviews and statement taking and a lot of advice was that I couldn’t stay in Waterbeach that night. Hence that trip to Mum’s birthplace, and a night… Continue reading SOMETIMES, ONLY A NIGHT IN A LEIGHTON BUZZARD SPOONS HOTEL WILL DO

January 2025. Eaton Bray. Mum died peacefully on Monday morning, starting a week of phone calls and paper trails and photo selection, but I made my priority that night to visit the church where Mum and Dad were married in 1961, in Eaton Bray, just north of the Dunstable Downs. She was born in this… Continue reading AN UNEXPECTED RETURN TO EATON BRAY

January 2025. Waterbeach. Coming to the tough-to-write posts now. Mum took a turn for the worse over the weekend, and I’d hardly be able to leave her for the next two days. When I did pop out, for her favoured pineapple juice, I nipped in The Sun to clear my thoughts. Pubs are good like… Continue reading A SNATCHED 20 MINUTES IN THE SUN

January 2025. Downham Market. I’d allowed an hour and a half to do all 3 Downham pubs, my Tesco shopping, a bit of sightseeing and some dithering about a Chinese takeaway. I’d only need an hour. From the Live & Let Live, where I sensed folk staring at me, to the modest Tesco, where again… Continue reading THE WHOLE OF DOWNHAM MARKET IN THE SPOONS

January 2025. Downham Market. I abandoned my trip to King’s Lynn 2 stops early; bizarrely it wouldn’t have been a penny cheaper to have just booked a ticket to Downham Market. Someone will be along shortly to tell me it’s still a capital offence to leave a train early in West Norfolk. Downham (pop. half… Continue reading A DOOM BAR IN DOWNHAM MARKET

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… Continue reading WHAT ON EARTH HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN KING’S LYNN ?

January 2025. Littleport A bitterly cold night in the Fens, and I had to catch the 17:03 back to Waterbeach where I’d collect Mum’s Chinese takeaway 20 minutes later. As Pubmeister noted last time, Littleport is no jewel of the Fens, feeling as isolated as, say, Chatteris despite the railway. But then, Watlington has a… Continue reading ABK REPLACES DOOM BAR ON THE GREAT OUSE

January 2025. Littleport. Cambridgeshire. My only escapes from Waterbeach are brief ones, to unsung towns by rail. Towns like Cambridge, Ely, and now Littleport (pop. 9,168). A trip through 20 minutes of relentless black, fertile, soil brings you to Littleport station, from which it’s a bitterly cold 15 minute yomp to what passes as the… Continue reading YOUR COMPLETE GUIDE TO CASK IN LITTLEPORT

January 2025. Cambridge. From the Eagle it’s about 28 minutes back to Cambridge station if you don’t stop in the Fitzwilliam to knock over a priceless Ming vase; I reckoned I could do it in 18 minutes and get a half in the Old Ticket Office. I did it in 17, then remembered this sign… Continue reading REAL ALE ! IN A CAN !