retiredmartin

I’m not sure any month in which your Mum dies can should have “highlights”, but after the 13th, and following of a month of barely leaving the family home in Waterbeach, it was important to clear my head a bit, even if the travel map looks resolutely Sheffield/Cambridge/Kent,

and (as in Lockdown) it’s the inability to explore new places that really wears me down as much of the lack of exercise. 36 different pubs in January, though very few newbies.

The night Mum died we escaped to her home village and stayed in a Spoons hotel in Leighton Buzzard, which was exactly what I needed that night.

Will the Sheffield Hatter took me off to Gainsborough that weekend,

and an afternoon watching Trinity take on Macclesfield in freezing temperatures was exactly what I needed to break up funeral arrangements. Thanks, Will.

The Eight Jolly Brewers that day felt a classic again, but my Pub of the Month has to be something rather unexpected.

Temporarily shorn of chip smells, Cambridge’s Eagle felt (for a day) less tourist trap and more Cambridge local. It won’t last.

Beer of the Month came from just over the road from the Eagle, Verdant’s Putty in Pint Shop the grapefruit murk of your dreams.

OK, perhaps not your dreams. And not at £17 a pint.

Cheaper, and consistently good, beer in Wetherspoons, Paul Mudge will be delighted to hear. The Crowborough Cross was the best, and had that cross-section of society we love about Spoons.

Anyway, tomorrow will be hard, but after that I look forward to finding out what life is like beyond Waterbeach and Southborough.

Rather beautiful, I reckon.