retiredmartin

Quite a low-key month compared to the dramas of January and February, but it did include Mrs RM’s trip to Moldova (twice postponed due to family traumas) so not entirely dull.

(Only) thirty-six different pubs, as I can’t count really count the ten in Iasi and Chisinau as “pubs”.

Some classics in that 36, including a first visit since January to The Sun.

It’s not my local anymore, and with “Sunnyside” on the market I’m not sure how many more nights I’ll be staying in Waterbeach while visiting Dad. But the cask in The Sun, even the rugby themed one, was superb.

“I told Helen, because if you don’t tell the publican their beer is good, who will ? Rarely less than 3.5, this was a 4.5. That matters.”

I’ll make The Sun Pub of the Month; I’d have loved it to be “Back in the USSR“, but instead Transnistria will have to make do with the coveted “Supermarket of the Month” award.

Not many actual new GBG pubs, that ticking lark has rather gone to pot of late. But I did make some inroads into Posh Goole, and the Bricklayers at Laxton looked the business, with the bonus of a request stop in the middle of nowhere.

But people make pubs, and I had the joy of pub crawls with Blackpool Jane and Karen in Stockport at the start of the month, followed by Quinno in Loughborough, where the Peacock’s Bass (top) was the star.

Bass is highly variable, and so is Harvey’s Sussex. So it was good to get a gorgeous pint in the Beau Nash, where my father-in-law was under the misapprehension you can buy three and a half pints for under £20 in Royal Tunbridge Wells.

That would have been my Beer of the Month, but I only had a half and beer isn’t something to be drunk in halves, not when you’ve finished the GBG.

And in truth, Moldovan Tomato Gose isn’t something to be drunk in pints,

but I was glad I did. It was sensational. But Moldovan bars will never match the pubs of Manchester, or even Maidenhead.

Some of the countries on Mrs RM’s (Ukrainian made) map DO have great pubs, though. Perhaps I should make some plans to visit them.

But first in April, Torquay.