retiredmartin

January 2026. Blackpool.

When you left us Mrs RM was in St Annes Spoons, resisting the onion rings but succumbing to Chardonnay and Cointreau after that Imperial Stout. It may be her only relapse during an otherwise impeccably observed Dryanuary.

In consequence, she was in no mood to join me in the chill of the St Annes bus stop on Friday (yes, LAST Friday, I’m almost caught up !), so I left her to a jar of M & S coffee and an Eccles cake and spent the next half hour meticulously setting out instructions on how to get the 3 miles into Blackpool.

You know you’re in Blackpool when the Number 11 drops you off at Starr Gate (home of the stars), and you see your first advert for Elvis.

I’ve bought a paper Bus and Tram Day Ticket for £6.60, a task that will prove impossible for Mrs RM three hours later.

Four (4) new GBG ticks (all micros) along that hour long tram line to Fleetwood; I am literally beside myself with excitement, like Red on his trip to Zihuatanejo.

That excitement will fade over a day of tram chaos, but at the start I revel in the sights.

Norbreck Castle would make a great hotel, don’t you think ?

Two noon openers in Cleveleys (neither of which will actually open at noon).

But I can pop in on the way back from Fleetwood, so no harm done. And I did use that stop to squeeze in the nation’s favourite breakfast. A lovely little pic of this low-key seaside resort on the Spoons menu;

In and out of the GBG as Cleveley’s develops a little gentlefolk-driven beer scene of its own, the Jolly Tars looks exactly like you’d expect at 11:35am.

“What’s that you’ve got there, RM ?”.

Well, I ordered the £2.99 “small breakfast” (quid cheaper than Liverpool), but what I slowly realised with horror, half-way through the “sausage”, is that this was the vegan alternative (also £2.99, so they can’t sue me).

And very tasty it was too. The “server” (ugh) came over with another breakfast, which I rejected, and then the supervisor came to see what the fuss was about. Given that those breakfasts were coming out within 6 minutes of ordering I presume the vegan customer wasn’t too inconvenienced, but I wasn’t hanging about to find out.