retiredmartin

January 2026. Bispham. Blackpool.

I like this Blackpool tram map so much I’m going to use it in my Rotherham post. None of you will notice.

Ah, Bispham. How do you even pronounce it ? And why is Little Bispham so far from Bispham proper, let alone Bispham Green ?

This would have been a good time to slow down a bit, luxuriate in Lancashire after 3 rapid pints, have an ice cream from Manfredi’s.

But Mrs RM had (at 2:26 in the afternoon) finally awoken from her St Annes Travelodge slumber and headed into central Blackpool, failing to follow my cut-out-and-keep guide to procuring a day ticket (key point : Ask for a day ticket).

So I’d better rush this fourth and final new Blackpool GBG tick in 2 hours then. Bad idea, right ?

Yes, it was a very bad idea, what with the scandalous lack of toilets on trams (if the trams even turn up).

So I should have had a half in CASK (love a wacky name), and it wasn’t a really exciting beer range.

But beer tastes better in a pint glass, someone said that once, and a tasty but over-chilled Acorn Blonde (NBSS 3) for under £4 isn’t bad,

though on reflection the crafty keg looks better.

CASK is your usual rectangular box, bright and modern,

but as I descended the stairs from my (increasingly urgent) loo trip the conversation was of more ancient events.

“Ooh, I recognise that B bass. Is that Level 42 ?” asks a bloke some years from conception in 1987.

“Dunno, could be“.

“Definitely Level 42” I confirm, buoyed by the confidence of three rapid pints.

Except it isn’t.

How can three people confuse Level 42 with Nik Kershaw ? It’s a riddle.

I admit my grave error, confirm the song the Gen Zs are thinking about is indeed “Lessons in Love“, and get a botched High Five. Hey ! Not all Zoomers hate Boomers (yet).

Across the road lies a pub more suited to the Silent Generation than Boomers,

and if I’d still got the bladder capacity of a Millennial I’d have popped in the famous (and open !) Bispham for a pint of Sam Smiths OBB.

Though reviews of that have been, to be kind, mixed.