April 2026. Easington. North Yorkshire.
Mrs RM declined my offer of a night in a a campervan in a Cleveland car park, her loss.
Two hours later I’m at the coast, “I can see the seaside !“, and planning blog titles for the Tiger in tiny Easington (pop. 400).
I’m expecting it to be full of folk on day trips from Whitby and the smoglands, all “reservation for Tracey, four, but Dave’s not arrived yet, do you have a children’s menu ?“.
But the three Old Boys (no doubt younger than me) are all drinking the cask, and there’s not a menu in sight.
Oooh, Bass. Not quite the same without the Bass glass, it’s good, but is it very good ?
These are the issues that the CAMRA top brass are wrestling with on Discourse in an effort to make the organisation relevant to “young people”, who really couldn’t care less. And I don’t mean that in a negative way. My two lads drink cask because it’s often very good, and cooler than they were told. CAMRA should take credit for those achievements.
Oddly, the kidz like pubs like the Tiger, too, pubs that play Billy Jean and Cutting Crew and Survivor.
Yes, the Tiger plays “Eye of the Tiger” (but not Tiger Feet). This is surely the best version;
Old Boys don’t seem to mind what music is played, they’re just chatting village matter with their mates, and have no view on whether “Ordinary World” is Duran Duran’s masterpiece.
The Sky Sports is playing at irritatingly low volume, but otherwise I can’t faulty this cheery place.
The food trade does arrive belatedly, just as I head to the loo. It looks like the toilet door designer had a go at representing a woman, thought better of it, and left the original up.
A metaphor for life, perhaps.
retiredmartin 
I have never known “Sky Sports playing at irritatingly low volume”.
Yesterday afternoon my dear wife and I, both rather peckish, went to the Swan at Whiston.
I had to reply negatively to the unusual “Have you booked ?” question on arrival.
Never mind, I thought, the Holdens will be drinking just as well in the Bar as in the Lounge.
There I noticed a “Bar Snacks” menu and, with it confirmed that they were available, I ordered a steak and onion baguette and salad for myself and, with being assured that would be fine, an equivalent plateful from the main menu for my wife.
Being just as good as in the great Great Western, three pints of Holdens 5, a 5% stout, lasted an average of just over twenty minutes each.
Anyway, what I was getting to is that the Sky Sports is the Swan’s Bar was playing at a whisper which to me was very nearly as good as it being switched off.
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Imagine if they had played something by Tiger Trap.
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I’m sure I heard a song about an Asian living in Switzerland.
The Thai of the Eiger ?
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