August 2025. Rickmansworth. Yes, actually in August! Straight home from our lodge in Richmond (by the by congrats to the Stable Yard for a dozen coffee sachets and NO decaf 👍), then 2 nights in Waterbeach, where the Brakspear Gravity is superb, and then a day at Pembury Hospital A & E with the father-in-law,… Continue reading OH RICKY YOU’RE SO FINE…

July 2025. Ravensworth. North Yorkshire. “Do you have a booking ?”. Ah, the North-Yorkshire-not-quite-touristy gastropub run by enthusiastic young couple in a village with castle ruins. “Um, just a drink please”. “Super, great idea, we have a loverly garden out back”. Yes, they definitely want the indoors for the diners at the Bay Horse, with… Continue reading TASTES LIKE SHERBERT. SEMER WATER AT THE BAY HORSE, RAVENSWORTH

July 2025. Skeeby. North Yorkshire. It doesn’t look like I’ll complete the North Yorkshire chapter of the GBG this year but such is life. The newbies tend to be rural pubs or brewery taps only open Fri-Sat (Guisborough), and I’ve still not found a way to get to the Crown in Middlemoor and back in… Continue reading A SENSE OF COMMUNITY IN SKEEBY

July 2025. Reeth. Back from Edinburgh at that night Mrs RM somehow got an Uber to take us back to the Darlington car park that had been our room for four (4) nights in July, That’s longer than I spent at “home” in Sheffield; perhaps I’ll get a Durham Council Tax demand. Two nights in… Continue reading A REETH GOOD TIME

July 2025. Edinburgh. It’s approaching 4pm on our Big Edinburgh Day Out and time to head Southside. This year’s collection of GBG ticks take you to New Town, Leith and the east, and down through the Meadows to the “Miss Jean Brodie” residential suburb of Marchmont, with its artisanal hardware and giant fish. We’ve got… Continue reading THE MARCH OF THE TALL FOUNTS. ARGYLE BAR, EDINBURGH

July 2025. Edinburgh. Halfway through the Big Day Out In Edinburgh. It’s only just gone 2pm and I’ve already clocked up 22,000 steps and 3 GBG ticks (and half of Mrs RM badly chosen lunch). This is the stage in a long day where you think “Hmm, I could just about catch a train to… Continue reading BASS SPOTTED IN EDINBURGH

July 2025. Edinburgh. Lunchtime in Edinburgh. Mrs RM had left me alone to walk at my own pace, so perversely I bought a tram day ticket I didn’t need and then felt obliged to hop down to the Port of Leith to justify it. The blue plaque commemorating Kentish Paul’s recent luxury cruise stop was… Continue reading THE ARTISAN. SUNSHINE NEAR LEITH

July 2025. Edinburgh. I had six GBG pubs to visit on my first visit to the capital since, oh, 2021, which became five as I realised the Old Eastway had been my pre-emptive punt back then. But I also looked at that Ryrie’s outside Haymarket Station, looking all heritage and wonderful, and thought “I must… Continue reading SHANG-A-LANG. SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF RYRIE’S

July 2025. Edinburgh. Only one day in Edinburgh, but a glorious day, and I’d have got closer to 50k steps if I’d kept going when Mrs RM faded after tea. With the Festival (the posh bit) and the Fringe (also the posh bit) starting on Thursday, Tuesday saw a city heaving with Japanese and American… Continue reading EDINBURGH CULTURAL DIVERSION. P**S FLOWERS AND PANINIS