June 2024. Dorking. Our little campervan was looking all lonely in the council car park on our return from Wimbledon, but, unlike Redhill or Leatherhead or any other scruffian Surrey town I reckoned we were safe there with boy racers doing wheelies. Having said she wasn’t hungry and hour earlier, Mrs RM now dispatched me… Continue reading DISPATCHED INTO DORKING FOR CRISPS AND BEER

June 2024. Wimbledon. Some bad planning on my part meant that after ticking that Plough Lane brewery tap I’d run out of time to add an Ewell Ember entry by breaking our journey on the way home to Dorking, and I know how keen you folk are to read about Ember inns in Ewell. In… Continue reading WIMBLEDON’S PRINCE OF WALES PASSES “THE LANDLORD TEST”

June 2024. Wimbledon. It was worth making the effort of getting those Two Together rail cards renewed, as our returns from Dorking to Wimbledon on a Sunday evening cost £4, which will almost buy you an espresso in the country I’ve just left. I was beyond excited at a trip to South West London for… Continue reading WOMBLES

June 2024. Waterbeach to Cambridge. “Greater love hath no man than than this, than he would spend a day of his life at Waterbeach feast“. And so it was that Mrs RM joined me at my hometown (village) for a day of fairground fun, cakes and old blokes doing covers of “Wish You Were Here”… Continue reading TO DORKING !

June 2024. Sheffield. Or in Ian Thurman, the Wickingman’s case, Youlgrave to Sheffield Cathedral, a 7 hour (plus compulsory rest stop) walk to raise money to install a toilet in Ian’s micro pub or something. Oh, something even more vital. What a hero. I said I’d meet him at the end of his venture at… Continue reading YOULGRAVE TO FAGAN’S. A LONG AND WORTHY WALK FOR A BASS.

June 2024. Manchester. I think I’ll have ticked more pubs in Matt Curtis’s wonderful guide to Manchester than the actual GBG during June, but that’s OK. The main priority is to beat Blackpool Jane to the prize, which I believe is a tripe barm. I was in Manchester 10 days ago for a gig at… Continue reading ALL THE PUBS IN THE MANCHESTER BEER BOOK – THE ANGEL

June 2024. Manchester. Encroaching on Chris Dyson territory now, with a gig, curry and unexpected new pub in Manchester. The curry comes on the city’s most unprepossessing street, Back Piccadilly a bit off-putting to all but the more adventurous of tourists. But Cafe Marhaba remains the real deal, even more so than the Rice &… Continue reading A MANCUNIAN WELCOME TO THE RAT AND PIGEON

June 2024. Sheffield. It wasn’t my fault. Mrs RM insisted I take her and James, who’d enjoyed us at the shiny new, to a second pub and apparently the Brown Bear wouldn’t do, so the Old Shoe it was. New openings in Sheff have eased off a bit this year (I think), but it’s easy… Continue reading MRS RM SUCCUMBS TO THE 13% IMPERIAL STOUT IN THE OLD SHOE

June 2024. Sheffield. Back in Sheffield from the cold, grim, South, we’re seeing a fresh spurt of regeneration in the centre of town. The main pedestrian shopping street renewed, posh Scandinavian shops, even the Sam Smiths has found a new management couple. But the Big Thing is Cambridge Street Collective, Europe’s BIGGEST purpose built food… Continue reading NEW AND “EXCITING” IN SHEFFIELD

June 2024. Oxted. Surrey. Last leg of “Operation get the in-laws back to Kent“, and a minor detour off the M25 into deep, dark, Surrey, where I was surprised to find they remembered a 2021 visit with me, but then I suppose they visit fewer pubs (it is “fewer”, innit ?) than me. “I remember… Continue reading “Ladies, would you like to see the wine list”. CASUAL SEXISM IN OXTED