22nd March 2023. Quite a significant date, this. The first day my son James drove me to a pub. #ProudParent #23YearsWellSpent etc. etc. If he’d passed his test a year earlier he could have driven me to Claddach Kirkibost. I’d sat quietly in the passenger seat when he drove his car (a blue one) home… Continue reading DRIVEN TO THE PUB BY MY SON FOR THE FIRST TIME
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BASS IN FAGAN’S REVISITED
March 2023. Getting Mrs RM to join me on hilly Sheffield walks is a challenge, but there’s a bigger problem once you leave the Blind Monkey. It’s very hard to walk more than a 100 yards without passing a pub that in any other city would be in your Top 5. Luckily I was determined… Continue reading BASS IN FAGAN’S REVISITED
A GOLDEN GLOW IN THE WELLINGTON
20th March 2023. If I was really going to get full value from my rail ticket(s) to Brum that Monday I’d have visited the wonderful Art Gallery, but as you’ll know it’s closed for a while, and I’d had liver and onions so a Balti in Sparkbrook wasn’t an option, either. So a last pub… Continue reading A GOLDEN GLOW IN THE WELLINGTON
ON TOWARDS ROWLEY REGIS, AND THE INEVITABLE ABK-LED MICRO
20th March 2023. Two ticks in the bag, I sped up on the way back to Oldswinford, stopping only to bring you Stourbridge street art. I think this is a metaphor about the housing market, and this gorgeous painting may well be on the wall of an old pub on the Bridgnorth Road; and here’s… Continue reading ON TOWARDS ROWLEY REGIS, AND THE INEVITABLE ABK-LED MICRO
BOSTIN’ BATHAM’S BITTER
20th March 2023. Just as you only watch “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” or hear Lizzy McAlpine’s “Five Seconds Flat“ for the first time once, you only get to go in a classic Batham’s pub for the first time on one occasion. But that’s no reason never to revisit the Vine or the Swan, or the… Continue reading BOSTIN’ BATHAM’S BITTER
THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING IN WOLLASTON
20th March 2023. I’d given myself two hours to walk the 5 miles to outer Stourbridge and back, visit the two new GBG pubs, squeeze in lunch and perhaps a Bathams. It was JUST enough time. I’d forgot how many pubs there were along the A458 as Stourbridge becomes Wollaston, and the Black Country becomes… Continue reading THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING IN WOLLASTON
I AM OLDSWINFORD’S ONLY BEER TOURIST
20th March 2023. I’m making terribly slow progress towards completing GBG23 (IF I’m actually doing it), which I know will disappoint those of you who had a tenner on me at 18/1 to repeat my GBG22 triumph (what happened to the film starring Emma Stone by the way ?). In truth I’m waiting for the… Continue reading I AM OLDSWINFORD’S ONLY BEER TOURIST
MORE MONKEY BUSINESS IN HILLSBOROUGH
19th March 2023. An odd day. Up at 6am in Waterbeach, finish off the cold crispy beef, drive back to Sheffield, train to Nottingham with James, who then drove me straight back in his first car. The route James took from the Car Shop is the blue screechy one below. People who take at least… Continue reading MORE MONKEY BUSINESS IN HILLSBOROUGH
Retired Martin’s Honest Norwich Reappraisal Part IV – “You can taste the black treacle in this”
17th March 2023. The three (3) new Beer Guide entries in the bag, Norwich had delivered a better performance than expected, and now it was time to head “home” to That Waterbeach, the craft capital of the Fens. But the walk back to the station would only take 20 minutes if I didn’t stop at… Continue reading Retired Martin’s Honest Norwich Reappraisal Part IV – “You can taste the black treacle in this”
Retired Martin’s Honest Norwich Reappraisal Part III – A little piece of Norwich Over The Water that is forever York
17th March 2023. Two down in Norwich, one to go. I must have done this walk from station up Magdalene Street a couple of dozen times, even stayed in the Maid’s Head for £35 once; perhaps I should have slowed down to appreciate the merits of the market, and the “baroque” (per Pevsner) splendour of… Continue reading Retired Martin’s Honest Norwich Reappraisal Part III – A little piece of Norwich Over The Water that is forever York
