February 2025. Mansfield. What a great day walking round Mansfield’s suburbs in bitter cold. No, honestly, it’s exactly what I needed after months cooped up in Waterbeach. Gets the mind thinking, thinking, as much as the legs exercised. Mansfield can’t compete with (say) Halifax. more like a Grimsby, row after row of solid suburbia punctuated… Continue reading NO STELLA AT MANSFIELD’S STELLA TAPS
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(PROJECT) WILLIAM, IT WAS REALLY NOTHING
February 2025. Mansfield. Right, culture ticked, time for a pint coffee. I was going to have one in the GBG Spoons, but the impressive looking Stag & Pheasant wanted £1.71 and Spoons coffee isn’t that good, so I paid a bargain £2.80 for a proper American in the gorgeous “Toffee Hut”, where a lady sticks… Continue reading (PROJECT) WILLIAM, IT WAS REALLY NOTHING
NOT MUCH MATCHES MANSFIELD
February 2025. Mansfield. 25,000 steps in Mansfield, but after just a lone pint and a pie I was already feeling knackered. As I left the Railway while an Old Boy told his amazed mates I was “a Sheffield lad, Hillsborough, come for a day out in Mansfield“. Should have had Day Out in capitals, obviously.… Continue reading NOT MUCH MATCHES MANSFIELD
TOP 100 PUBS – THE RAILWAY INN, MANSFIELD
February 2025. Mansfield. A lot of posts from my First Big Post Funeral Trip to Mansfield coming up. “We just need to get away somewhere nice like Bath for a few nights and recover” said Mrs RM, but in truth I needed a 25,000 step slog exploring one of the UK’s least loved towns visiting… Continue reading TOP 100 PUBS – THE RAILWAY INN, MANSFIELD
CLUTCHING AT (MR) STRAWS. 22 MINUTES TO ADMIRE WORKSOP
February 2025. Worksop. From the funeral in Waterbeach down to Kent and then over two borders to take Father-in-Law to a hospital appointment in East Grinstead (not even a pub stop), and then straight back up the A1 to Sheffield for more death-based paperwork. I needed a break. On Thursday, the sun shone and I… Continue reading CLUTCHING AT (MR) STRAWS. 22 MINUTES TO ADMIRE WORKSOP
THE BIG FAMILY GET-TOGETHER BEFORE THE FUNERAL
February 2025. Waterbeach. Three things are certain in life. Death, Paul Mudge resisting craft beer, and the indestructability of Retired Martin’s Aygo. Three years after gifting it to my brother-in-law after passing 210,000 miles (in 6 years) he just sold it for scrap, “We Buy Any Car” laughing in his face, it just turned up… Continue reading THE BIG FAMILY GET-TOGETHER BEFORE THE FUNERAL
A MISSION TO MISSON
February 2025. Misson. Notts. Brace yourself for an actual new Beer Guide pub. I bet you’d forgotten what those were. The White Horse in Misson is a real sod for the BRAPAs of the ticking world. Open from 6, tucked away in that weird bit of North Notts below Posh Doncaster and just west of… Continue reading A MISSION TO MISSON
LIFE & DEATH
4th February 2024. Waterbeach. Southborough. Funeral Day starts with this austere view of the A10 from outside the Slap Up where the family spent Monday night. There’s nothing like being the centre of attention at a funeral to make you realise you’re actually an adult, and you really ought to have a rudimentary knowledge of… Continue reading LIFE & DEATH
JANUARY ’25 STOCKTAKE + FEBRUARY PREVIEW
I’m not sure any month in which your Mum dies can should have “highlights”, but after the 13th, and following of a month of barely leaving the family home in Waterbeach, it was important to clear my head a bit, even if the travel map looks resolutely Sheffield/Cambridge/Kent, and (as in Lockdown) it’s the inability… Continue reading JANUARY ’25 STOCKTAKE + FEBRUARY PREVIEW
THE DRAYMAN’S SON GETS THE CASK RIGHT
January 2025. Ely. The paper trail gets relentless now; driving from Sheffield to a Cambridge funeral director to deliver a green slip of paper because (“that’s how it works“), then a train to Ely to spend two hours with banks and building societies being asked to fill out forms in pen. Death is a paper… Continue reading THE DRAYMAN’S SON GETS THE CASK RIGHT
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