December 2024. Baldock. The 17th December, Mrs RM’s birthday, a dress rehearsal for the main event five days later. Ideally both these birthdays will be spent somewhere new, foreign and exciting, or failing that Bathgate. But Mrs RM is down south attending to her infirm parents in Royal Tunbridge Wells (by taking them to drink… Continue reading STUCK OUTSIDE OF BALDOCK WITH THOSE TRAIN DELAY BLUES AGAIN

December 2024. Sheffield. 2 days “home” took in beer and octopus in Bradford, beer and curry in Manchester, and tears and worry at the Etihad. Across the road from the derby at the Co-op a young artist was warming up. You remember McCartney? Frog Chorus, 1984. Back in Sheffield, eventually, I decided I needed a… Continue reading DERBY DAY BLUES, BELGIAN BLUE

December 2024. Manchester. Back to Shudehill, after another interminable wait outside Middleton Spoons where I compared bus notes with a wizened lady from Blackley with seventeen grandchildren. She was probably 40. I had so many questions, none about Blackley pubs. The hardest question for Mancunians to answer is “How do we get to This &… Continue reading RICE AND THREE

December 2024. Middleton. The train to Leeds on Saturday afternoon had been so empty that the driver was able to walk around collecting old coffee cups, put the Christmas decorations up and invite a 9 year old lad we’ll call Tom to join him in his cab to press buttons. “This is probably one of… Continue reading THE BUS TO HARBORD HARBORD

December 2024. Bradford. 3pm and I’d ticked Bradford’s Guide debutant and was too early/late for culture, which in Bratfud means curry and the cinema centre. I really ought to have caught the first train back to Leeds and then a bus north to tick Meanwood’s brewery tap. But that’s so 2022. In 2024 I’d want… Continue reading LACINGS IN THE FIGHTING COCK

December 2024. Bradford. Back in Sheffield for a couple of days respite, a man’s thoughts turn to ticking in distant lands. Well, they do until they see a procession (?) of delayed of the Northern trains that would take me any distance, and I cut my losses and just head to Bradford via a virtually… Continue reading WELCOME BACK TO THE LORD CLYDE, BRADFORD

December 2024. Huthwaite. Notts. This year’s Beer Guide has been packed with uncompromising new entries in unsung parts of the UK. Yes, I like “uncompromising” as a description of villages like Huthwaite (famous son : Lee Anderson MP) in the broken heart of Notts mining land. Unless you live there, or get horribly lost, the… Continue reading MINING CASK GOLD IN HUTHWAITE

December 2024. Glenfield. Leicester. Glenfield ? I asked ChatGPT what this village is famous for. You can trust ChatGPT. ChatGPT itself told me that. I’d been in town once before, an obviously forgettable visit to the Forge, a “Beautiful Pubs” house famed for its campaign to “bring back jugs”, possibly a call to reinstate Gary… Continue reading RIGHT BEER, WRONG GLASS. BASS IN GLENFIELD