retiredmartin

March 2024. From Sheffield to Waterbeach and back. Repeat. And then a bit of Rochdale. That town hall and a craft bar crawl with Blackpool Jane were the highlights of a busy month. With some east Yorkshire coast gorgeousness at the start. And a big blob of Portugal in the middle. Four Portuguese cities, all… Continue reading MARCH ’24 STOCKTAKE + APRIL PREVIEW

March 2024. Birmingham. I wouldn’t have guessed that the new Bundobust in Brum was a sure-fire pre-emptive tick, with typically just the lone hand pump in Manchester or Leeds, and some deviant tickers would consider Bundobust done because this place, next to the Welly, used to be the ill-fated Pint Shop. But what do I… Continue reading A BRUMMIE BUNDOBUST

March 2024. Birmingham. Congratulations to any of you who realised that this morning’s post on GBG entries wasn’t an April Fool’s joke. I can now admit that THIS was an April Fool’s Joke; Apologies to anyone who was still looking for The Dolphin. Back to March pubs before the monthly stocktake (Spoiler : A disaster… Continue reading ANOTHER UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPT TO AVOID THE LURE OF BIRMINGHAM’S WELLINGTON

March 2024. Landywood. Cannock. Well, Great Wyrley in the GBG, actually. I wasn’t going to stop and tick the Swan on the way back from triumph in Cannock, but the challenge of doing the 34 minute return walk, beer and loo trip and catching the half hourly train to New St was too tempting. No… Continue reading A MAD DASH FROM LANDYWOOD

April brings baby lambs, the return of county cricket and the CAMRA AGM’s annual attempt to revitalise and make itself relevant to the under-70s. Back to Dundee again this year, chosen mainly for its collection of great pubs to rival Sheffield in 2023. The motions at Dundee include several aimed at making the Beer Guide… Continue reading CAMRA REVEALS PLAN TO SLIM DOWN GOOD BEER GUIDE

March 2024. Cannock. Well, I’d certainly done Cannock justice by the time I arrived at my second new GBG entry/fourth tick, and I’d finally found you some proper art. Or is it porn ? The Arcade is 5 minutes from the station, and I found I could neck a half in 2 minutes and catch… Continue reading ARCADE GAMES

March 2024. Cannock. Well, I was going to get good value out of my train fare(s) to Cannock, that’s for sure, even if I wasn’t “doing the culture” of cemeteries and Shadow tributes. But then pubs are culture, aren’t they ? Bar Sport had just opened and I thought about popping in for the most… Continue reading M AND B MILD IN THE CRYSTAL FOUNTAIN

March 2024. Cannock. One new GBG pub in Cannock ticked, the Arcade didn’t open till 5, a very uncivilised time. That meant 90 minutes finding something interesting to say about a town notably coy about its treasures. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with Cannock; a lively town with a bowling green in the… Continue reading USING UP THE LAST OF THE 2023 SPOONS VOUCHERS IN CANNOCK