February 2023. Only two days in Thessaloniki, and Mrs RM quickly reduced that to one with a trip to see the monasteries at Meteora on the Saturday, so we had to squeeze all the culture, craft beer and cats into one day. Some people travel to tick bars, some football grounds, others go purely so… Continue reading THESSALONIKI (II) – CATS, CHURCHES, COFFEE, CRUMBLING BUILDINGS
A LETTER FROM THE THESSALONIANS (I)
February 2023. The only real question is “How many posts will it take to cover six (6) nights in Greece“. Pubmeister, you’ll recall, knocked off his trip in a lone issue that seemed woefully short on kebab reviews. Let’s start with the map. We’d both “done” Greece. Corfu, Crete and a smart southern port on… Continue reading A LETTER FROM THE THESSALONIANS (I)
LUTON AIRPORT OO-EE-NOO
February 2023. Now I’ve ticked ALL the pubs, Mrs RM is determined to tick ALL the countries and major cities. This is the colour-coded wall map (needs some updating) showing which family members have been where. Mrs RM is determined I will NEVER get to Switzerland; I am equally minded to ensure that she will… Continue reading LUTON AIRPORT OO-EE-NOO
DRINKING BASS IN THE OFFICE (WARTON)
Visiting GBG pubs is surely one of the best ways to ensure you don’t spend your whole life (bar 15 nights) in the same place, possibly even better than aiming to have a scone in every National Trust site. Most National Trust properties look like this house, near my next target. So well done, Sarah,… Continue reading DRINKING BASS IN THE OFFICE (WARTON)
HINCKLEY’S CULTURAL HIGHLIGHTS
You’ll notice it’s the youngsters like BRAPA and Blackpool Jane that can still pull out the mega blogging. Us folk approaching middle-age, like Duncan and myself, can only manage short posts, and I didn’t even have the energy to lump Hinckley’s many cultural highlights in with the faggots and Pedi post. Cultural highlights ? Well,… Continue reading HINCKLEY’S CULTURAL HIGHLIGHTS
FAGGOTS, PEAS & PEDI. AND MOONLIGHT SHADOW.
20th February 2023. Hope you’ve already had your lunch before you saw that pic. Mrs RM just cooked James and I a lovely roast dinner (NRDSS 4), but a pint of Pedigree as good as the one at the Greyhound in Hinckley would have raised it even higher. I did the full cultural tour of… Continue reading FAGGOTS, PEAS & PEDI. AND MOONLIGHT SHADOW.
SHOE (AND BEER) SHOPPING IN DARLINGTON
19th February 2023. I’ve been neglecting my ticking duties since completing the Guide, but I’d managed a trio of GBG entries by 2pm on Sunday, which isn’t bad going, and we’ll gloss over the fact that I’d delegated the actual drinking duties to Mrs RM. She’d delegated shoe-buying duties to herself, too, and Darlington, made… Continue reading SHOE (AND BEER) SHOPPING IN DARLINGTON
A STOCKTON FLYER
19th February 2023. Two Sunday ticks, sort of, but I was more interested in persuading Mrs RM of the charms of Stockton before we headed home. She hadn’t warmed to a town centre whose main drag was in the middle of being demolished, but you should never judge a town on its indoor shopping centre,… Continue reading A STOCKTON FLYER
MRS RM TAKES THE BEER BACK. EXPERTLY.
19th February 2023. It had been nearly 20 years since we last visited Sedgefield, a County Durham town the size of Waterbeach acting as the “posh” bit for a famous parliamentary constituency you may have heard of, if only because of a famous visit to this unassuming pub just before my own arrival. The Dun… Continue reading MRS RM TAKES THE BEER BACK. EXPERTLY.
FEBRUARY ’23 STOCKTAKE
You may have read tales of GBG tickers visiting a hundred or more pubs in February and wonder “What had Norwich done to deserve BRAPA“. Read that as you want. I maintained a more leisurely pace; 46 pub visits, 30 of them new Guide entries. Nowhere near enough to finish the GBG a second year,… Continue reading FEBRUARY ’23 STOCKTAKE
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