I have posts on well over 200 pubs, curries, and Duncan knees to bring you before I start a countdown of The Final 22, so let’s get back to mid June. Back in 1985 I’d attended The Longest Day festival at Milton Keynes Bowl; Now I find it WASN’T on the longest day anyway and… Continue reading “The Lancaster station pub we all needed”
LET ENGLAND SHAKE
Sorry, Polly, but your acclaimed 2011 LP is one of the worst albums in my collection, and you should see my early 80s Saxon. PJ Harvey probably isn’t a big fan of Swindon, but last night the town of magic roundabouts, steam and limited edition Archers beer was the venue for my historic LAST ENGLAND… Continue reading LET ENGLAND SHAKE
WALES HAS FALLEN
I suspect you think us GBG tickers all live together as a big happy family in a giant mansion in Chipping Sodbury, sharing lifts and market pens and intelligence on micro closing times. Not a bit of it. With so many Asian gamblers having switched from the Premier League to Guide ticking betting, it’s a… Continue reading WALES HAS FALLEN
The final 1%
I’m sitting in a hot pub garden in the Somerset levels, campervan parked for the night, drinking a second OK pint in an hour while Slade sing “Cum on feel the noize” (sic. As the kidz say). I promised you an update and here it is. With the Crown in Catcott ticked I need 39… Continue reading The final 1%
KENT HAS FALLEN
One more to complete the Good Beer Guide for Kent. But will it be for the final time ? Even the hedges were celebrating as I approached the Laughing Barrel. Depending on your proclivities, this is Thanet, or Margate, or Cliftonville, or Botany Bay. But the reality is, it’s in a little bit of suburbia… Continue reading KENT HAS FALLEN
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
Right, here we go. Two more Kent posts, both worthy of your time (as are 99.9% of pubs, to be honest), then a GBG completion update. Mrs RM just asked how far behind I was on the blog and I told her “200 pubs“, which tells you about how time is measured in retiredmartin land.… Continue reading THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
IN OR OUT ? – THE BIG QUESTION ANSWERED
It appears that Joan and Dave Southworth have toured the Garden of Kent without visiting its most sacred and historic monument; which shows how little the Americans value history. Should we be surprised ? If they’d come a month or so earlier they could have participated in the Great Debate on sandwiches (ham or otherwise).… Continue reading IN OR OUT ? – THE BIG QUESTION ANSWERED
HOPS ON THE CEILING, HARVEY’S ON THE BAR
There’s an assumption that the annual 500 or so new GBG entries are all micropubs and brewery taps inaccessible by public transport and never open, and of course there’s some truth in that. But not a lot. My final batch of Kent ticks comprised one micro that was really a social pub, a young people’s… Continue reading HOPS ON THE CEILING, HARVEY’S ON THE BAR
DOVER – A HAPPY PLACE
Mrs RM insisted we spend the night in Dover. Well, actually she just insisted we didn’t stay in the campervan before visiting the in-laws as she needed to wash her hair. Vanity, I tell you. Luckily, Dover is home to one of my final GBG22 ticks, and a newish Premier Inn. It was a scruffy… Continue reading DOVER – A HAPPY PLACE
MARTIN POWER, OUTER ASHFORD PUB TICKER EXTRAORDINARY
A mid-June trip to finish Kent. I would have waited till Joan and Dave Southworth arrived a month later so they could have the thrill of pinking a county, but completing the Guide and getting chapters complete had become an obsession and besides, you can’t trust Americans with marker pens. You’ll be seeing a fair… Continue reading MARTIN POWER, OUTER ASHFORD PUB TICKER EXTRAORDINARY
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