3 days off from pubs after my birthday, with trips to see the families and deliver presents. Christmas Eve in Tunbridge Wells, where the in-laws decreed it’s not safe to visit pubs. They’ll be first to complain when they’re all shut. At least on the way down to Kent we’d stopped over at Cambridge’s brutalised… Continue reading CHRISTMAS LUNCH
PAISLEY – PINTS, PIES & A HARD-WON POINT
The last post from my epic birthday (22/12) and the Pub of the Day, an award that will be on display in the Paisley Art Gallery until 23 July. The Wee Howf (stop E) was just a short hop from the crowded Bull, just past Church Hill. The best pubs are the ones you can’t… Continue reading PAISLEY – PINTS, PIES & A HARD-WON POINT
DON’T STAND AT THE BAR
When I watch City at the Etihad they urge me to get there an hour before kick-off to subject myself to scanners, Covid pass checks and the delay caused by tourists who are queueing for the wrong block. I return they were offering half-price Amstel for my efforts. In Paisley, Duncan is determined to get… Continue reading DON’T STAND AT THE BAR
PAISLEY – THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BUDDIES
Perhaps it was the effect of the 11.2% Imperial Brown Ale, but Paisley looked stunning as I set off in the mizzle to find the Northern Way, my last Greater Glasgow tick in GBG21, before a trip to St Mirren Park to see the Buddies smashed by Celtic. All it lacks is a statue commemorating… Continue reading PAISLEY – THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BUDDIES
ALL THE LEAVES ARE BROWN
One more tick to complete Greater Glasgow‘s chapter in the Guide. Tickers dream of finishing chapters in towns as attractive and mysterious as Paisley, they really do. It looked magical. After checking in at the astonishingly good Motel Air I got the evening under way. Beer, curry, football, architecture, in the company of pub royalty.… Continue reading ALL THE LEAVES ARE BROWN
TAKE THE SECOND FERRY TO KILCREGGAN
There aren’t many real ale pubs on Scotland’s west coast, but those that there are are a pretty sure bet for the GBG. Or if they’re not the cask must be SO bad I’d love to go there. The red dots are the Guide pubs on the way round the Firth of Clyde, where Duncan… Continue reading TAKE THE SECOND FERRY TO KILCREGGAN
LARGS LICKED
Not literally licked, that would breach Scottish Covid rules. You’ll have to travel across the border, like Red in Shawshank, to lick pumps in Carlisle or Berwick or Longtown. Just a GBG tick licked as I continue my Scottish Birthday Hop round the Ayrshire coast. There are three (3) inevitabilities about any ticker’s tour; 1)… Continue reading LARGS LICKED
EVERY GOOD BIRTHDAY STARTS WITH A £1.65 PINT OF ABBOT IN KILMARNOCK SPOONS
I should, perhaps, be worried that some readers might take this blog too seriously, but then I remember that anyone who does will have long ago stopped reading, blocking the words “retiredmartin“, “excellent Doom Bar” and “evil tasters”. But then again I know you’ll believe that a trip to Kilmarnock Spoons in the company of… Continue reading EVERY GOOD BIRTHDAY STARTS WITH A £1.65 PINT OF ABBOT IN KILMARNOCK SPOONS
PAISLEY – FROM LOVE STREET TO THE LAST POST
Given that in previous years I’ve woken up in Havana, Agadir and the Cayman Islands on my birthday I think I can say that emerging blinking into the light of a Bearsden Premier Inn wasn’t the most exciting way to start my first year as a 57 year old (I don’t like saying “in my… Continue reading PAISLEY – FROM LOVE STREET TO THE LAST POST
DUMBLY DENYING MYSELF THE £1.10 DOOM BAR IN DUMBARTON
Well, here it is, Number 39 on my Bucket List. Dumbarton, once home of the Tand, a deeply mystical place cruelly overlooked by snobbish folk from Port Glasgow and Paisley and other pashmina towns. Well, I can only assume my phone was misfunctioning as the only photos I seem to have are from the Wetherspoons.… Continue reading DUMBLY DENYING MYSELF THE £1.10 DOOM BAR IN DUMBARTON
