This blogging lark is a doddle. Visit a pub, take photos surreptitiously, keep a running gag about pashminas going, and hope against hope for a witty pun or an “Out of Order” condom machine. Ashton-in-Makerfield was always going to let me down on the pashminas, even in the Wetherspoons. Though the potholes give some opportunities… Continue reading PROPHYLACTIC PROBLEMS IN ASHTON-IN-MAKERFIELD
THE REVITALISATION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
Next up, a bit of a minor classic. Though I suspect I’m alone in thinking this. Into “real” Preston, not far from the Wetherspoons wherein resides the nation’s most awesome beer blogger. Here seen in a Proper Pub. I’d have popped in one of Matthew’s favoured craft emporia to say hello, but I’d only decided… Continue reading THE REVITALISATION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED
POSH PRESTON
When Mrs RM and I started exploring the country in the early ’90s (pre-Beer Guide ticking), we spent a lot of time just off the A6 in farmhouse B&Bs, in those grim times before Premier Inns were invented. Back in the day, we became quite acquainted with the area between Preston and the majestic… Continue reading POSH PRESTON
APRIL ’18 STOCKTAKE + MAY PREVIEW
I start with some tremendous news. I’ve found the photos from Tonbridge and Rye, so I CAN bring you a post from Jeff Bell’s new pub (brilliant) and Mrs RM’s karaoke (less so). I’ll be sharing the latter unless she brings me back some tablet from Melrose tomorrow. April was a stellar month, with trips… Continue reading APRIL ’18 STOCKTAKE + MAY PREVIEW
LINCS LICKED UNDER THE SCUNNY SUN
One instinctively knows that BRAPA will have great fun with blog titles when he eventually gets to North Lincolnshire. I finished the county at Owston Ferry, in what’s commonly known as “the posh bit twixt Donny and Scunny“, if only in the sense you’ll see the odd person on horseback and a depressing lack of… Continue reading LINCS LICKED UNDER THE SCUNNY SUN
WELSH BEER WATERS THE DAFFS
Always tell the truth. Well, obviously, don’t. That would be daft. But when it comes to pubs, say what’s good and what’s not*. Otherwise you’re left with rubbish pubs in the Beer Guide just making up the allocation, and no-one wants that. Equally, always acknowledge that the beer or welcome on your visit might be… Continue reading WELSH BEER WATERS THE DAFFS
BODGE-UPS IN BARTON ON HUMBER
A few posts from the “M180 corridor” as I finish Lincolnshire, a large county rather over-represented in the Beer Guide if you ask me. But I always welcome a trip to Barton-upon-Humber, which seems intent on giving all its pubs a crack in the GBG. Rotation, rotation, rotation. I was last here for the… Continue reading BODGE-UPS IN BARTON ON HUMBER
SEEING SENSE IN SWINDON
“Why didn’t you have something decent like Butcombe or 6X ?” said Pub Curmudgeon of my trip to the reservation-friendly Fosse Bridge. Good question, though the choice of Windrush Ale (the day before that word burnt into the national consciousness) seems oddly appropriate now. Still, I didn’t make the same mistake in Swindon. Or Blunsdon,… Continue reading SEEING SENSE IN SWINDON
T’OTHER BARNSLEY
Doyen of countless Good Pub Guides, Times Supplements and Pashmina Yearly editions over many decades, the Village Pub finally graces the only book that matters to tickers. So at last I get a trip to the other Barnsley. It’s pleasant, without being an essential stop for those touring the honeypots of north Swindon. The Barnsley… Continue reading T’OTHER BARNSLEY
FUSS ON THE FOSSE WAY
Next stop on the Cotswold caper was Fossebridge, a hamlet comprising a btidge and a hotel for folk too posh for Bourton-on-the-water (is that even possible ?). Keen readers of “Notes from a small island” will know that Bill Bryson came here to unveil Roman mosaics at Chedworth; I came here for an irritating middle-class… Continue reading FUSS ON THE FOSSE WAY
retiredmartin 