No new Beer Guide pubs in Burton this year, which means no trips to the spiritual home of Bass, run brilliantly by Joules. I’ll find an excuse. Some rare new ticks in the east though, and some good walking on the edge of the National Forest. The Forest is coming along nicely two decades in,… Continue reading TOUGH CHOICES IN REPTON AND SWADLINCOTE
Tag: Wetherspoons
USING UP THE SPOONS VOUCHERS BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Mrs RM put the Christmas tree up on 30 November. You can imagine how thrilled I am about that, but I put the figures into my “Quiet Life Model” and it told me to live with it. At least she didn’t ask me to help. I haven’t bought a present for 25 years, and that… Continue reading USING UP THE SPOONS VOUCHERS BEFORE CHRISTMAS
STEPPIN’ OUT IN PORTSMOUTH
There’s no shortage of obvious headlines for a trip to Pompey in November; half an hour spent in Fratton’s Spoons provided no end of witticisms, most unrepeatable. Always safest to use the tried-and-tested Joe Jackson one. Wetherspoons seem to fall into two camps now. OAP and family dining (e.g. St Neots), and male dominated cheap… Continue reading STEPPIN’ OUT IN PORTSMOUTH
HALF-PINTS IN CHICHESTER
I’ve been in Fratton for the annual big Pompey GBG tick-off, and took the rattling train to Chichester to say hello to one of our correspondents. John has interesting tales to tell, having been a founder member of Depeche Mode in their formative pub-rock days in Basildon in the late ’70s*. His knowledge of Newark and… Continue reading HALF-PINTS IN CHICHESTER
WESTHOUGHTON WETHERSPOONS
Pub Curmudgeon has been exploring Britain’s real ale deserts on his blog. It’s a good read, and like him, I’d rather see a busy keg pub providing an essential service to old folk than an empty ale emporium. Westhoughton is one of those suburbs of Bolton (or Wigan) that in my mind I’d expect to… Continue reading WESTHOUGHTON WETHERSPOONS
AUTUMN IN CWMBRAN
My newish Rough Guide to Wales is proving it’s usual middle-class self. Lots of nonsense about misericords and 13th Century battlements, nothing about where to see spitting in Ebbw Vale pubs or buy a Chinese takeaway at midnight, which is my definition of Rough. No mention at all of Cwmbran, an authentic Welsh New Town at… Continue reading AUTUMN IN CWMBRAN
MID-WEEK WINCHESTER
Stopping at Winchester‘s caravan park on the way to End of the Road made a change, we normally stay in Salisbury, which gives me plenty of time to whinge about warm Hop Back beers in their otherwise very lively pubs The absence of the Beer Guide when we left home (surely the subject of a future… Continue reading MID-WEEK WINCHESTER
THE WORCESTERSHIRE WAY
Bewdley is more than basic ex-Banks pubs; it’s like a Georgian Barmouth by the Severn. On 2016’s summer day, the riverside was packed with day-tripping Black Country folk enjoying chips and beer by the river. On the walk to the Rising Sun an old couple stopped us on a junction to enquire about a good… Continue reading THE WORCESTERSHIRE WAY
SWANSEA – SKATEBOARDS, SPOONS (AGAIN) AND SUMMING-UP
I am now an expert on UK indoor skatepark exteriors, having taken my son Matt to nearly all the UK’s scruffy looking shacks. The best one is in Warrington, the one in Stockport is genuinely terrifying but at least there’s good pubs nearby. The discussion* about Swansea‘s revival tends to focus on the marina, but… Continue reading SWANSEA – SKATEBOARDS, SPOONS (AGAIN) AND SUMMING-UP
A TALE OF TWO SPOONS
We’ve been to a lot of Wetherspoons in Wales. In fact, so many that I’ve used all my quarters 50p vouchers already, which surely qualifies me for some more. With Spoon’s current relative retrenchment, I can’t see them opening a lot more in Wales, but they already have them in some fairly small places like… Continue reading A TALE OF TWO SPOONS
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