119 Sat 17/6/17: Kelham Island Tavern, Sheffield

Beer: Abbeydale Deception 4.1%

Very busy pub but, as at The Sheffield Tap, there is plenty of room out back – and at least one room entirely vacant before we inhabit it. The bar has a huge (i.e. too much) choice of beer. But how, my notes implore, can one knock a pub with Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights triptych framed (in three frames) on the wall?



I think The Last Judgement was up in the front room too – but I might have mis-remembered that.

This is an excellent pub with NO STICKY TABLES.

296a Fri 2/2/18 The Bear Club, Luton

Beer: Pope's Yard Luminaire 3.9%


First 2018 trip to The Bear Club after its brief hibernation. Joined by J Hackson of Clod Magazine to watch Clark Tracey and his very youthful quintet who acquit themselves with some aplomb. Pete's in and he and Hackson chat some about their visit to The Bear earlier in the week, where they attended Luton Music Club's Holocaust Memorial concert. Otherwise, the club's a little slow to fill and seems to have started emptying before the end of Tracey's set. A little strange; the music, atmosphere and beer are all first rate.


There were a couple of nattering skinhead gentlemen in, aged in their 50s and sat right in front of us, but they were gracious enough when glared at and apologised for their quiet racket.

The Luminaire was lively and pleasant and entirely out of keeping with W*tford, where it was brewed. I proceeded, however, to run through a few Leighton Buzzard brews afterwards.

257 Fri 1/12/17: Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Market Harborough Super Hop Mosaic 4.2%

Me brother and I out (Leighton not, and Andy has blown us out).

Nice, though, to be back for a quiet night down the Bricks. We play, and lose, on the quizzer – we look over the blog on my electronic device – I suggest some minor changes. We discuss which is the best song by The Chills. It is, unless you know better, “Oncoming Day”.


We talk about Barry, who passed away while we were in Prague – how our lives would be diminished by his not being available anymore to rush in on last orders – “Barry-time”.

There’s a bunch of “new people” at the only other table occupied in the back bar. They’re millennials. They’re alright… when the effects of the booze kick in, they get a little tiresome. We were the tiresome teenage new kids down the Brickies, probably annoying Barry, sometime before this lot were born.

 

30 Sun 9/4/18: El Gallo Ronco, Malaga

Beer: Cruzcampo 5.0%

Busy flamenco bar in a small square in the centre of Malaga – extremely busy with the Semana Santa processions just yards away. We’ve just seen the first (of very many) Virgin Mary manhandled down the street on her excruciatingly slow progress to the cathedral… and we’re finding it excruciatingly difficult to get served in this bar. We manage it eventually – but the staff seem to be working frantically, even when the numbers in the bar start dropping away.

The place is full of quite big pictures of folk overcome in various states of dress and/or duende. One, I suggest to Steph, looks like Bob Dylan (circa mid-70’s). She doesn’t particularly agree… I didn’t take a photo…

We leave the bar a bit miffed. I’d possibly have liked to stay a little longer, but we weren’t getting served. Made me miss low-season a bit… a sentiment increasingly reinforced as the holiday went on.

3 Sat 25/2/17: Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Speakeasy (Brewery and strength details missing)

Post-match

LUTON TOWN 1 PLYMOUTH ARGYLE 1

Media Monkey is an Itunes equivalent

22 Wed 29/3/17:The Six Bells, Lymington

Beer: Hilden Pale Oat Ale 4.8%

Back to the Wetherspoons (a small, three level, example - suitably quirky and incongruous for the area) where I bump into a breakaway party from the work do Italian meal. Apparently it was over expensive and a set menu which some (who ended up in JDW) didn’t fancy.

A good enough bunch, I was called over – but they were all eating… I sat on an adjacent table, leaning in and trying to minimise feelings of social incompetence.

The beer selection is far better at JDW, and Hilden Pale Oat Ale was quite good. But, still, I felt I was impinging on my colleagues' evening. As if I needed to increase the weird loner sensibility, taking notes and pictures on/of pints of beer in pubs wasn’t going to increase my Lymington High Street cred’ in this company.

I started back down the High Street toward to marina and, hearing what I thought was another gaggle of colleagues up ahead, ducked into… the next pub.

194 Thu 5/10/17: Churreria Santa Faz, Alicante

Beer: Alhambra 5%

We tend to travel to the same places – and when we get to those places, we go to the same places. In Alicante, in our book, the place to go is Santa Faz.

On THIS visit… consulting my notes… yes, it’s late lunchtime and we’ve come back from the Museo de Hogueras and the Museo Volvo Ocean Race, both interesting in their own way. It’s our last day in Spain, and we have postcards to write. Elsewhere the bar is generally quite quiet – but we do get set on by an old fellow who has heard us talking, and wishes to practice his English by shouting it at us. I think he was a bit deaf. He didn’t tell us that, but did want to let us know that he was a supporter of FC Barcelona. Did we like football? Yes. He’d never heard of Luton Town, and when I held up four fingers to illustrate in which league our team resided he seemed less than impressed – and shuffled off.

We did the same. Our plan is to go to some more bars, have a little siesta, then come out again later.

32 Sun 9/4/17: El Rincon Iberico, Malaga

Beer: San Miguel 5.0%
Having watched another Semana Santa procession wend its way laboriously up Malaga’s main drag we stumble through the crowds and into this bar. It’s mercifully quiet in here, and it’s serving San Miguel which is a welcome change from Cruzcampo.

Well maintained, clean and boring. The tapas counter has three small dishes, and one apple, on show. Celta Vigo v Eibar is on the telly.

The photographs I took in this bar were the worst yet. To make up for this, and to bolster my top reportage photographer delusions (I have a degree), I’ll attach a snap of a Semana Santa peso (the big floats). In Malaga the pesos where hauled by costumed men (including some blindfolded, some others barefooted) carrying via a number of large struts in front and behind the peso. In Seville the costaleros are invisible as they carry the pesos from underneath.

2 Sat 25/2/17: The Black Horse, Luton

Beer: Mordue Brewery ESB 5.0%

Out: AJK, CJ, JtcfH, SH, LP, WP, PtmF, Asa

My brother and I play pool, appallingly. We tie at 1-1 and decide against a decider.

Start a £1-in last goalscorer sweep.

113 Sat 10/6/17: The Cricketers, Caddington

Beer: Sharp’s Atlantic 4.2%
Hot sultry day to walk up to Caddington to have another haircut (that I don’t even need). Decide on The Cricketers this time round. The curtains are drawn to keep the light off the big screen – on which a lousy projector is trying to show England v Australia in this year's dull fifty over comp’.



So, it’s quite dark in the pub… which my photos might show.

My notes say nothing else, other than the beer’s quite nice.

167 Fri 15/09/17: The Bear Club, Luton

Out: AJK

Beer: Leighton Buzzard Restoration 4.6%

Second Bear jazz excursion in as many weeks; this week it’s Tony Kofi and the Organisation. Tonight is even busier than last week, and the crowd seem younger. They seem keen enough, but far too involved with their mobile phones – either texting or taking pictures. Those incessant light intrusions are a bit annoying, as is the fact that a significant minority are chatting through the jazz. Seems rude to me.

Can’t say I’m becoming an evangelic jazz convert very quickly. There’s too much on-stage name dropping, and solos and necessity to applaud solos (or some solos – some apparently insignificant solos don’t warrant a ripple).

After the set, we nick off back to the Bricks.