378a Fri 23/3/18: The Parcel Yard, London

Beer: Sierra Nevada 5%

A second visit to The Parcel Yard in recent weeks. This time, I'm on my own, filling before the train home and trying to finish The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler.

The pub's fairly busy with a mixed clientele; some travelers with luggage, a few after work tipplers and a few groups who look like they may have decided to spend a night's social, here at 'The Yard'. Fair play to them; The Parcel Yard is a Fullers pub, so the beer's decent and the decor and atmosphere probably beats the station pubs at St Pancras and Euston. Not a wholly 'essential pub' - the loos are shabby and on this visit, I'm alarmed by a group of lads, one of whom looks particularly psychotic. He's telling his companions they've got to get their stories straight and look out for their mates. In fairness, members of the group don't look like criminal masterminds or heavy duty thugs, but I pick a place to sit some distance from them.

45 Wed 12/4/17: Café Santos, Seville

Beer: Cruzcampo 5%

From Triana we return back to our apartment by a tortuous route through Semana Santa crowds and processions. We get lost, but eventually find our bearings – and our way back to our accommodation; which is in itself right in the centre of all the activity. Our apartment faces Calle Cuna through which many processions, returning from the cathedral, pass.

The crowds and congestion and fear of getting lost again - leave us wary of going too far away in case we get stranded. We get stuff in from the supermarket, and decamp to this bar – on the street/alley where our apartment’s situated. The procession is due to pass at 10pm. It’s 8.30pm when we get to Café Santos, but we’re not risking going any further.

Rowland serving C'campo

The bar is more back street than we’d normally consider. It’s perfectly alright, bog standard basic, tables and plastic chairs and beer served in wine glasses. The barman, I reckon, looks like Kevin Rowland.

At the table over the way sit a very matriarchal family. The blokes are left holding the babies while several generations of women hold court… seemingly in an air of perpetual mild disapproval. Matriarchs are great. It’s noticeable how the Madonna is venerated, apparently more than her boy. Almost all the processions have two pasos: one, the first, will feature Jesus suffering during some part of his last few days and hours. The Mary paso is the main attraction. It’s almost as if Jesus’ suffering was secondary to Mary’s grief… there’s a theological debate there somewhere; the apparent backlash against the inherent sexism of plans hatched between father and son, with scant regard to the emotional wellbeing of the mother.

A glass smashes somewhere in the bar. Nobody cheers. Idiot foreigners.

15 Sat 18/3/17: The Black Horse, Luton

Beer: Grafton Brewing Co Lady Mary 5.0%

Get to the BH at 13:30, and me brother is already in, reading, at the table at the right of the door. The pub fills up rapidly but, at half past, it’s sparsely populated – and far more pleasant than the Brickies. Is the beer far better too? It’s a moot point. Paul the Mod would say so – I’m for the Brickies, warts and all… but still, it gets far too packed so we come here pre-match now.

The Lady Mary is a decent and robust, pint. I manage to request a pint of Mary Jane (as per my dyslexia claim), which is embarrassing, especially as I then feel compelled to add “sorry, what the hell am I ordering…?”

In preparation for the upcoming equinox quiz we leaf thru the bumper pub quiz book on the shelf and fire questions at each other. REM, I correctly answer to “who released the album Out of Time?”
John’s next in, then… Chris possibly. Steve has my Middlesex CCC membership bumph. Paul and Asa aren’t in, so the last scorer sweep is down (and remains unwon). Wilf is annoying – picking out several players… the pesky scamp.

Half Time Treats: Page L: “Posh brioche”

47 Thu 13/4/17: Casa Morales, Seville

Beer: Cruzcampo 5%

The second oldest bar in Seville is an exceptional pub near the Cathedral. We need it quite a bit quieter than this in order to enjoy it though. The whole world and his widow* are in. Casa Morales has two bars, quite different, and the only place we manage to secure this time round is a small bit of shelf in the back bar – with the giant Romanesque (or Roman) wine amphorae.

The front bar is generally nicer, usually more spacious - and certainly lets in far more light.

* relates to the fact that, perhaps only on Maundy Thursday, Andalusian ladies are wont to dress all in black (albeit very glamorously, with a big tall headpiece).

202 Sat 14/10/17: The Black Horse, Luton

Beer: Leighton Buzzard Brewery Narrow Gauge 3.9%

Unlike the last couple of years at The English Rose there are, mercifully, no Stevenage fans in this pub. I daresay the majority are fine, but the little band of noisy youths who chose to grace our erstwhile pre-match watering hole in High Town two years running were skin crawlingly embarrassing.

The music in The Black Horse tends on the “too bloody loud for a Saturday afternoon”. Michael bloody Jackson… turn it bloody off. They don’t, but they do decrease the volume a little after a while, which makes the audio assault a little more bearable.

It’s a shame because, apart from that – this is a good pub, and there are way too few of them, especially to cater for the pre-match football following. We decide that, if we ran this pub, we’d make it far quieter… and possibly get rid of the pool table.

348 Fri 16/3/18: Bodega San José, Seville

Beer: Cruzcampo 5.0%

Is this the quintessential Seville bar? Possibly. Probably. It had more character before it was shut down – it’s reopened, it’s much cleaner: doesn’t seem to require a health warning, but it’s lost some colour in the wash.

Seville, I suppose, is blessed with a number of pubs that just seem “must visit”, in our opinion. This place, Casa Matias, Casa Morales, El Rinconcillo, Bar Santa Ana over the bridge – and we keep finding others. The beer is all the same, and it’s not very good, but a fair few of the bars are excellent all the same.

Anyway, on this visit, it's late afternoon and the bar is quite quiet – until it starts raining and folk come in to avoid it. It’s instantly very busy and very noisy in here.

Among the recent intake a Spanish lady interrogates an Australian chap about his relationship with a lady workmate, who accompanies him. They’re both drinking sangria, which seems a little clichéd. We, like she, assumed the couple were a couple – but apparently they’re not. They look pretty close though… still, we’re not going to pry – but we’ll gladly listen in while somebody else does.

255c Fri 24/11/17: Old Eagle, Camden, London

Beer: Redemption Hopspur 4.5%

A strange but welcome pub, just round the corner from Camden Road train station. Hardly a "must visit destination", though this pub is unusual in NW1 for retaining a local feel. It also manages, just, to carry off its Irish theme (musical instruments and gardening tools hanging from the ceiling, posters of Churchill, L Richard, Presley, Winehouse, J Stewart, Laurel and Hardy, J Wayne, Margaret Hamilton, J Cagney).

A beer towel in the pub promotes Greene King IPA as the English cricket team's beer. Both IPA and England cricket team are poor, though thankfully, the Redemption is fine and the Old Eagle's toilets excellent. Best of all, a good looking black and white cat sits behind the bar, bold as brass. Dogs are often excellent pub additions; cats rarely so. S/he (looked like a tom) was probably enjoying the wafts of Thai cooking.

Lovely pub when it's quiet. I expected it to be horrible on a Friday night. It wasn't.

174 Sat 30/9/17 : The Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Black Country Brewery Pig on the Wall 4.3%

LUTON TOWN 3 NEWPORT COUNTY 1

Post-match pints. The pub is already reasonably populated, and notably by a group of Bricklayers’ regulars all dressed in suits (complete, in many cases, with LTFC ties) preparing for a memorial visit to the St Albans Masonic Lodge, latterly frequented by a sadly departed member of their brethren. They stand in a big cluster (they’re big blokes) before being mini bussed out to Hertfordshire.

There’s Chelsea v Man City on the telly too – so there’s quite a few polyester Prem’ fans in, cheering on the television. We look down on that kind of fan… but they don’t have a match to walk back from, so get in first and grab all the seats. We stand outside, until it rains, then we come back in.

Match was good (Town 3-0 up at half time, then decide to make heavy weather out of it). John is in good form, the beer is good and Steve is looking better.

Steph and I are flying to Alicante (en route for BENIDORM) tomorrow.

192. Wednesday 4/10/17: Calle Labradores, Alicante

Beer: Mahou 5%

Carmen, it seems, isn’t going to show up. We’re five minutes late when we arrive at The Piazza, our planned meeting point, and wait around another ten before deciding to do the tourist bit and have a look in the cathedral. Just before we enter, Carmen arrives. Lovely to see her. She has kids and parents in tow – and it’s nice sitting outside with the extended family.

The Piazza seems like a tourist trap – on the square, right outside the cathedral, along with vendors and buskers. It’s possibly (actually, almost certainly) somewhere we’d not have gone to on our own – we’d have headed into the back streets – but in the company of a resident family it’s fine. And it is fine. Carmen, who studied photography with me fifteen years ago, noticing that I’m snapping away, produces her own camera – and a website on which she stores her photographs. She is, and always has been, far more accomplished than me – she takes some fantastic pictures. She doesn’t, as a rule, habitually photograph drinks in every pub she visits. More fool her, eh folks? “It’s not just beer”, she suggests.

No, there’s football too – on the Piazza tellies there’s coverage (a replay it turns out) of Man City v Shaktar Donetsk. Shaktar are apparently playing in Luton Town’s 1983 home kit. They still lose – as Luton Town were wont to do in 1983… although famously not at Man City (but they were wearing the away kit then).

Unlike the archetypal tourist trap we suspected this place to be – the bill for the beer was very reasonable.

249 Mon 20/11/17: U Sadu, Prague

Beer: Sádek 11°

After quite a booze heavy, but reasonably early ending, evening last night we’re up and about quite early – with a resolution to leave the pubbing to quite late. We do the city centre tourist bit – trudge over the Charles Bridge, trudge back…

My brother is flying back today – and will meet us mid-afternoon in U Sadu. We seem to catch the sense of post-holiday blues, even though we have another day left to go.

He dashes off for the airport – I get another beer in, and we contemplate a visit to Namesti Miru Christmas Market.

One of the pictures features Stephanie tapping on the window in an attempt to attract my brother's attention.

20 Wed 29/3/17: Kings Arms, Lymington

Beer: Sharp's Doom Bar 4.0%

On the south coast/New Forest for work day out, which involves boating from Lymington to the IOW and back again, on Thursday 30th. Some go down the night before to sleep in local Premier Inns or the corporate day out organisers’ boat. I’m on a boat. Some go for a pre-arranged Italian meal on Wednesday night; I do a pub crawl on me tod.

The only GBG pubs are the Wetherspoons in town and The Monkey House which is a good twenty minute walk from the Marina. I pass the JDW and, wondering whether continuing the walk was justified, went into this pub on the way. I’d have stayed for a couple (and contemplated staying in the town centre) if the pub was better. My plan was to find a decent pub and enigmatically read Oscar Wilde’s essay on socialism… it wasn’t going to happen here.

Doom Bar was the only option. There were four regulars at the bar, the barman was regaling how, though he disliked “_____”, he loved working with her because she was so easy to bully… ordering her about, telling her what to do etc. Seemed a thoroughly unpleasant boast to me, but that’s the way things seem to be going – both in workplaces and politics these days. Anyway, the assembled clientele seemed amused enough with it. The bastards.

I supped up me beer and made a beeline to the Monkey House, listening to a podcast: The History of England Episode 209: (15th Century) Exploration.

280 Fri 5/1/18: The Strawberry, Newcastle upon Tyne

Beer: Wylam Angel 4.2%

We’re basically following the Good Beer Guide recommendations, as we would in any new town; but also working out routes to the football ground tomorrow. Not that you can miss the football ground; it’s huge. The Strawberry is right outside. It would be an absolutely run of the mill decent pub with decent ale – but for its proximity to, and allegiance to, Newcastle Utd FC.

The walls are bedecked with black and white prints/photographs of players old and new – pictures of the ground (evolving to become the monster it is now) – a “Nee Mackems” sign behind the bar. This would not be a place to wear red and white. We’re alright, we’ve got our black and white scarves on… though I’m feeling a tiny bit conflicted that this means we’re necessarily being viewed as (soft Southern) Newcastle fans. I have a (b/w) Luton Town badge on my Harrington lapel (under the leather jacket – it’s a two coat winter weekend), but that’s quite small. It’s not going to ruin my evening… I probably just need to grow up.

The early evening before the match is packed, and noisy, enough to entirely eliminate the thought of coming here tomorrow.

211 Thu 2/11/17: The Bear Club, Luton

Beer: Leighton Buzzard Brewery Restoration 4.6%

Out: SW, AW, AJK, Simon, Phil and Pete

Quiet Night is quieter than normal tonight: the official launch party for the latest editions of Clod Magazine, and Luton Haiku book... I don’t think either sell exceptionally well (if they sold any at all).
We sit at our little table at the front, huddled around the amps and albums and raffle prizes - admiring all the old record sleeves and talking music (The Fall/Brix Smith), cricket (Pete and I) football and booze...

Raffle prizes this QN as seen in the picture: Beret, Of Mice and Men and Ligo branded sardines. Matt wins. We don’t know Matt. Matt seems bemused by the (quite good) prizes.

127 7/7/17: Bricklayers Arms, Luton

 Beer: Cotleigh Tawny Owl 3.8%, Milton Justinian 3.9%

Another hot day/balmy evening. Too warm to sit inside, particularly as there are two rather big and sweaty (and progressively pungent) chaps ensconced in the back room, so we go outside.

Lovely to have Johnny Harper and Paul the mod Fuller out – haven’t seen them in a while. John is full of job insecurity, but in good form – swearing like a f*cking trooper. Paul is full of renewed hope for the Left.

It’s dark: I’m wearing old prescription contact lenses and have no reading glasses – so notes are minimal. The pictures hopefully convey some feel of the hot summer evening… they’re not brilliant though.