April 2026. Eyam. Derbyshire. The landlady at the Three Stags’ Heads gently chided me for my mispronunciation of the name on the pump clip, which made me keen to visit Eyam, pronounced just as you’d expect (or not). Our last American visitors were also keen on a visit to a village I assumed only got a handful of...

April 2026. Wardlow Mires. Peak District. I’d taken Mrs RM to one of the most scenic points in the Peak District, bought her ice cream and Jaipur (NOT in the same glass, silly ! That’s a Stockton thing) and drove her home via some of the most picturesque Derbyshire Dales villages. As we turned on to the A523 towards...

April 2026. Monsal Head. The Peak District. Mrs RM had been reminding me how little of the Peak District we’d actually done since moving to Sheffield (hardly any new GBG pubs), so I gave her a mystery trip into the heart of the Peak last Thursday. 15 miles south-west of Sheffield, Monsal Dale in the White Peak...

April 2026. Tutbury & Hatton. As promised, a rare “long read” (ugh) on our pub crawl to Tutbury and Hatton this Tuesday. If you get bored after my regulation 389 words send me a note and I’ll go back to writing up every pub individually, which will take me into May. This trip to unheralded villages of about 3,000...

April 2026. Waterbeach. A week ago we were on our way down south for our last overnight stay in Mum and Dad’s Waterbeach cottage; a year’s stay without a TV and internet, a month sleeping on a mattress on the ground. A mattress covered in crispy beef and Singapore rice that last night before we took it to the tip...

April 2026. Sheffield. Walking back from the Botanical last Saturday I had a lot of worries on my mind. The chance of Dad’s house sale falling through at the last moment (it didn’t), Mrs RM’s blog getting more views than mine (it might) the prospect of another year of not using my full Spoons voucher allocation…...

April 2026. Sheffield. A Saturday in Sheffield before, we hoped, a last hurrah cleaning the old house in Waterbeach. I did a walk out over the hills to the Botanical Gardens, where I brought Dad 5 years ago on his only visit to Sheffield. He’d given up golf the previous years and was struggling to walk the gardens,...

April 2026. Sheffield. Some good news today. Sunnyside is finally sold, to a lovely couple with two toddlers. Mum would be delighted. A week ago I was waiting for something to go wrong with exchange/completion/WW3, and persuading Mrs RM to get out of the house on a Friday night for some exercise, but definitely no...

I’m suddenly miles behind on the blog again. How has that even happened ? April 2026. Birmingham. I’d just had the overdue glass of water on my Curated Exploration of Public Houses (CEPH), but forgotten to eat. Across the road from The Wolf, Mr Tasty offered artisanal pizza (possibly), but you’ll know how seriously...

I’ll spare you the A-ha video. April 2026. Hockley. Birmingham. At Bournville station I caught up again with the two Wolves fans from Attic, and had a chat about the merits of the Great Western vs the Wheatsheaf, and the mysterious “ruin” pubs of Budapest. Birmingham hasn’t quite got into ruin pubs yet, the original...

April 2026. Stirchley. Birmingham. With Attic ticked I could/should have caught the next train to New Street for my second Brum pub, but something was drawing me to Stirchley High Street. Not the Peanut Butter Jelly-me-up burger on the corner, but a couple of Untappd check-ins I’d just noticed the gloriously Art...

I know it’s an Aerosmith tune, but I played the R.E.M. version a lot, so… April 2026. Stirchley. Birmingham. Arriving “home” from Waterbeach last Thursday afternoon I let Mrs RM the front door, grabbed a charger, and half an hour later was on the Cross Country to Birmingham. And half an hour later, Bournville. I...