August 2026. Sheffield. Part 2 (of 2) from Cluedo Pubs with Walsall Evo, which was one of those days that makes this blogging lark so worthwhile. As a shy 22 year old newly qualified accountant with a stammer I wouldn’t have believed I’d be chatting to such interesting folk every week as I approach middle age. At 22...

August 2026. Sheffield. More “Ticking the Tickers” on Saturday, as I finally meet up with one of my favourite bloggers Evo of EvoBoozySaddler fame. I’d been waiting till Walsall got a new entry in the Beer Guide to catch up, but it looks like that’s never going to happen so he had to visit me. Goodness me he made me...

August 2026. Wombwell. Greater Barnsley. “You’re weird” says Mrs RM, which I’m taking as a compliment. A week after that foreign holiday in Wales, I’d barely left Sheffield. At Dad’s care home this afternoon, the lovely staff note my absence from Waterbeach for a couple of weeks* and I feel guilty. By Thursday, my...

August 2026. Sheffield. Walking back from that Bass-less Loxley Sports Bar through Hillsborough, I once again fail to walk past the door of the Spoons. This is definitely the year of Wetherspoons, and not just because I didn’t lose my 50p tokens this year. For a start, they’re my default loo stop on long urban walks...

August 2026. Sheffield. Nearly six (6) years in Sheffield now, and there’s still several dozen pubs I’ve still to visit, including this one a mere 7 minutes walk from my front door; Sadly, he Rose has been closed a year now, and I feel guilty I never popped in, having stood outside during Lockdown mouthing “Open the...

August 2026. Sheffield. Mrs RM’s had to take a pair of shoes back, and walked a new pair in on the mile down into central Sheffield, where the first Christmas decorations were spotted on 23rd August. You’ll be thrilled to know we’ve already completed our Christmas shopping. Sadly, these exhertions caused flare-up of...

August 2026. Manchester. Your traditional contractually obligated “first game at the Etihad” post you’ve no interest in. AFC Bournemouth at a traditional time, too, 2pm on a Sunday. The August fixture traditionally finds me scrabbling around for “new and shiny” pubs, having long ago completed the Greater Manchester...

August 2026. Sheffield. The rain returned to Sheffield today. I’d forgotten the joy of a good soaking. It came in quite a rush, heading down the hills to the Don, and tonight the interweb is full of pics of water rushing through Kelham Island. I don’t think the water will quite reach the levels of 2007, never mind...

August 2026. Holmesfield. Derbyshire. From Abbeydale Industrial Museum and the posh southern suburbs of Sheffield, with its abbeys and golf courses and Ember Inns, you quickly find yourself on the edge of the Peak. For me, an unexplored triangle between Dronfield, Chesterfield and Chatsworth House, with hamlets...

August 2026. Abbeydale Road. Sheffield. A tiny bit of culture between the pubs, and Sheffield does culture better than most. I’ve seen ballet, theatre, symphonies, comedy and major photographic exhibitions seen we moved North; it’s not all gallons of Magnet and chip butties here, you know. Sheffield presents its...

August 2026. Sheffield. Back home in Sheffield, Mrs RM is trying out new comfy shoes* that will allow her to rejoin the Cask Camino before that canal towpath ices up. “Are you taking me out for a pint then ?“. Really, she’s incorrigible. You know the Blake, it’s 10 minutes walk through Ruskin Park from the Blind...

August 2026. Alvechurch. A well-trod three and a half hour drive back from Cardiff to Sheffield, M4/A449/A40/M50/M5/M42/M1, and I got as far as the M42 before I needed to stop (bones not bladder). It’s a quarter of a century since I last stopped (for a Balti at the New Dilshad) in Alvechurch, pop. 6,564, so ideal...