The Bole Bridge - Tamworth

Visited 12th May 2012.

It's been a few months now since we've had any sort of break so we thought that a weekend away might be in order. A quick visit to Groupon a few weeks earlier had resulted in a coupon for a hotel somewhere near Birmingham. I had spent a fair bit of time planning a route (straight up the M40) and producing a list of pubs to visit, eleven in all spread over two days. Packing is starting to come naturally to us now and even though we didn't wake up till about eight we were still out of the house and away by nine, we even managed not to forget anything! The trip was uneventful, as was the parking and we were sat in the pub in time for breakfast. Inside there was a large, open plan area with the decor being mainly red and wood, it was also about half full with many people eating breakfast. Mrs S. went and found a table for us, gave me the number and I was quickly at the bar being served by a very nice man. I ordered the large breakfast and a large latte and scrambled eggs and tea for Mrs S. Having paid for everything I then went and sat down and started reading the paper. I sat there for maybe a minute before Mrs S. asked where the drinks were... Doh! But then just as I started getting up to go back to the bar to get them the 'very nice man' appeared with cups in hand. Excellent service. I thanked him and we had a brief chat about directions to the next pub on my list and then breakfast arrived. Speedy, more excellent service. All in all we both enjoyed our visit to 'The Bole Bridge' but it was time to move on, we had a lot to do...
  
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The Tilly Shilling - Farnborough

Visited 6th May 2012.

It's been a while since I've managed to drag someone new to the 'Wetherspoons Challenge' to a 'spoons with me, but accompanying me today I have a new friend who was feeling a bit bored and fancied a drink. To break him in gently we are only visiting one pub today and it's a relatively new one. The journey was uneventful and being a Sunday we managed to park with no problems. My new friend took the obligatory photo and in we went. The pub, whist being very wide was not very deep and was covered in light wood paneling with a few books at one end of the room. We had no problem getting a table and soon I had a pint of Gold Muddler sitting in front of me. We ended up staying for quite a while just sitting, chatting and generally putting the world to rights. Do I have a new beer buddy, only time will tell, but I have done my best to give him a gentle start...
  
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Goodman's Field - Greater London, Tower Hamlets

Visited 15th April 2012.
 
Our final 'spoons of the trip was 'The Goodman's Field'. Regular readers will have noticed that so far I have not mentioned Mrs SatNav, that will now to be rectified. The nearest tube station on the Hammersmith & City line to the pub is Aldgate East which isn't to far away from the pub. Sadly we didn't know the way so we turned the route navigation over to Mrs SatNav who promptly took us in the wrong direction (we eventually realised) so the walk to the pub was a lot longer than it needed to be. But we made it, finally. The pub felt as though it was one of the smaller 'spoons we have visited but it was doing a brisk trade in breakfasts and the place was pretty full. Still full from our breakfasts and pretty much coffee'd out we opted instead for a small Pepsi each. We finished up and left, taking a much more direct route back to the tube station where we once again went in search of a member of staff to let us through the barriers. Next stop Paddington where we found we had a half hour wait for the next train to take us home. For me 'The Half Moon' was the pub of the day but Mrs S. preferred 'The Goodman's Field', yesterday's pub of the day was probably 'The Rocket' for the view over the Thames. Highlight of the weekend had to be the bit off Brazilian style beef we had at the BBQ on Saturday night - delicious.
  
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The Half Moon - Greater London, Mile End

Visited 15th April 2012.
  
As we had stayed overnight at our friends house we were still in London. Hmm, what to do today? Our friend was working and had left for work very early, in fact we were still asleep when he left so after letting his dogs out, and back in we left and headed to the nearest tube station where we found we had another two tickets that wouldn't work the barriers. We had a bit less of a plan today so we thought we would keep it simple and find somewhere to go that didn't involve to much mucking about on the trains. We ended up detraining at Stepney Green, just a short walk away from the 'The Half Moon'. When we first entered we thought we were the only people in there as there was no one about that we could see and the bar appeared to be closed. But then, why would the doors be open? We went further in and as we rounded a corner the pub seemed to suddenly open out. Quite unusual but at least we had found some people and another bar. It was quiet and Mrs S. had no problem finding a table while I went and ordered a large breakfast for me, a breakfast wrap for Mrs S. and two large lattes for the both of us. We sat and ate while watching the place start to fill up with a lot more people ordering breakfasts. The staff were friendly and very efficient and I quite liked the interesting interior design. We didn't want to be late getting home today so we decided to visit just one more pub and then head back. So we wanted a pub somewhere between Stepney Green and Paddington, fortunately I had already thought about this and we didn't have to use Mrs S.'s 'pin in the map' method of navigaton (also how she chooses her horses). With this in mind we headed back to Stepney Green tube station in search of a member of staff to allow us passage through the barriers...
  
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The Rockingham Arms - Greater London, Elephant & Castle

Visited 14th April 2012.
  
We got back on the Northern line for our final pub of the day at the Elephant and Castle. Once again, a very busy pub but the staff were working well and the service was good. Mrs S. sat with her large latte and bag of nuts, me with my pint of John Smiths and bag of Hula Hoops watching the staff refusing to serve a drunken man and checking ID's. The pub had a modern look to it but was a bit scruffy. We didn't stay to long as we needed to get moving so that we weren't late meeting our friends. As it turned out we did end up arriving later than we intended due to a problem on the Hammersmith line but we had a very nice evening, the BBQ was great and we went to bed exhausted after our very busy day!
  
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The Moon Under Water - London, Balham

Visited 14th April 2012.
  
Another short tube ride (in fact it took longer to get through the barriers than the ride lasted) and we were in Balham. Once again, we could see the pub from the tube station so it wasn't to arduous a walk for us. It was dark and fairly busy inside but we managed to get a table where we could sit and watch the race. Once again I went for a double Buffalo Trace and Pepsi with Mrs S. opting for a double Malibu and Pepsi. And they're off... eventually... after a few false starts... again. Mrs S. had three horses running, as had I. Very early on one of my horses fell, another refused a fence and my third managed to struggle in to fourth place. Woohoo! Mrs S. on the other hand was getting very excited as her horse Shakalakaboomboom was leading... Edge of the seat stuff followed, at least for Mrs S. Sadly Shakalakaboomboom faded towards the end of the race and after leading for most of it ended up not being placed. However with typical Mrs S. luck she had managed to pick the winner, Neptune Collonges and the third place horse, Seabass. How does she do that? Time to make a move, we have one more pub to visit before meeting up with our friends.

  
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J.J. Moon's - London, Tooting

Visited 14th April 2012. 

A short tube ride later and we are in Tooting and from the station entrance we can see our target. Mrs S. takes the photos and then in we go, only to find it is quite narrow and seems to be quite small. And very busy. Mrs S. heads off in to the darkness, past the books and booths and manages to find us a table near the back, which turns out to be quite a long way back. I, meanwhile am at the bar ordering a double Malibu and Pepsi for Mrs S. and a double Buffalo Trace and Pepsi for myself. We dawdled with our drinks as we still had plenty of time and I knew the next pub was also near to a tube station. Although we had been finding that it could take a few minutes to get in and out of the stations today. The tickets we had bought would not work the gates and the railway bods refused to replace them with ones that would. This meant that at every gate we had to find a member of staff to open the gates for us. Although we complained every time it was apparently impossible to do anything about the situation and it was just something we were going to have to put up with. Can you imaging during the Olympics thousands of people clogging up the tube system because their tickets, although valid, don't work the tube station gates. Come on Boris, this sort of thing should have been sorted years ago! Rant over - and it's off to Balham.

© John Sinner. None of the material contained in this post, or this blog as a whole, may be reproduced without the express and written permission of John Sinner. All rights reserved.