Good evening from BRAPA Towers, I'm not sure I can justify devoting my full attention to Spain (the Man City of World Cup football) versus Cape Verde (the Rotherham of World Cup football). So I've got it on mute with the music by The Dead South on my iPhone because I can't be bothered to turn my stereo on. Here are my four favourite pubs from my recent* holiday to Aberdeen & beyond. *six weeks ago but never mind Globe Inn, Aberdeen 10pm on my opening night, and I'm very much

I can't really justify giving my undivided attention to Qatar (the MK Dons of World Cup football) versus Switzerland (the Preston North End of World Cup football) so I've got it on in the background on mute with Slim Cessna's Auto Club's peculiar grower of a 2024 album on. Anyway, here we are. The first four pubs in our Scottish finale. It should be all eight, but the truth is I've been fragile all day following Poppleton Beer Festival last night, and didn't really surface

Ready for seven pubs which I genuinely enjoyed despite some Scottish limitations? (Look, I know you prefer the pish where I suffered cos you're a bunch of sadists, but I've still to tell you about Tranent in the coming weeks so plenty more misery on the horizon don't ye worry). Balmoral Bar, Ballater They really know how to milk the tourist trade in this parts - Highland Games, royal noncery, Traitors, castles, castles, castles, snowy mountain tops. Despite being hit over t

Ready for seven minor Scottish gripes and occasional weirdness from my recent holiday in Aberdeen and beyond? Good, let's begin ..... Alexandra Hotel, Ballater "ENJOY THA SUN!" barks the elderly landlady, which sounds like an order to bugger off outside and leave this stuffy 1989 Bridlington-esque style stale piss and stewed veg smelling hotel bar for more deserving local crones. Just as well that Friday 1st May 2026 is the warmest day I've ever witnessed in Scotland. I cro

I've just looked down the list at our next eight pubs, and winced / yawned slightly and felt a sudden urge to take a long hot Radox bath. But in happier news, the beer is an improvement on part one. Let's rip the band aid off and get right into 'em ..... Muckle Cross, Elgin More like the Mucky Cross, am I right guyyyss?! I've had my 20 minute walk around the deserted Saturday morning streets of Elgin, reading about the town history and recce'ing the 'bus station' , so it i

Thursday 30th April - Wednesday 6th May 2026 My recent birthday trip to Aberdeen ranked decently in terms of pints, pubs & people. About mid-table, perhaps a bit higher in my experiences of Scottish BRAPA so far. Not as good as my Greater Glasgow & Ayrshire trip last November, or recent visits to Borders. But far superior to the Kingdom of Fife, Edinburgh & Lothians and Dumfries & Galloway. But you're always going to get a few gobblin' turkeys, even in a West Mids, Derbys o

Saturday 25th April 2026 The 6:10am York-King's Cross train might involve a 5am alarm, but at least it guarantees zero chance of a Madri-swilling Geordie / Mackem invasion , and the opportunity to spread yourself, your Daddy, Owlie, GBG, Croissant and Arctic coffee across a 4-seater. Charlton away, but I'd had a better offer. Old mate Paul G. had offered to drive us around south Kent (although he's keen to tell me what whilst Kent has an N,E and W. , it actually doesn't have

Happy Premier League from all at BRAPA Towers, what a strange and crazy month May has been. Despite the distractions of football, birthdays, parties and a lost wallet, I've managed 50 new ticks in the 2026 edition of the Good Beer Guide, pushing me onto 76.9% completion. 'Only' 1041 ticks to go. Which incidentally, was the year in which Director of Football and sickly Dane Harthacnut, drafted Ed The Confessor into the matchday squad after a successful loan spell at Normandy

Thursday 23rd April 2026 The second of my DrossCountry freebies due to their general incompetence has me back down to Birmingham New Street on another brilliantly blue skied Thirsty Thursday. Being incompetent, they'd given me my paper tickets in an LNER wallet because that's how they roll. Local lad Dudley Duck was in the mascot hot seat, as we take a connecting train to Kidderminster. 19 (NINETEEN) ticks remain in Worcs. Just below my threshold of acceptability (20) but

Saturday 18th April 2026 My new mentality is 'any county where I require more than 20 ticks is a disgrace'. This brings me back to Cambridgeshire. A county teetering on the brink of acceptability with 21 ticks remaining. Let's get into 'em! Back in 2018/19, I completed the whole damn county but have largely neglected it since. I had Martin Taylor, swift chauffeuring in his Waterbeach era to thank for much of it. Seven years later, Dan M. is my new Cambs contact. St Ives b

Saturday 11th April 2026 Considering by mindset going into today was "I've barely recovered from my Bicester Easter break, only three or four pub ticks on the agenda today so let's have a quiet one", it is astonishing and quite appalling that I end up drinking 10 (TEN) pints. I'm hoping this blog will prove that it wasn't my fault, I was merely a victim of circumstance / led astray by Daddy BRAPA. But we will see. Sheffield Utd away. Could we revive our ailing playoff push

Wednesday 8th April 2026 Shortest blog title of the season, RetiredMartin inadvertently laying down the gauntlet yesterday. The final day of my Easter break ("how is he STILL writing about Easter?") I set out from Bicester North to Birmingham Moor Street once more, needing to go further than ever to find a clutch of pub ticks to keep my numbers healthy. Worcestershire is the chosen location. It'd prove the strongest day of the holiday, which shouldn't surprise me because Wo

Tuesday 7th April 2026 Armed with a panda, emergency beermat and a floppy homemade ham and marmalade sandwich which smells of tom cats, it was back up north out of Bicester for my penultimate day of this BRAPA break. The long Easter weekend was over and I was relieved, public transport normality could resume, if normality is ever a thing with public transport. Quieter trains and ashen 'back to work' faces abound as I set out for Kenilworth, from where I'm the only passenger a

Monday 6th April 2026 Pub ticking doesn't come much more head-scratching than on a Bank Holiday Monday. Will the pubs employ Sunday or Monday hours? Are any trains and buses actually running, and if so, which timetables will they use? And is there going to be any social media transparency so that I know what is going on? The answer to all three questions in invariably 'no one knows'. Thankfully, direct trains run from my Bicester starting point to Birmingham Moor Street, a

Sunday 5th April 2026 Like, totally .... A lot of water has flowed under the bridge (probably a Scottish one) since I brought my remaining Oxfordshire tally down to just two pubs on Easter Sunday, which this year coincided with BRAPA's 12th birthday. What a mature young man he's become (just don't take him to Newark Northgate). Flagging from a heavy Saturday, I drank a weird murky green 'Lion's Mane' concoction from M&S as I make my way from Bicester Village to Oxford, which

59* (not out) new Good Beer Guide pub ticks for the month of April, meaning I only need one more tomorrow (30th) for it to become my best month of 2026 so far. This takes me onto 3407 out of approx 4500 Good Beer Guide pubs, so I'm 75.7% complete. These are heady times at BRAPA Towers, and no time to rest on those laurels as my birthday BRAPA holiday is imminent. The celebrations have started early in York's excellent Black Horse. Get it in the Guide! Drunk in Derby, earl

Saturday 4th April 2026 Easter Saturday, or National Bass Day to those who celebrate (anyone else see the decisive question on 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire?' the other night) began in sunny breezy Charlbury, waiting for a bus north to Chadlington as Storm Dave rattles the perspex. GBG super-regular, the surprisingly wet-led Rose & Crown sadly isn't open yet or I'd be whipping in a swift half. I'd slept like a log on my second night in Bicester, which won't surprise those o

Ready for a 'long read' (ugh!)? Even by my wordy standards? Best pour yourself a stiff drink. This is both a painful and satisfying day to recall. Friday 3rd April 2026 "I'm not in a funny mood, I'm in a funny way!" Daddy BRAPA, South Oxon country road circa 12 noon A' red dot' tick = a Good Beer Guide pub which has been in the previous five editions (or more). The working theory is that these will be the better pubs to tick off, both in terms of quality and longevity. D

Thursday 2nd April 2026 Even the cash machine at York station was getting into the Easter spirit as I tootle down to sunny Oxon for a full week away, with the intention of mopping up (most of) my remaining 19 ticks, with a view to getting stuck into neighbouring counties when I run dry. I would've taken mini Jesus as a bonus pub mascot but Ivor Panda is famously atheist. It has taken me FAR too long in my pub-ticking life to realise you can do York-Oxford/Banbury directly by

Saturday 26th March 2026 International football weekend could mean only one thing ..... Daddy BRAPA car day (woop, woop). Let's hope Hull City fluke promotion so my calendar is full of similar blank Saturdays caused by the Premier League's 38 game season and even more ridiculous kick off times than we currently suffer. Dad might not be so enthusiastic about this prospect when I ask him to turn down a dirt track on the North Yorkshire Moors in the pitch black so I can have a p