retiredmartin
retiredmartin
Martin
Retired NHS, doing long walks around UK and the world to record the great bits. Focused on Good Beer Guide pubs and live music.
Latest Posts
April 2026. Loftus. North Yorkshire. As an old Cleveland mining town with a population about the size of Waterbeach, Loftus didn’t promise much more than a couple of cheery micropubs, and the run of boarded up shops and chippies where...
April 2026. Loftus. North Yorkshire. I’d picked unsung Loftus for my campervan overnighter as it was free, a short bus ride to Staithes, and had a new GBG entry to tick. Sadly that was shut on Thursday, but next door Mad Alice’s was just...
April 2026. Skinningrove. North Yorkshire. It wasn’t until the last few years of Beer Guide completion that I really got to appreciate the Scottish coastline, but I always assumed 30 years of ticking meant I knew most of our seaside...
April 2026. Staithes. North Yorkshire. I took this picture of Staithes High Street on a dreich day in 2017, when we oddly walked past the Royal George, oblivious to its GBG pre-emptive potential. And this one last Thursday. You get a...
April 2026. Staithes. North Yorkshire. One of the best stretches of coastline anywhere, I reckon. From Scarborough all the way round to the edge of Middlesbrough, with Whitby the big tourist draw and Staithes and Robin Hoods Bay the day...
April 2026. Easington. North Yorkshire. Mrs RM declined my offer of a night in a a campervan in a Cleveland car park, her loss. Two hours later I’m at the coast, “I can see the seaside !“, and planning blog titles for the Tiger in tiny...
April 2026. Sheffield. Something very heavy on the brain seemed to lift after Dad’s house sale completed, though we’ll still be popping down to Waterbeach to see him, no longer needing to sleep in an empty Sunnyside. Mrs RM presses on...
April 2026. Stockport. Back at Stockport Travelodge (£37.99, wouldn’t buy a pie, pint and programme at the Emirates) after the game I decided I wasn’t paying a fiver for WiFi, and the only watchable thing on the telly was “The Story of...
April 2026. Stockport. “City, tearing cockneys apart, again“. That’s the only post-match chant this PG version of the blog can bring you from an evening at the Etihad when I lost my voice and risked a permanent ban for my shouts of “and...
April 2026. Alderley Edge. I’m not sure my heart will stand these tense City games, but after a period of letting the lads use my season ticket I thought I’d better see The Arsenal, apparently champions elect. If you don’t use your...
April 2026. Mareham-le-Fen. Lincolnshire. A productive weekend in rural Lincs leaves me with just the one tick to finish the county, but as that’s in bucolic Skegness I’m saving it for a special occasion. Mareham-le-Fen is another small...
April 2026. Wragby. Lincolnshire. Your actual new Wragby Beer Guide pub isn’t a classic, but then the Lincolnshire Wolds aren’t renowned for classics. Prove me wrong. But you do get this extraordinary piece of art in the garden of the...
April 2026. Wragby. Lincolnshire. You’ll remember my brave but doomed attempt to get to Wragby by bus last week ? Well, I tried again. A man who is tired of East Lindsey district has already been once. Actually, that’s not fair;...
April 2026. Sheffield. As I may have hinted, the last few months have been stressful, and not just due to the more limited recent availability of the £1.89 salt and pepper calamari from Home Bargains, which I used to fill out our...
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...