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
January 2026. Hastings. The end of Dryanuary for me as we hit Day 3 of 2026, but Mrs RM has ambitions to “go low” and seek out all these exciting non-alcoholic alternatives we keep reading about. Let’s focus on one street, All Saints in...
January 2026. Hastings. Hastings ? Again ?! Although the wonders of the Kent and Sussex coast are on our doorstep in Rye, they’re not much use if you don’t get out the caravan till noon. It’s still dark by four down here, and Hastings is...
January 1st 2026. Corby Glen. Lincolnshire. A very easy 2hr 20 drive down from Sheffield to Waterbeach on New Years Day, which I designated as my Dryanuary Day for 2026. Having switched from road to rail of late, that M18/A1/A14 slog...
December 31st 2025. Walkley. Sheffield. I think I’ve written about every pint, gig and church visited this year. Imagine that. Goodness know what the AI data farms speed reading my blog are making of it all. I assume all those American...
December 31st 2025. Walkley. Sheffield. Last day of the year, and a relief to be spending it quietly in Sheffield after 2024’s traumas. The New Year’s Eve fireworks on the 7 hills are sensational, and best viewed from our upstairs window...
December 2025. Sheffield. Back in Sheffield I suddenly found myself unable to walk past the Wellington before the steep 10 minute walk home. Must be my gammy leg etc etc. 2 years ago I named the Welly my favourite pub in Sheffield, then...
December 2025. Newlay. Leeds. 5 years ago (if pubs had been open in 2021) a trip to Leeds would have targeted a BRAPA-friendly half dozen new Guide pubs in a day. Those two in Todmorden, a couple of new Spoons, Bradford, as well as that...
December 2025. Horsforth. Leeds. Visiting these last few West Yorkshire Beer Guide newbies, like Sir Geoff tickling singles off the Australian attach at Headingley in ’64, I head for Horsforth. Actually, I head for Kirkstall Forge, a...
December 2025. Leeds. There’s no point running this blog as a diary if it’s not honest. So, a week after boasting about my athleticism, brought on impatience, I need to confess to my clumsiness, as in my dash to edge past two folk...
December 2025. Sheffield. Perhaps only Will the Sheffield Hatter is as passionate about beer quality in the pub as I am, starting many a scrap reasoned debate on CAMRA Discourse of late. Like Will, I reckon that quality can vary by the...
Dave mentioning the brilliant Lola Young reminds me I’ve still to delight you with my Top 10 albums for 2025, so you can start playing them and get your “Spotify age” down from 64 to 24 next year. Goodness know what my actual 24 year old...
December 2025. Bolsover. We’d ticked the last new entry in Derbyshire, Mrs RM had expressed complete disinterest in walking the bounds to Snipe Bogg and Carr Vale Flash, so all that was left of Bolsover was a trip to B & M bargains to...
December 2025. Bolsover. From folk debating the Beast of Bolsover in Wakefield to the actual town where Dennis Skinner was MP for 49 years. Sometimes this blog doesn’t feel completely random A last tick in Derbyshire for GBG26....
December 2025. Wakefield. I mean, who waits patiently at a station between connections ? 20 minutes, or 45 in Wakefield Kirgate on the way back from Todmorden, is the ideal time for stretching your legs to explore regal street art,...
“Man cannot live by The Word alone“. He also needs pints of Bass and a balanced diet, like the one in Wigan’s Swan and Railway (above). Rushing between 3 homes, Mrs RM has done miracles with a slow cooker, but rarely spending 3 days in a...