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
December 2025. Folkestone. Kent. Lots of pubs in Folkestone to revisit, but the two Harbour taps that interest me (Floc and Iron Pier) don’t open till later in the week, and they’re certainly not on the itinerary for the CAMRA Defenders...
December 2025. Folkestone. Kent. Leaving Folkestone Harbour Arm, with its scary giant seagulls that look like they’ve escaped from Squid Games, we suddenly find it’s nearly half three, the Golden Hour for photos before dusk. Time for a...
December 2025. Folkestone. Kent. Where did you leave us ? Oh yes, clambering up the steps from the Hymn and Hyrs in Folkestone Spoons, about to tackle the High Street (aka Steep Hill). Even the scruffy buildings, like this rhubarb and...
December 2025. Folkestone. Kent. Mrs RM is planning a series of posts on the Kent coast, which by her definition starts at Rochester and skips Gillingham on the way to Whitstable and beyond. Gravesend will have something to say about...
Finally from Burgess Hill, an unexpected source of blog material, a bit of art, and a bit of craft. The Signalbox opens at 4pm, and I’ll skip over the question of why craft bars open when it’s dark while Wetherspoons are serving beer at...
December 2025. Burgess Hill. If this blog had a Mission Statement, it it would be “to promote the UK’s lesser known highlights” (Leek, Leicester, Leigh) and to warn people away from Maidenhead. I was aware, from a half hour in Quench a...
December 2025. Hassocks. The vagaries of pub opening times laid bare in one day’s ticking. 1. Burgess Hill Spoons, open from 9am 2. Hassocks BN6 craft bar, open from 3pm 3. Burgess Hill Signalman, open from 4pm With my return train from...
December 2025. Keymer and Hassocks. An exciting Tuesday in the South Downs, but not exciting enough to attract Mrs RM away from the comfort of her caravan in Rye Harbour where she had a) working WiFi, b) crisps, c) that can of 10%...
December 2025. Burgess Hill. West Sussex Ah, Bucolic Burgess Hill. I’d been before, just the once, when Quench got in the GBG over a decade ago. Even Harvey’s can’t keep Quench in the Guide, replaced by a craft bar and a Spoons. Which...
December 2025. Wivelsfield. West Sussex. But first, “Where, Wivelsfield ?” Firmly Mid Sussex, though as Mid Sussex doesn’t exist in the GBG, it’s a dip into the West Sussex chapter. Here’s one I completed earlier; Simon is making some...
December 2025. Rye Harbour. Back in Rye from Waterbeach last Sunday, stunned at the news that Peter had died, I spent the next day writing about Mudgie and reading tributes to the man. Mrs RM had enjoyed his company on his last Proper...
December 2025. Waterbeach. I forgot this photo last time, Dale’s Brewery converted to Hot Numbers coffee shop, one of Cambridge’s premier meeting points for folk who don’t pub. While in Waterbeach we invited Curry Charles and Julia (not...
December 2025. Cambridge. I barely spent an hour at the Mill Road Winter Fair, enough for a couple of pubs, a couple of carols (is “Get Lucky” a carol ?), an ounce of regret I’d already had lunch (Tesco Meal Deal) and was meeting Curry...
December 2025. Cambridge. For the first time in a decade, I found myself in Cambridge on the same day as the Mill Road Winter Fair, one of the Big events in a social calendar dominated by Shakespeare and cover bands and beer festivals ....
December 2025. Waterbeach. Back at Sunnyside to see Dad in his care home, greeted by the smile that melts your heart, and feeling rather jealous of his meat balls lunch while we survive on meal deals from Tesco. It’s useful to keep in...