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
November 2025. North Walsham. Norfolk. Next up, an instant classic in rural Norfolk. No, really. The Peasants’ Tavern is Norwich & District CAMRA Pub of the Year, open Noon till 11pm all week, some bench seating, lined glasses, terrific...
November 2025. North Walsham. Norfolk. A first visit to North Walsham (pop. 12, 829) since 2018, a good year for City fans. Manchester City fans, that is. The half hour trip from Norwich was “enlivened” by young lads discussing the...
November 2025. Norwich. 3 visits to Dad in his care home this week, he’s barely woken when I’m there but he grips my hand which is enough. I took a trip out to Norfolk on Friday, someone has to brave the flatlands, and found myself on a...
I recommend this guy on Instagram (great name). He answers questions about life, the universe and everything from his sofa. “What’s important, Martin ?” Well, obviously for me, it’s living long enough to see Simon complete the GBG, my...
November 2025. Cambridge. Never change, King Street. A row of cars competing for penalty charges on one of the parking lanes closest to town. I laughed about it with a lad coming out of the Prince who then said ” **** I forgot to pay“....
November 2025. Cambridge. Forgive the dull blog title; I’m just back in Sheffield from Rye (via Waterbeach) and a bit brain dead after the UK’s slowest rail journey, in which the train seems to be subject to weird gravitational pulls...
November 2025. Lewes. Back from Newhaven to Lewes for a fourth new GBG tick by 3pm. Four in the bag so early in the week used to set me up for those 20 pub weeks that BRAPA knocks off on the way to Beer Guide glory, but in 2025 I don’t...
November 2025. Newhaven. East Sussex. There’s a lot of dashing around at the moment, multiple rail journeys planned, some mobile tickets, some you have to print out (why ?) and then you miss your train. And on the trip from Brighton to...
November 2025. Brighton 2 pints before 12.30, and no breakfast. Bad idea, right ? Time for something healthy like a burger. I could have popped in one of the North Laines GBG pubs for grub, the Nelson or the multicoloured Albert, but the...
November 2025. Brighton. Can’t help feeling that an hour and two pints in Brighton straight back to the station is poor form, I didn’t even see the seaside, but it’s dark by 4 and I had other targets on the Sussex coast. And I did have...
November 2025. Brighton. A few new GBG entries along the Sussex coast, so let’s follow up Eastbourne and St Leonards with everyone’s favourite bit of London-by-the-Sea. Brighton feels a major city these days, with a Top 10 Premier League...
November 2025. Rye Harbour. One of the BIG questions, along with “Why ?” and “Would you like some wine Mrs RM ?“, is “Can you get a good Shepherd Neame beer anywhere ?“. Well, I’ve not found it in a generation, and the Sheps managed...
November 2025. Iden Green. Kent. Our hour of National Trust worthiness at Sissinghurst over by 11, we took the picturesque route through the Weald of Kent, all oast houses and Bloomsbury set country houses and refined dining. On the way...
November 2025. Sissinghurst. Kent. Coming to the end of our year of middle-aged National Trust membership now, but still time for a few late ticks from our temporary South-Eastern base in Rye before we ignore the requests to renew for...
November 2025. Rye. Back in Rye from Lydd, the town was gearing up for the annual bonfire night to mark the burning of the libelous copies of the 1974 Good Beer Guide (the “avoid like the plague” edition). The gate would be locked to...