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. Hampstead. London. I’m timing my trips down to see Dad to coincide with the nostalgia music afternoons at his care home (Dave from Chatteris, it’s always a Dave, sings Beatles and Neil Diamond) and my rather less nostalgic...
October 2025. Ladybarn. Manchester. That’s my view from a £17 a match season ticket at Manchester City a week ago, for one of the most exciting games I’ve seen at the Etihad. Staying over near Stockport meant I had time to join the 15%...
November 2025. Levenshulme. It’s been a slow start to ticking the new cohort of Greater Manchester Guide pubs. If you’re approaching middle age like it’s wise not to drink too much before a match or a gig, but a pint in Levenshulme gives...
October 2025. Heaton Chapel to Levenshulme. I’m no fan of night driving these days, it’s almost like I’m approaching middle-age or something. And with my usual cheap option for train to Manchester scuppered (no service to Hyde) it...
October 2025. Ticknall. 2 miles from Calke, in the heart of the National Forest, is yet another of those “HOW had I not been here before ?” pubs that the Beer Guide continues to throw up. Ticknall is a gorgeous little Derbyshire village,...
November 2025. Calke. Derbyshire. A late dash to tick a few National Trust properties before the subs are due (we won’t renew). Blimey, talk about a well-pubbed location. Calke sits between Coalville, Burton, Derby and Beeston in the...
October 2025. Leicester. Our 36 hours in Leicester concluded with a late lunch in another historic pub, the venue for local CAMRA’s branch meeting that very evening. Even my remarkable powers of persuasion weren’t enough to convince Mrs...
October 2025. Leicester. Regular readers will know I’m no fan of history, which is I why I follow a team founded in 2008 and can’t tell my Art Deco from my Art Nouveau (or Garfunkel). But apparently Leicester is even more famous for a...
October 2025. Leicester. 36 hours in Leicester, and with lunchtime approaching (though we’d barely finished breakfast) it’s time to explore the castle. Leicester looked quite lively with shoppers that late October Thursday, but tourist...
October 2025. Leicester. 36 hours in Leicester, and a busy morning for Mrs RM if she’s going to tick her deers, the tourist highlights she’s got from ChatGPT blogs. Starting with Curveside Bistro’s Turkish breakfast, and the fonts of the...
October 2025. Leicester. Having paid for a night’s accommodation in the centre of Leicester that Wednesday (£60 at the well-equipped* Ramada Encore) I wasn’t going to bed at 6, even if Mrs RM was. A bit of night-time street art ? Nah,...
October 2025. Leicester. 36 hours in Leicester; time to complete the GBG entries for the county and provide Mrs RM with enough material for her own blogpost to boost tourist trade, provisionally titled “Oh, go on, it can’t be worse than...
October 2025. Leicester. A large gap (well, 3 hours) between pubs now as Mrs RM does a deep dive into her map of Leicester tourist deers (above), which I ignore and instead take photos of painted Cliff Richard albums, and colourful...
October 2025. Leicester. 36 hours in Leicester, loads to tick on Mrs RM’s “deer map“, let’s get my last Leicestershire tick (there WAS only one newbie, incredibly) and an early lunch at the Clarendon. In truth, a lot of Leicester seemed...
October 2025. Leicester. The last trip of the month, as we become Leicester’s tourists. Just under the hour from Sheffield, just under £25 off-peak return, and budget hotels right next to the Ale Wagon (of which more later). 36 hours,...