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
September 2025. Sale. My new GBG pub in Sale was unexpectedly closed (“hope to be open by 4”, they said), so an hour to get to the soul of Sale. If there was a local TIC, they could have that for a pint of Holt. We decided to loiter for...
September 2025. Sale. What a joyous thing the Beer Guide is for alternative UK tourism. BRAPA in Rochdale tonight, and me in Sale a fortnight ago. I thought I was struggling keeping the blog up-to-date till I saw Simon is still in...
September 2025. Bramley, Rotherham. Last year was the most exciting in the history of Rotherham, since the Chuckle Brothers met me at their Harperbury TV show set in 1998. Four (4) new GBG entries, all worthy, but only the posh golf club...
September 2025. Sheffield. From the Itchy Pig (2) I took a walk through Sheffield’s genteel southern suburbs, along Psalter Lane with its solid housing, “Do not take the bowel” sign and “help yourself” apples. The next pub on the half...
A few hours early for the contractually obligated monthly highlights post, let’s hope it’s not tempting fate and something really significant happens this afternoon. September was a month of returns. Biggest of all, Russ returned to the...
September 2025. Sheffield. Back home in Sheffield, for a couple of days at least, the question is “How much time do I waste on this new GBG, then ?“. Once you’ve done it once (did I ever mention ?) there’s no real need to do it again,...
September 2025. Waterbeach. That last trip home before the new GBG was also the last weekend for Landlady Helen at the Sun, which has featured more in this blog since I left for The North than when I lived there. Helen and Theresa had to...
September 2025. Ely. The weekly drives down to Waterbeach (and frequently) Tunbridge Wells to visit elderly parents (and house) have been getting increasingly wearisome; mentally as much as physically. So I took the slow train home via...
September 2025. Teddington. Every £25.50 trip to London needs a new GBG tick and a classic or two, plus a Spoons if I haven’t done it before. Teddington doesn’t have a Spoons, which either adds or takes £100k off average house prices....
September 2025. Teddington. London. By Friday the trains were running from Cambridge to London again, and I could finally finish the capital’s GBG entries, just before the new Guide (ugh) landed at RM Towers. Teddington is exactly the...
September 2025. Cambridge. Not quite sure why I was spending this Thursday afternoon in Cambridge, between visits to Dad’s care home. Possibly the cancellation of the London train, or the tip-off about Bass at the Free Press, or more...
September 2025. Cambridge. Cambridge has gone Bass crazy. The Kingston started the trend, and now there’s a check-in at a Greene King flagship. I mean, it’s not their biggest public house, but the Free Press is where I learnt to love...