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.
July 2026
August 2026
September 2026
Top Words
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All posts (722)
December 2025. Sittingbourne. Back to my campervan overnighter in Whitstable last week, as I leave Mrs RM in the glamour of the Spoons and nip off to Sittingbourne to tick the sort of new GBG entry our Mudgie would appreciate. He did like his historic towns, though perhaps Sittingbourne would have appealed less. In...
I just heard the news that Peter Edwardson aka Old Mudgie aka Pub Curmudgeon has died. Rather than be reflective or attempt an eloquent memorial I’ll just say, for now, that I’m going to miss Peter very much. From reading and commenting on his blog to numerous pub crawls over the last decade I’ve always enjoyed his...
December 2025. Whitstable. A Proper Day in Whitstable must include oysters and beer and pashmina shops and pebbles on the beach. Mrs RM fancied something “authentic” but the seafood restaurants were both expensive and fussy looking, and you don’t really come to the Kent coast for curry. Oh, here’s an idea… The Ship...
December 2025. Whitstable. Plenty of pubs in Whitstable, but then I’m surprised it has a population of 32,196; although a lot of those are in the suburbs away from the pubs (and the artisanal muesli boutiques). 20 minutes from our campervan stop along the coast brings you to the Savoy, possibly not that Savoy, and...
December 2025, Tankerton. Kent. A short break from pubs as Mrs RM and I head to North Kent. Don’t worry, it’s the posh bit, we’re not savages. Six (6) posts coming up from Whitstable, with a night in Tankerton, where the MoHos were circling. None of those is ours, which is a small, incognito (apart from the Bass...
December 2025. Sheffield. 2 nights in Sheffield, 2 laundry washes, 1 trip to Manchester, 3 meals of Sang Lungs Singapore Rice and Crispy Beef (thanks to Chat GPT for the reheating advice). And then back to Rye on the greyest day of the year so far. Quite why I turn up at the station 90 minutes early is hard to say,...
November 2025. Manchester. Back in Piccadilly Gardens from Sale only slightly later than hoped, I admired the Manchester Christmas markets, apparently only second to Nuremberg, who are therefore the Arsenal of Christmas tat. All you need for Christmas is a pint of Holt in the Hare & Hounds, but I reckoned Matt would...
November 2025. Sale. Greater Manchester. A 3pm Saturday kick-off against Dirty L**ds, and just time before the match to meet Matt and tick off one GBG newbie in Greater Manchester with a half hour metro trip down into Trafford. There’s a good cricket team in Trafford, I understand. I’d made a fruitless journey to...
November 2025. Rye. “At least the trains from Rye are reliable” I tell Mrs RM, as I head for the bus into town to start my latest 3:15 hour rail trip north (Sheffield not Waterbeach this time). “18:48 cancelled” flashes the sign, followed by an excuse that roughly translates to “can’t be bothered. So, a half hour...
November 2025. Mayfield. My mystery trip into the Sussex Weald took us from Batemans to Mayfield, a village half an hour from the in-laws; a journey that Mrs RM made far too regularly when her mum drove my brother-in-law to the Catholic Boys School on Little Trodgers Lane when she couldn’t be trusted to be left home...
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