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
- pubs
- pint
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- spoons
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- cask
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- stocktake
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All posts (722)
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 either side of Grantham. Mrs RM seemed a bit worried about me as I left Rye Harbour...
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 have that stress anymore. Actually, I wish I’d taken Lewes at a more leisurely...
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 Lewes (patience) on Monday it suddenly occurred to me I could actually make it 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 two things you can’t legally miss out on a trip to Brighton are the Bowie art...
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 time for a quick glimpse of Max Miller, who I always confuse with Tommy Trinder....
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 team and some of the highest parking charges in Western Europe, though the...
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 houses (including the nice looking one near the in-laws) seem to have given up on...
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 to Iden Green we pass Benenden, where Mrs RM once had to make a court appearance...
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 ’26. Actually, has anyone ever completed a National Trust Handbook in a single...
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 prevent Londoners in pashminas breaching the walls, no trains after 3pm, a...
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