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
April 2026. Tutbury & Hatton. As promised, a rare “long read” (ugh) on our pub crawl to Tutbury and Hatton this Tuesday. If you get bored after my regulation 389 words send me a note and I’ll go back to writing up every pub individually,...
April 2026. Waterbeach. A week ago we were on our way down south for our last overnight stay in Mum and Dad’s Waterbeach cottage; a year’s stay without a TV and internet, a month sleeping on a mattress on the ground. A mattress covered...
April 2026. Sheffield. Walking back from the Botanical last Saturday I had a lot of worries on my mind. The chance of Dad’s house sale falling through at the last moment (it didn’t), Mrs RM’s blog getting more views than mine (it might)...
April 2026. Sheffield. A Saturday in Sheffield before, we hoped, a last hurrah cleaning the old house in Waterbeach. I did a walk out over the hills to the Botanical Gardens, where I brought Dad 5 years ago on his only visit to...
April 2026. Sheffield. Some good news today. Sunnyside is finally sold, to a lovely couple with two toddlers. Mum would be delighted. A week ago I was waiting for something to go wrong with exchange/completion/WW3, and persuading Mrs RM...
I’m suddenly miles behind on the blog again. How has that even happened ? April 2026. Birmingham. I’d just had the overdue glass of water on my Curated Exploration of Public Houses (CEPH), but forgotten to eat. Across the road from The...
I’ll spare you the A-ha video. April 2026. Hockley. Birmingham. At Bournville station I caught up again with the two Wolves fans from Attic, and had a chat about the merits of the Great Western vs the Wheatsheaf, and the mysterious...
April 2026. Stirchley. Birmingham. With Attic ticked I could/should have caught the next train to New Street for my second Brum pub, but something was drawing me to Stirchley High Street. Not the Peanut Butter Jelly-me-up burger on the...
I know it’s an Aerosmith tune, but I played the R.E.M. version a lot, so… April 2026. Stirchley. Birmingham. Arriving “home” from Waterbeach last Thursday afternoon I let Mrs RM the front door, grabbed a charger, and half an hour later...
April 2026. Sheffield-Grantham-Waterbeach-Southborough-Sheffield. Another week, another slog down and back up the A1, this time with the added bonus of a day trip to Tunbridge Wells to take my Mother-in-Law for surgery (all well,...
April 2026. Sheffield. I did get back from Retford, eventually, and arriving in Sheffield at 10 to 5 gave me a rare chance of a seat and tea with Mrs RM in the Rutland. I gave my dearest an hour’s notice, so she’d only be half an hour...
April 2026. Retford. I had a look at my last blog post from Retford (a bit like Alistair Cooke’s Letter from America without the golf ) while walking the mile into town and realised how little had changed. It’s a low-key market town of...
April 2026. Retford. You left me at Lincoln Bus Station, waiting for the Number 56 to Wragby that never came. There’s a sadness about missing out on a planned GBG tick that only the ticker knows. But if you can’t have an actual tick,...
April 2026. Lincoln. South Herts have made a splendid job of organising this week’s CAMRA Members Weekend, putting the emphasis on pub crawls curated surveys of licenses premises. If you’re in St Albans this weekend and see Paul Mudge,...
April 2026. Lincoln. I’m not adding the Ritz to my extensive “2026 Pubs Visited” spreadsheet, as I didn’t even have a can of San Pellegrino, so terrified was I of needing a comfort break on the bus to Wragby in half an hour, and having...