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
December 2025. Hastings. You’ll know that I fund my hedonist lifestyle by not buying clothes, but by Monday I realised I was going to have to replace my dark fleece, inexplicably left on the 17:35 from Uttoxeter after 4 pints of Bass. 20...
December 2025. Rye Harbour. I’d popped down up to Waterbeach to see Dad on Friday, leaving Mrs RM to her blog without me ruining her WiFi. “Are you back tomorrow?” she asks, oblivious to plans. Obviously she wanted something brought down...
December 2025. Waterbeach. Ask anyone about Waterbeach and they’ll say “Ah, that’s where the Southworths ate a Chinese takeaway with folded bits of card“, but it’s also renowned as the place with two breweries and a Brewery Tap that...
December 2025. Waterbeach. Back at Home (2) after that little Gravesend diversion and 20 minutes between train at Kings Cross that I judged just insufficient for a pint at the King Charles I, I visit Dad in the afternoon (I’ve just...
December 2025. Gravesend. Kent. The route from home (1) to home (2) to home (3) is fairly well-established now. Friday saw the Rye to Waterbeach via St Pancras leg, interrupted by a short diversion at Ebbsfleet International, one of the...
December 2025. Bexhill-on-Sea. We’d entered the gates of Bexhill with such noble intentions. Culture at the De la Warr, a long bracing walk along the front, Eddie Izzard’s model railway… But too much beer early on had scuppered plans,...
December 2025. Bexhill-on-Sea. Mrs RM enjoyed our lunchtime in Sussex-by-the-Sea, remembering the times that her aunt (it was probably her granny but I’m not strong on genealogy) took her to Bexhill for whatever people used to do at the...
December 2025. Bexhill-on-Sea. There’s no point sitting in a caravan in the rain in Rye, waiting for the next elderly parent crisis to hit, when you could be on a train to a town with pubs. Mrs RM hadn’t been to Bexhill in over 40 years,...
December 2025. Folkestone. Kent. Lots of pubs in Folkestone to revisit, but the two Harbour taps that interest me (Floc and Iron Pier) don’t open till later in the week, and they’re certainly not on the itinerary for the CAMRA Defenders...
December 2025. Folkestone. Kent. Leaving Folkestone Harbour Arm, with its scary giant seagulls that look like they’ve escaped from Squid Games, we suddenly find it’s nearly half three, the Golden Hour for photos before dusk. Time for a...
December 2025. Folkestone. Kent. Where did you leave us ? Oh yes, clambering up the steps from the Hymn and Hyrs in Folkestone Spoons, about to tackle the High Street (aka Steep Hill). Even the scruffy buildings, like this rhubarb and...
December 2025. Folkestone. Kent. Mrs RM is planning a series of posts on the Kent coast, which by her definition starts at Rochester and skips Gillingham on the way to Whitstable and beyond. Gravesend will have something to say about...
Finally from Burgess Hill, an unexpected source of blog material, a bit of art, and a bit of craft. The Signalbox opens at 4pm, and I’ll skip over the question of why craft bars open when it’s dark while Wetherspoons are serving beer at...
December 2025. Burgess Hill. If this blog had a Mission Statement, it it would be “to promote the UK’s lesser known highlights” (Leek, Leicester, Leigh) and to warn people away from Maidenhead. I was aware, from a half hour in Quench a...
December 2025. Hassocks. The vagaries of pub opening times laid bare in one day’s ticking. 1. Burgess Hill Spoons, open from 9am 2. Hassocks BN6 craft bar, open from 3pm 3. Burgess Hill Signalman, open from 4pm With my return train from...