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
July 2026. Kelham. Sheffield. I know jealousy is a terrible thing, but I really am jealous of Simon’s frenetic progress towards completion of the Beer Guide. It’s not always fun, and BRAPA has the really scary stuff still to come...
July 2026. Midhopestones. Sheffield. The Number 57 from the bottom of our hill (doesn’t really narrow it down) terminates at Unsliven Bridge 49 minutes later. I had no idea what Unsliven Bridge was, apart from a sense it was beyond the...
July 2026. Grantham. From Sheffield to Waterbeach to see Dad and back in the same day isn’t ideal. But I don’t really want to be hanging around in Cambridge when I could be back with Mrs RM, planning the next leg of our epic Cask Camino...
July 2026. Rotherham. Visiting Dad yesterday a long-term aquaintance said to me “You must enjoy sitting around relaxing at home“. I was speechless. I’m aware some folk do like spending time at home, but 4 years after completing the Beer...
July 2026. Sheffield. The only problem with keg beer is that you immediately wish you’d had cask, but I wouldn’t admit that on the cesspit that is CAMRA’s Discourse at the moment. Anyway, I found I couldn’t walk past the Gardeners Rest...
July 2026. Sheffield. When we moved to Sheffield during the second lockdown I thought there might be a protracted period of stabilisastion in the pub scene (ugh), but 2021-23 saw plenty of new openings to distract us from the Kelham...
July 2026. Sheffield. It’s that time of year again, when local newspapers, even the subscription ones without clickbait, send reporters out to find your city’s top beer gardens, and invite comments from folk who like to reminisce about...
July 2026. Manchester. I drove into Manchester on the hottest day of the year to help him clear his Piccadilly flat (mainly a guitar and early editions of Kerrang!), a month after his move to the Promised Land of Stockport. I could have...
July 2026. Bradford. Back from the Ginger Goose, Mrs RM said she didn’t want anything to eat, which I took as instruction to head out immediately and come back with a healthy tea. I headed out into Little Germany, a part of Bradford with...
July 2026. Bradford. Back from Bingley at half-five last Monday, Bradford looked a little too quiet. The 10 minutes walk from Forster Square Station to Holiday Inn Express is a row of “value” pubs, one of them offering sandwich, crisps...
July 2026. Bingley. Day 5 of the Cask Camino, and we’d postponed Bingley’s canalside highlights in favour of a bracing walk to the Druid’s Altar, with the promise of a pint on the way back to the station. Mrs RM will be looking for some...
July 2026. Saltaire to Bingley. A late (9:30) start to Day 5 of the Cask Camino on Monday morning meant we missed the best of the Holiday Inn Express (i.e. the scrambled eggs), which came as a shock after missing breakfasts in Armenia...
July 2026. Bradford. I see Corby has been shortlisted for UK Town of Culture 2028, and rightly so. Who could deny a place with “hot piping action” ? It faces tough competition from Basildon and the lesser lights highlighted by the BBC in...
July 2026. Saltaire. Mrs RM had scoured the internet for advice on what to do in Saltaire at the end of our (very short) leg of the Cask Camino and found 1) Salt Mill and Hockney galleries, 2) Roberts Park, 3) SALT Beer Factory. Not much...
July 2026. Saltaire. Bradford. While the organist played us hymns modern and ancient in Saltaire’s United Reformed Church I devised a plot to get Mrs RM to visit a pub (she’s a reformed character this last week). “Mum loved those Fanny...