December 2024. Sheffield. I had to leave Mum in the care of Council reablement staff for a day while we popped back to Sheffield to fetch her grandsons for Christmas. Pulling into Walkley I thought I must message Will and say “Fancy a pint“. Oddly, at that precise moment Will was composing his own 44… Continue reading BLACK EYE FRIDAY AT THE BLAKE

December 2024. Cambridge. Christmas shopping. For Mum, obviously, I haven’t bought a single Christmas present for 30 years and I haven’t been struck down dead yet. Five (5) shops I visited in Cambridge looking for size 12 velcro slippers, finally tracking them down in Marks & Spencers in the underwhelming market place. I popped in… Continue reading WINTER WARMERS

December 2024. Milton. Happy Retired Martin Day. On Tuesday I failed to get to London to celebrate Mrs Retired Martin Day, and was attempting to get home to Mum as trains ground to a halt. Services back to Waterbeach were successively cancelled, the only departure from Cambridge taking me the 2 miles to Cambridge North,… Continue reading FINALLY ! A GOOD LANDLORD

December 2024. Cambridge. I had to run to catch the 13:03 back from Baldock to Cambridge, a pint of NBSS 5 Abbot and a plate of pie sloshing up and down in my tummy. Safer than curry and mango lassi, but not by much. The train skilfully dawdles to a halt just in time for… Continue reading SANTA BANTER IN THE SALISBURY ARMS

December 2024. Baldock. You left me in Baldock at noon, the southbound train going nowhere fast and no idea about a route north and home. Of all the places to be stranded, the Orange Tree was as good as it gets. “Oi mate ! Put another log on the fire“. Retired Martin only wishes to… Continue reading UNEXPECTED PERFECTION AT BALDOCK’S ORANGE TREE

December 2024. Baldock. The 17th December, Mrs RM’s birthday, a dress rehearsal for the main event five days later. Ideally both these birthdays will be spent somewhere new, foreign and exciting, or failing that Bathgate. But Mrs RM is down south attending to her infirm parents in Royal Tunbridge Wells (by taking them to drink… Continue reading STUCK OUTSIDE OF BALDOCK WITH THOSE TRAIN DELAY BLUES AGAIN

December 2024. Sheffield. 2 days “home” took in beer and octopus in Bradford, beer and curry in Manchester, and tears and worry at the Etihad. Across the road from the derby at the Co-op a young artist was warming up. You remember McCartney? Frog Chorus, 1984. Back in Sheffield, eventually, I decided I needed a… Continue reading DERBY DAY BLUES, BELGIAN BLUE

December 2024. Manchester. Back to Shudehill, after another interminable wait outside Middleton Spoons where I compared bus notes with a wizened lady from Blackley with seventeen grandchildren. She was probably 40. I had so many questions, none about Blackley pubs. The hardest question for Mancunians to answer is “How do we get to This &… Continue reading RICE AND THREE

December 2024. Middleton. The train to Leeds on Saturday afternoon had been so empty that the driver was able to walk around collecting old coffee cups, put the Christmas decorations up and invite a 9 year old lad we’ll call Tom to join him in his cab to press buttons. “This is probably one of… Continue reading THE BUS TO HARBORD HARBORD