February 2025. Uxbridge. You’ll remember the trauma of my significant birthday (22 December, but you knew that), as plans to mark the day with a fancy trip to Uxbridge were scuppered by my mum, bless her, staging a sit down protest. Last Wednesday I finally took that pilgrimage to the end of the Metropolitan line.… Continue reading PRIDE DRINKING WELL ON THE (DELAYED) BIG RETIRED MARTIN 60th BIRTHDAY TRIP TO UXBRIDGE.
Tag: Beer
EDALE WITHOUT THE HIKING BOOTS
January 2025. Edale. Everyone told me that death (don’t panic, not my own) would be time-consuming, but it also casts an invisible barrier over your travel, daring you to travel too far from home (whatever that is) lest something unexpectedly requiring your presence to find a green slip for no obvious purpose crops up. So… Continue reading EDALE WITHOUT THE HIKING BOOTS
RETIRED MARTIN’S GASTRONOMIC 2024
This blog is a diary, and if it’s dominated by pub visits that’s often because the pub is where you’re most likely to eavesdrop on meet people*. To steal from and corrupt Pete Postlethwaite; “Truth is, I THOUGHT it mattered. I thought that BEER mattered. But does it? Bollocks! Not compared to how PEOPLE matter.“… Continue reading RETIRED MARTIN’S GASTRONOMIC 2024
THE 2024 RETIRED MARTIN PUB AWARDS
OK, let’s start the annual review posts with pubs, it’s all you’re here for. I’ll cover “LIFE” next. THE STATS Five hundred and sixty (560) different pubs, though barely two hundred pubs new GBG entries. I will do a GBG spreadsheet post soon so the professional tickers can laugh at it. With responsibilities to frail… Continue reading THE 2024 RETIRED MARTIN PUB AWARDS
SILK IN A GLASS. THE BEER HOUSE IN HILLSBOROUGH
December 2024. Sheffield. Mrs RM had kindly stayed with mum for a couple of days while I drove the boys home and got depressed at the Etihad. There’s one sure-fire way to cheer Retired Martin up, and it comes in two cardboard containers from Sang Lung in Hillsborough. And the 15 minutes it takes Sang… Continue reading SILK IN A GLASS. THE BEER HOUSE IN HILLSBOROUGH
(OVER)DUE A DEUCHARS. THE SIX BELLS, COVENT GARDEN, CAMBRIDGE
December 2024. Cambridge. Yes, another Covent Garden, this one tucked away between Fenners and the GBG pubs off Mill Road. Keep walking past the Six Bells and you’ll end up at that pub CAMRA used to run and the Live & Let Live, so why would a plain looking backstreet Greene King pub detain you… Continue reading (OVER)DUE A DEUCHARS. THE SIX BELLS, COVENT GARDEN, CAMBRIDGE
A PINT OF HARVEY’S OLD IN THE LAMB
November 2024. Eastbourne. Eastbourne is a surprisingly large seaside town (pop. 101,000), as you’ll notice from the train and a walk through the dreadful shopping street to the sea. It can seem a bit under-pubbed for those 101,000 souls, and hadn’t troubled the Beer Guide till this years two beer shop newbies (be patient, be… Continue reading A PINT OF HARVEY’S OLD IN THE LAMB
HALLELUJAH ! SPOONS KEEP CASK ALIVE IN EASTBOURNE
November 2024. Eastbourne. A few days down in Rye with Mrs RM to give us both respite from child/parent duties, and allow me to get a couple of bits of pink marker in a GBG that’s feeling unloved. Just under the hour to Eastbourne with a couple of new (and, Spoiler : controversial) entries, but… Continue reading HALLELUJAH ! SPOONS KEEP CASK ALIVE IN EASTBOURNE
HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 67 – KINGDOM OF FIFE
Well, my spreadsheet says just “Fife“, but the GBG is insistent on the Kingdom, and the GBG is definitive when it comes to county names. It only took three trips up the A1 and over the Firth of Forth to tick Fife, a county most folks will only know from St Andrews and the chippy… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 67 – KINGDOM OF FIFE
OCTOBER ’24 STOCKTAKE + NOVEMBER PREVIEW
Any month that starts (in Lincoln) with Paul Mudge, Sheffield Hatter and the Southworths, and ends with Lizzy McAlpine singing “Soccer Practice” can’t all be bad, but in-between came three weeks of elderly parent traumas which saw Mrs RM and I confined to Waterbeach (again). Not all bad, but a house about 10 degrees too… Continue reading OCTOBER ’24 STOCKTAKE + NOVEMBER PREVIEW
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