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: food
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
COB, BAP, BARM, BUTTY, SANDWICH…
January 2025. Sheffield. Back in Sheffield for a night, finally. I’d forgot what “home” looks like. The boiler was making a horrible noise so I turned it off, I had a discussion about Mum’s funeral arrangements that threatened to be more traumatic than death itself, and decided I needed a walk in the chilled Sheffield… Continue reading COB, BAP, BARM, BUTTY, SANDWICH…
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
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
LOW KEY BUT LUSH. ASHFORD’S CRAFT BAR
November 2024. Ashford. Two (2) successive posts about Kent’s most beleaguered town (blimey, even Rainham is better these days), can Paul Bailey and I make Ashford the new beer destination ? Well, no, obviously not, but the Spoons is half decent, the flashy Curious Brewery by the station is plain curious, and that GBG sports… Continue reading LOW KEY BUT LUSH. ASHFORD’S CRAFT BAR
HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 69 – NORTHERN ISLES
Ah, yes, the Northern Isles. I spent 30 years looking at that tiny section of the Beer Guide, contemplating overnight ferries from Aberdeen or Loganair flights from Edinburgh, those evocative pub names in Kirkwall calling me. But if I did those pubs in 2011, would I just need to go back a decade later ?… Continue reading HALF A DOZEN PUBS IN EVERY GBG COUNTY No. 69 – NORTHERN ISLES
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
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