First thing – credit where credit's due. I stayed at Richard & Clarissa's over the weekend, and I'm happy to announce that I've discovered The Best Shower in Britain. Oh my god, it was awesome ! Proper water pressure, nice hot water, no bizarre tap balancing ritual, and a solid screen which meant not having to worry about a curtain blowing out of the way and winding up with a saturated floor. That shower's gonna take some beating, I tells ya.
Ablutions aside, the weekend was another fun trip away with the Morris lads around the Southwold region. Lots of dancing, some cracking food and company, lots of lovely ales from Adnams (I found their “Explorer” blonde ale to be a favourite) and it all culminated in a brilliant Feast in a pub in the town of Saxmundham.
I can't say that the weather was exactly inspiring, with a constant grey mist overcasting all day, but I don't suppose it was *bad* weather, as such. And as I kept saying to the lads, “You don't come to England for the weather, anyway!”.
The Feast included the usual singalong to follow the meal, and embarrassingly I hadn't brought a song along to share. Last time I performed The Sick Note (or Why Paddy's Not At Work Today), which was met with an appreciative grunt but mainly I got the impression that they all thought a reading by a bloke called Gerard Hoffnung was far superior. Suddenly inspiration struck (more “sort of sidled up to me” than “struck”, really), and I used my WAP browser on my mobile to track down the lyrics to The Pub With No Beer, thinking that the lads might enjoy it. I sat there for about 10 minutes, feverishly copying the lyrics down onto the back of a menu with a pen that only half worked – no easy feat given how late in the evening it was and how many of Adnams' fine ales I'd sampled. Finally, the transcription was done, and I commenced singing. At the beginning of the 2nd line, about half of the guys joined in, and sang it through with me. How rewarding that was – I'd just gone to all that bloody effort, and it was one they already knew ! My consolation was when Derek said reassuringly, “That song was very big in the sixties”, to which I replied “Oh yeah ? What's a sixty ?”.
Sunday – by contrast to Saturday – was a lovely warm sunny affair, so upon returning to London it was a pleasure to grab Creog and head out for a nice pub lunch. We met up with Craig and Kate as well, and spent the rest of the afternoon meandering from pub to pub, enjoying the sunshine and the beer. A most satisfying day.
