I judge last night to be another classic.
Myself and Auntie Helen departed the garage door at 1803hrs, just 3 minutes behind schedule and made good time to St Anne's Castle. On arrival disaster nearly struck! AH was badly in need of her din dins yet was informed by the landlady that they weren't serving food. AH looked suitably crestfallen so the landlady trotted off to see if her husband could be persuaded to open the kitchen. Success! About 10 minutes later a plate of lasagne, chips and peas was plonked in front of our intrepid 3 wheeled friend. This was my second visit to St Anne's, I wasn't that impressed on my first visit. I am much more impressed now!
bobb, TOKaMaK and chief turned up so after a pint and a chat we set off for Writtle and The Wheatsheaf. chief's route was a triumph! I will shortly study my GPS track to work out exactly where we went as it was a complete hoot. The group parted company twice. Myself and chief hit the muddy, leaf strewn bridleways whilst the rest of the gang stayed on the tarmac. chief and Oaky are mates and clearly chips off the same block as chief (on his Dawes road tourer
) set off down the bridleways like his arse was on fire; leaving me on my MTB shod with nobbly tyres panting to keep up. chief and Oakly would do well to remember that I only have one set of lungs and can only cough them up so many times - gits
The Wheatsheaf is looks and feels like someone's front room. I love pubs like that. It's not a big place and was significantly less empty once the five of us had barged in with all our clobber. The drinking was good
1 ...
... and some important decisions were made. Firstly, there will be a S24O in January. Secondly, the Christmas do will (unless there are violent objections) be Shenfield to Chelmsford with eating at The Duck as per bobb's recce.
AH and I were keen not to hang around too long as we both wanted to be back at a reasonable hour so we left bobb and TOKaMaK at the pub and set off home with chief in tow. We parted company with chief after a short while and AH and I forged on alone.
My route home was nearly as triumphant as chief's outward leg. We were completely reliant on the GPS route I had plotted and the trusty Garmin didn't let us down. We went over bridges, through gates and down very narrow roads. It was only once we got close to Terling that I had any idea of where we were. It was adventure of the highest order.
As planned I was tucked up in bed well before midnight. My cold which had benefited hugely from the fresh air and exercise came back with avengence and shortly after hitting the pillow my head was full of snot. Consequently I have decided to place myself on light duties today and postponed this morning's customer meeting
A great night and many thanks to all that attended - you're all top chaps and chapesses
1 I am mightily impressed by the number of pubs that will serve tea without batting an eye lid. This is a complete revelation and the tea drinking pioneers, of which we now have two, should be applauded