The only Midsummer Madness on show last night was in our decision to head out into the stormy gloom. With heavy, humid air and portentous skies, it looked more like the opening scene of a horror movie than an evening out just after the summer solstice. All that was missing was the creepy house and the odd looking butler (OD was off with Tomsk, Bobb and Huggy tucking into black pudding and curry sauce or whatever they eat up north).
After some shoe maintenance issues (
), I managed to intercept the Oaky breakaway chain gang. Once I had managed to cling onto the back of their tight group, it became apparent that this was, in fact, the ACME peloton itself.
Oaky was putting a select group of Sir Robin of Locksley and Zenia Warrior Princess through their paces. He had routed us via loop 23(a)(ii) from OD's Bumper Book of Weird Ways to the Pub. This meant diverting from the obvious route for a random ride through Goldhanger and then up a newly loose dressed lane (Oaky is on trend with his current love of gravel) back to about 100 yards from my interception point.
Gravel passed, Oaky zoomed off at a moderate pace to the Tap Room with the rest of us trailing in his wake. I am sorry to report that one of our number declined the opportunity to ride up Market Hill and bailed out to a side street option. My only excuse for doing this was that I knew I wasn't going to get up there with the gear I was using
Soon after we had re-assembled at the Tap Room, Jiber Jeste of the Foreign Legion hove into view. He also seems to be suffering from a bit of the ODs and had plotted an "interesting" route to Maldon from Chelmsford. We sampled Paradise Found, Kings, Captain Bob and Oscar Wilde before heading down to the Hythe and the delights of the Queen's Head. Jiber was on a strict curfew but something in the ever present threat of rain and the smell of mud seemed to remind him of home so he soon abandoned himself to the night's revelries.
The usual random conversation followed while we sampled Woodforde Wherry, Puck's Folly and, the Quaffer's Choice - Dark Star's Hop Head, (quote Jiber "it's quite hoppy" - well who would have thought).
Despite the darkening skies and occasional flash of lightning, it was a warm and pleasant place to while away some time. We probably all knew that we were using up the dry part of the night, but we were all happy to sit there watching the orange glow of the horizon disappear into black clouds.
As it happened, it only really started hammering it down when I was 10 minutes from home. I don't think Jiber was as fortunate though. Not long after I got safely indoors, all hell broke loose with rolling thunder, lightning and torrents of rain. Nevertheless, another top evening of ACME fun.
Perhaps, when summer arrives, we can plan our annual yacht club trip.
