Welcome to MEMWNS central.
It was a new venue for the MEMWNS collective last night. The Cross Keys at White Notley was picked after triangulating the starting points of all our regular members, uploading the Essex CAMRA guide and merging our strava heat maps before feeding the results into the patent ACME locateapubivator. Or possibly just picking somewhere almost exactly half way between Stortford and Mersea. Whatever, it was a nice pub and we were made very welcome.
Sadly, the same cannot be said for the weather. It is a truism that it rains far less than we think and we do tend to be fairly lucky on Wednesdays but last night was fairly grim in the end, anyway more of that later.
It was just starting to rain/sleet heavily when I arrived at the Cross Keys to find OD, Huggy, the Hustler, Hotblack, Toby's Dad, Tokyo Sex Whale, Baron Adonis, Tomsk, Flóki Vilgerðarson and a nice warm fire. We were soon joined by Bruce who is more used to the heat of the outback than a cold and wet Essex night.
We sampled Dirty Rucker by Wadsworth, Adnams and the ever excellent Oscar Wilde Mild which duly took the coveted Quaffers' Choice Award.
It is possible that those at the far end of the L-shaped table were discussing matters of great import such as Audax points and their favourite AAA rides but we had OD at our end of the table so were discussing the best weatherproof guyliner for improved cycling selfies, the eighth wonder of the world that is some juniper berries in a glass of G&T and the patriarchical ideology behind the phallic symbolism of PBP. All this was rather distracting me from my actual mission to make a last ditch effort to persuade Huggy to come to France in August and tow/guide me round. At one point I thought he was about 25/75 in favour but I think that has now slipped back again. Thanks OD, I will blame any issues I have over there whilst relying on the Strangler's old school navigation skills on you.
At some point, having consulted his rain radar or some seaweed or just being sensible, Adonis crept off with Toby's Dad. Apparently they managed to find a weather window and reached home before the rain came down. I feel unable to express how pleased I am for them.
As ever, I was coerced into staying for another by Tokyo and Hotblack - if only to smirk at OD enjoying his sherry. By the time we left the wind was starting to pick up but it was dry. That lasted about ten minutes. By Silver End I was riding into a wall of sleety rain. It was one of those windy nights where even when it is behind you it is still against you as it howls around the hedgerows. The last few miles to my offshore lair were ridden at a snail's pace (ie my usual speed but with much more effort) right into the wind, a particular highlight being the open section on the Strood just after 1am where it must have been hitting 40 plus right into my face with added rain for good measure. Even after hot chocolate and watching the football, it still took a good half hour in bed to get remotely warm.
All this will just make the summer evenings all the more enjoyable.