It's staying light til really late
Jun. 9th, 2005 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaWell, I've been out terrorising Buckinghamshire this evening, by dancing rapper at it. Mabel had been invited out for the evening with Towersey morris men - which is always a mixed blessing. One, you have to watch morris dancing, but we'll gloss over that one. Two, morris tours are arranged very differently from rapper tours.
You see, a morris tour will visit one or two pubs, and will do half a dozen dances at each. In the garden, in the carpark, in the road outside (sodding up the traffic), whatever seems like a good plan.
A rapper tour will (ideally) visit as many pubs as it can possibly fit in and which will allow it through the door - once dance in each, a swift drink and on to the next. The pubs should be small, packed, and have wooden floors.
Tonight, however, we have danced in a road and on a patio, because that's where Towersey were dancing. Rapper-wise, it was a bit inferior, though it made for a nice social night out. I got to chat to people. And I got my recorder out, but don't tell anyone. Besides, it keeps us off the streets.
Pintwatch, however, has had a fine night. After the initial confusion of discovering that The Chequers Inn in Fingest (Fingest ? That's not a place, it's a Saxon war-lord, surely?) had run our of Brakspear's Bitter, Pintwatch settled down quite equably with its pint of Henry On Thames instead. I think it was quite a nice pint, but owing to a temporal confusion Pintwatch was forced to drink it very quickly (and indeed palm half of it off onto Nigel) as it turned out we were shifting pubs quite quickly.
The Old Ship in Cadmore End waggled its handpumps invitingly. But wait! Pintwatch confused. Three handpumps. Four badges. I enquired of the lady behind the bar which of the two badges the end handpump was actually offering. "Oh no," she answer "they're all on. The handpumps don't work.".
Conned! Pintwatch's little face crumpled in dismay. Fortunately, the lady continued "...I'll have to fetch it up from the cellar". Pintwatch perked up instantly. Straight out the barrel! Now that's a completely different story. Pintwatch ordered a pint of Archers with glee. I don't believe I've ever had a bad pint of Archers (though it does sometimes throw people who offer to fetch drinks from the bar and find you asking for "a pint of Archers".)
Sadly, I can't remember the name of the beer (it was B---- B----, but not best bitter, before anyone suggests that). It wasn't Golden, but it was golden and really rather lovely. Sadly, Pintwatch recommended it to people behind it in the bar queue a little too enthusiastically, and the barrel ran out shortly afterwards.
By the time that all the dancing was over, and the evening had devolved into a sods' opera of singing and playing of a rather silly kind (I'm sure that The Wheels On The Bus didn't have verses about The Pimp on the bus, The Slapper on the bus or The Nutter on the bus last time I heard it), Pintwatch foraged for another pint, and found itself with Barbus Barbus, from the Butts brewery. This, despite the initial excitement when it arrived in a bubbly glass tankard, didn't really live up to expectation as it was rather sour and surprising.
Still, as they say, two out of three ain't bad.
And not a bad haul for sightseeing on the way over, either: more red kites than we could count, some fallow deer, two paragliders, numerous hot air balloons and one road with no passing places.
You see, a morris tour will visit one or two pubs, and will do half a dozen dances at each. In the garden, in the carpark, in the road outside (sodding up the traffic), whatever seems like a good plan.
A rapper tour will (ideally) visit as many pubs as it can possibly fit in and which will allow it through the door - once dance in each, a swift drink and on to the next. The pubs should be small, packed, and have wooden floors.
Tonight, however, we have danced in a road and on a patio, because that's where Towersey were dancing. Rapper-wise, it was a bit inferior, though it made for a nice social night out. I got to chat to people. And I got my recorder out, but don't tell anyone. Besides, it keeps us off the streets.
Pintwatch, however, has had a fine night. After the initial confusion of discovering that The Chequers Inn in Fingest (Fingest ? That's not a place, it's a Saxon war-lord, surely?) had run our of Brakspear's Bitter, Pintwatch settled down quite equably with its pint of Henry On Thames instead. I think it was quite a nice pint, but owing to a temporal confusion Pintwatch was forced to drink it very quickly (and indeed palm half of it off onto Nigel) as it turned out we were shifting pubs quite quickly.
The Old Ship in Cadmore End waggled its handpumps invitingly. But wait! Pintwatch confused. Three handpumps. Four badges. I enquired of the lady behind the bar which of the two badges the end handpump was actually offering. "Oh no," she answer "they're all on. The handpumps don't work.".
Conned! Pintwatch's little face crumpled in dismay. Fortunately, the lady continued "...I'll have to fetch it up from the cellar". Pintwatch perked up instantly. Straight out the barrel! Now that's a completely different story. Pintwatch ordered a pint of Archers with glee. I don't believe I've ever had a bad pint of Archers (though it does sometimes throw people who offer to fetch drinks from the bar and find you asking for "a pint of Archers".)
Sadly, I can't remember the name of the beer (it was B---- B----, but not best bitter, before anyone suggests that). It wasn't Golden, but it was golden and really rather lovely. Sadly, Pintwatch recommended it to people behind it in the bar queue a little too enthusiastically, and the barrel ran out shortly afterwards.
By the time that all the dancing was over, and the evening had devolved into a sods' opera of singing and playing of a rather silly kind (I'm sure that The Wheels On The Bus didn't have verses about The Pimp on the bus, The Slapper on the bus or The Nutter on the bus last time I heard it), Pintwatch foraged for another pint, and found itself with Barbus Barbus, from the Butts brewery. This, despite the initial excitement when it arrived in a bubbly glass tankard, didn't really live up to expectation as it was rather sour and surprising.
Still, as they say, two out of three ain't bad.
And not a bad haul for sightseeing on the way over, either: more red kites than we could count, some fallow deer, two paragliders, numerous hot air balloons and one road with no passing places.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 08:16 am (UTC)Banter Bitter? Best Buddies?
no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 06:34 pm (UTC)I'd hope that even I wouldn't have dismissed "Bitter" as an odd word.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 09:55 am (UTC)apart from when you're dancing in them?
no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 10:59 am (UTC)