Saint Patrick's Day Ramble

NERDS' Ramble 292 Mon 17^th March 2014.

Those Present – Lafayette, Sandyballs, Froggy, El Paco, Matrix Man Dio, Curly Clarke.

St. Patrick's Day Ramble 2014.

Well, I won't go too much into who was Irish and who wasn't this day. Lafayette certainly wasn't; Froggy wasn't; Dio was more sort of red indian/ Italian; Sandy balls thought he was, but only by descent; so was Curly Clarke; Paco – weeell, not quite; so that left the two who were absent as the only proper Irish – BT because he was born in Dublin, and Matt who looked and acted Irish ( and was actually Irish.) But when did all these minor details get in the way of an excuse for a NERDS piss-up?

So, first of all the excitement of everybody attempting to get on the same bus near Lafayette's house from about three different starting points. Potential for cock-ups enormous but thanks to the technology of mobile phones we managed it and rode to Rodean to see the little girlies in their short......no, no, no, not that; to walk back along the cliff top path towards Rottingdean and bask in the nice sunny weather of that day.

Luck of the NERDS again. (Still, pity about the nymphets in their little short.......).

First stop was The Plough in Rottingdean which predictably was not yet open.

( It was 11 50hrs) so getting a promise from the barmaid in the garden that all our wants would be catered for in due course we cleared off over the road to The Black Horse which was so discreet that Lafayette almost walked past it.

However, alerted by the Irish flags slung round the door, Sandyballs led us into the front bar where we met Celeste. Now Celeste was certainly not Irish, but, shit, who cared with a figure and face like she had. She obviously came from some dusky part of he Commonwealth (like Brighton) and was extremely easy on the eye. We were beginning to be tempted by the lunch menu in this place and had actually called for the wine list when we were informed that it was Monday and the chef was off elsewhere - probably celebrating St Patrick's Day (Huh!). So we sat around and admired Curly Clarke's nice green Irish Jumper

and Paco had a little rant about the folly of Sandyball's youngest in turning down a well paid (very well paid) job in Brighton just for the privilege of having her father bring her tea and toast in bed every morning and then drive her to the station for some menial job in London. ( Bloody kids, eh.)

Back to The Plough then for lunch where Froggy told us of his penchant for watching The Musketeers on Sundays ie. How he like watching four pretty boys run around and get friendly with each other while wearing leather......er...yes. Dio liked the idea of the leather gear but he's a butch, matrix type who can see the irony of the inversion of Dumas' post revolutionary, neo buddy movie type literary aspect; not to mention Lafayette who's read all the Musketeer oeuvre (some in French ) and who knows the telly version is bollocks.

Whatever, Froggy once again failed to take a selfie (technical problems) so we got down to lunch, which was excellent, and discussed whether Paco should invest in some designer underwear to counteract his builder's bum. Lafayette had two lots of icecream (as usual) and the barmaid was called Liz – not bad, but not as exotic as Celeste, but she gave us all silly Irish hats which was nice of her, and which helped to protect us against the wind when we ventured outside again.

As we were going up the hill towards the Rottingdean windmill we came across a scarecrow standing captured in someone's garden.

Seems like a common theme in Sussex; remember the poor scarecrow tied to a tree in last month's ramble? And so up, up we continued, past the windmill and down by St Dunstan's, then under the main road to the concrete walkway next to the sea towards Brighton Marina. It was a long walk but breezy and sunny and we had our hats down over our ears to protect us.

Gosh, there's a Wetherspoons in the Marina, better try that, should be able to get some Irish rum and coke there. And so we did. Froggy went to the bog and came back after rather a long time and said he'd been receiving italian lessons therein (??). Probably just trying to read the grafitti written by students, but , hmm, you never know. Paco told us how during his misspent youth many years ago in London he had nearly bought a wolf skin coat. (Didn't know there were any wolves still roaming round London even that long ago ). Maybe he was trying even then to keep his builder's bum out of the cold.

After Wetherspoons we got on a number 7 bus and rode into Brighton to go to The Fiddlers Elbow. This was Sandyballs' Mecca on St Paddy's Day and never fails to disappoint. As usual the crowd had overflowed on to the pavement outside and were all drinking hard and having a good time. Lafayette nearly got RLE since the bouncer told him no stupid hats were allowed inside, but this turned out to be just a bit of Irish humour since virtually everyone in the pub was drinking Guinness and wearing a stupid hat. We hung around in here for a bit, bejeezus, it was crowded and our hands were freezing holding glasses of cold Guinness. Then we went outside and some bird called Ellie took our photo (Irish girls are always dead friendly) and then we went to the other Wetherspoons round the corner and got even more plastered on double Krakens and coke.

So that's it all really. We had done a bit of walking and been to a few pubs that were celebrating St Patrick's. We had seen a few pretty barmaids ( and some pretty ugly ones in The Fiddlers) and the weather had been pretty good. Shame you two proper

Irish NERDS couldn't be with us but I expect you were both having a good time somewhere in your own personal ways. Next month we're meeting up with Bronco-NERD because he's finally retiring and going to spend all his vast wealth on watches and retirement dos. So looking forward to that.

Bye bye for now.

Lafayette.

St Patrick's Day Ramble Joining Instructions

Dear Nerds,

To celebrate the Great Day we will walk on Monday 17th. Pity that the only true, 100% Irishman in tthe Nerds cannot be with us but he is in The Old Country on the day. Yes, I know that BT was born in Dublin - but that was an accident of birth , wasn't it?[NOT AT ALL].

Our ultimate destination is to have a couple of pints of Liffey water at The Fiddlers Elbow in Brighton.

 However our walk and the pub lunch will take place outside Brighton. A little complicated this, so pay attention! The walk ( which we have done before) starts on the Coast Road opposite Roedean School ( keep your lascivious thoughts to yourself). We then walk back along the Undercliff to Rottingdean and lunch at The Plough. Then inland a bit, along The Downs and back to our starting point. From there it is a bracing walk along the front into Brighton.

Now, it makes sense to do this by bus. ( Are there any NERDS sans 'Bus passes'?). My perusal of the bus timetable suggests that there is no.12 bus from Seaford Library at 10.24 arriving at Newhaven at about 10.35. I will take the train to Newhaven and go Lafayette's place and we will join the rest of you on the bus - hopefully. What can possibly go wrong?

I hope we have no 'soft weather' on the day. The luck of the Irish and the luck of The Nerds should see us through.

Lafayette - will you forward this to Dio?



SB

February 2014 Ramble

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