April's suggested new rambling date

Dear NERDS,

Sorry to muck you all about but I now find that I cannot make the proposed ramble on the 12th! Can we switch to Froggy's alternative date - Wednesday 26th?

Apparently that may be better for Matt and Curly.....

Rants, regrets, complaints, etc to the usual place.


SB

2017 April's Ramble date

A note from Sandyballs regarding the above.

On the 2 March rambles we failed to confirm a date for the April ramble, Anybody have an objection to Wednesday the 12th?





SB




This is, of course, the anniversary of

February's and March Ramble 2017

NERDS' Ramble No. 327 Wed. 1st March 2017

Those Present – Sandyballs, Lafayette, Froggy, Matt, Curly.

The Poorly Old Men Ramble.

It was still winter. Lafayette was feeling crap. Seasonal colds were taking their toll. “Do I want to go out in this weather? It's going to be muddy, cold and rainy.” thought Lafayette. “ Better had, otherwise the other NERDS will think I'm a snowflake.”

reasoned Laf. So he got on the train where he met Matt who said he looked awful, and Froggy who was complaining about his bad back. “The outlook is grim,” thought Lafayette.

“Hope the Routemaster is in good nick otherwise we'll just be sitting around drinking in pubs and that won't do.” ( As if.....)

At Lewes the Routemaster was no better than anyone else, and probably worse. “ I've been tossing and turning all night with various lurgies and incredible erotic dreams,” ( Oh, no......that was Froggy with his amazingly sleep inducing viagra pills.)

Sandyballs did not look well but managed unerringly to take us to The Brewers Arms for an aperitif.

This amazing pub was not only related to S.B. but also opened at 10 00 hrs so that it could cope with all the breakfast drunkards who were piled up on its doorstep.

After a couple of breakfast pints

the NERDS were feeling more human but were then faced with some earth shattering news from Sandyballs himself. “I should like to announce,” he began. “ Uh, oh,” we thought, “he's going to get married again, what will his first wife make of this?” “ I should like to announce that I'm going back to work at Newhaven because I'm worried about the situation after Brexit.” (and I'm a money grabbing bastard at £18 per hour.) Shocked silence greeted this until someone pointed out that the old office had ceased to function and S.B. would have to mingle with nasty Customs types. “It matters not a jot to me,” said Sandyballs portentously, “My country needs me and I want to do my bit.” Lafayette asked him sarcastically if he was going to sit around all day drinking wine as he had done before, or whether it was the pull of watching Countdown that was the main attraction. “You may mock,” responded Sandyballs nobly “ but I feel my vocation coming back and I intend to work really hard.” Nobody was convinced........after all didn't retirement mean retirement?

However Sandyballs then demonstrated his organisational skills by leading his troops out of the pub through Lewes

and in the direction of B.T.'s old Landport Estate where the ramble proper would begin. Those of you students of recent NERDS' history will have realised that this route was taken but three rambles previously when it was celebrated as a “brand new ramble.”

The route was muddy and cold

and it began to rain almost as soon as we passed the polling station of B.T. UKIP fame. Had the weather been more pleasant it would have been a joy to walk near the Mighty Ouse and to appreciate the delights of the views over the valley but quite frankly we were cold with messy boots and just wanted to get into the next pub.

After half an hour or so we arrived in Offham and thankfully dashed into The Blacksmiths

where the picture of Virginia Woolf smiled down on us. “ Aye, she used to come in here for a drop of Harveys in the old days before she began collecting stones down by the river.” said the (foreign) landlord.

The food here was excellent

and Lafayette made a pig of himself with the “Really Naughty Icecream”

which was easily up to best italian standards. There was basically a choice between chicken pie and good steak, and both were deemed very good. The waiter came and told us about all the places he'd been waiting at and the NERDS told him about all the waiters they'd knocked off (before retirement, of course.)

Then began the long drag back into Lewes along the main road. This is always longer than you think but we continue to do it anyway. Puzzlingly, as we passed the Chalkpit (pub as was, now a curry house) a minibus dropped off a load of chinese looking types. Were they a tour group or the afternoon curry workers?

Nobody knew and Froggy's cantonese allowance had run out – so it remained a mystery.

Down into Lewes we went with Lafayette having to rest his poorly lungs occasionally, and then into The Elephant and Castle where Laf was amused to find a four page list of exotic beers but no food menu. Shows you what people in Lewes do, doesn't it? So after a restorative beer the NERDS all wended their way.

Not a bad ramble; pity about the weather but the pubs were all OK and in the end that's what matters when you're all old men.

Don't forget it's The St Patrick's Day ramble on 17th March.

Bring those big hats and turn up chez Laf. on the day.

Bye for now.

Lafayette.

St. Patrick's Day Ramble 2017

Dear NERDS,

St Patrick's Day Ramble is on Friday 17th March.
Meet up chez Lafayette at 10 30 hrs approx and bring your bus passes.
I have enough Jamesons to allow us all to drink a toast to Ireland ( although my own association is only tenuous and obtained through marriage.)

SCOFFERS
Monday 20th March. Again meet chez Laf. at 10 30hrs approx and we can have breakfast at that place in Newhaven we went to before that sells black pudding.

West quay Cafe.

See you on Friday 17th.

Lafayette.