NEWHAVEN EATING & DRINKING SOCIETY ( NERDS)
Ramble No: 338 “ The Return of The Prodigal Son” – or – “ The 2 Birthday Rambles”
Those Present: Lafayette, Matt, Curly, Sandyballs, Froggy, Paco & BT
Date: 10th January 2018
You have a guest scribe this month – me.
This onerous task was thrust upon me by Lafayette
on the spurious grounds that he was this month’s Guest Routemaster. I think it was more a case that he had just got fed up with doing the write-ups after all these years (getting on for 30 – more of this later).
Anyway, we all met up In Lafayette’s Man-Cave
in The Purple Palace. The date was significant being more or less equidistant between Lafayette’s and Sandyball’s birthdays. The difference was that Laf
was an elderly man in his seventies whilst SB
was …considerably younger.
One welcome visitor was The Prodigal Son – BT –
who has not graced our shores – or our rambles for some considerable time. The reason being that for some incomprehensible reason he had chosen to go and live in the Land of Johnny Foreigner – France. The country of cheap wine, over-rated cuisine and disgusting toilets.
A goodly turnout of NERDS for the first Ramble of the year. In fact there was hardly any room for SB to sit down, so full was the room with NERDS, air guns, books and bottles of booze. Fortunately two of these were open (bottles not books) so the company was able to slake their thirst with either Calva or Jamesons – or both in SB’s case. One peculiar novelty was the presence of a disco – style light show playing across the walls and ceilings. It might be thought that Laf had left it a bit late in life to consider a John – Travolta – Saturday-Night – Fever – type affectation. Maybe senility brings such conceits. I wouldn’t really know…….
After girding loins we set off for the walk.
The usual photo calls outside The Purple Palace. It hardly seems worth remarking – although I will – that either side of this Ramble Wednesday was dark, cold and windswept. We of course enjoyed blue skies and sunshine but then NERDS are well used to this. God smiles on the NERDS – unlike on other lesser rambling organisations. Our route led along a Nature Reserve
– basically a path through a lot of mud with the odd bird here and there.
No major carnivores that I could see.
We stopped at a bench for the 17th photo call when we were met by a Chinese- looking lady walking a dog.
The lady claimed to be a recently arrived Australian and was named Sofia.
We had a bit of a chat and took some photos.
It was so unusual to have a lady and a dog on a Ramble…..
We slogged along through the ‘Nature Reserve’
and a few miles of pavements
until we arrived at our lunch time destination – The White Lion in Seaford.
Laf had taken the precaution to book a table
and it was a good job he did as the place was rammed. We were 7 at table
- soon to be 8. Most of the NERDS ate off the Miser’s Menu - £5.99 cheap deals.
SB however pushed the boat out in view of his imminent special birthday and ordered steak. We were then joined by our unscheduled Mystery Guest
– the lovely Lara, d/o Paco.
It is hoped that she was deeply appreciative of being allowed to join the exclusive all-male society that is the NERDS. Seriously though, it was good to see her.
Having finished in the pub we decided that the best thing to do was
……to go to another pub.
We ended up in The Plough
– along with another load of pensioners – for a quick half-pint. There was conversation about Philby ( why??) and speculation about the location of the 300th Ramble sometime this summer.
SB’s fanciful idea about us all going to New York was deemed to be a non-starter and it was accepted that we would be going to Dieppe.
Plenty of time to argue about T-shirts and hotels, not to mention rambling routes.
Finally, during the Ramble Paco had been ranting about a mythical French creperie right in the middle of Seaford. Most of us had dismissed this as a fantasy but -guess what – he was right. The establishment in question was about the size of a small bathroom and was run by a real Frenchman – Guillaume
– and who served us with real French crepes.
NERDS
were impressed that he made liberal use of (illegal) Calvados in the crepe manufacture.
This bizarre incident came as a fitting conclusion to Ramble No 338. Thanks to all participants and congratulations to Laf for not getting lost!
Ramble No 339 is due for Wednesday February 21st. I gladly hand back the quill pen to your usual Scribe……..
Sandyballs
