May 2021 Ramble notes

LUCUBRATION ON A PEREGINATION




Thursday the 27th of May dawned cloudy but the sun soon drove off the cotton wool shadows and the NERDS awoke knowing that the ramble to The Rainbow pub at Cooksbridge was soon to commence. The Seaford contingent boarded the train betimes, however Paco nearly missed the carriage as he was sitting having breakfast at home in his underpants and had temporarily forgotten it was Ramble day. Everyone assembled at Lewes station and the muster rota showed that Sandyballs, the Routemaster, was there with Lafayette, Froggy and Paco but the Admiral was absent due to family business but had intimated that he would attend later!

The Pullman conveyed the NERDS onwards from Lewes to Cooksbridge where they rambled the half mile into the hinterland from the station to The Rainbow pub.

At the door to the Rainbow everyone was met by a youth by the name of Eddie! He looked about 17 years of age and with his amazingly painted on eyebrows was very. very camp but was obviously pleased to see some customers. (In fact he reminded Lafayette of the principal character in a book his mother used to read him at bed time to frighten him into going to sleep. (This was Little Black Sambo but of course nowadays you can’t say “Little”. “Black”. or “Sambo”, because it’s against The Law!!)






Anyway everyone sat outside in the very pleasant sunny weather and Eddie brought us some Harvey’s Best. That was OK. We failed to get a steak “meal deal” because it was the wrong time of day!!! But had steak anyway and it was very nice. The two bottles of wine ordered was Malbec but found it tasted sub-standard so Lafayette went back to Eddie and demanded a swop for some Merlot which was only slightly better!

Just then the Admiral rolled up in his Rolls (actually a BMW), joined us, made disparaging remarks about the wine list (Wot Wine List?) and set to at the pie he had ordered .






Pudding was pretty good, a crumble with ice cream and then we got to coffees and cognacs. Once again the Rainbow failed to deliver. We we offered “Three Barrels” brandy (it was that type of establishment) which we reluctantly took since there was no alternative. So if you’re going to The Rainbow in future remember; Food Good, Drink lousy!.

The NERDS needed to get back to the station quickly for the hourly train back. [Do you remember, Brian, how difficult it is to get boozed up NERDS to do anything quickly?] (Especially on “thee barrels brandy). So Harry set off at a pace down the road - by himself and the rest of the NERDS were kindly offered a lift in the Admiral’s rolls, back to the station. Lafayette thought it was really a treat to get in a car that wasn’t covered in seagull shit, for a change.

Thankfully everyone caught the train to Lewes and ended up in The Landsdowne Arms where we spent the rest of the afternoon looking out on the sunny road, drinking Harveys and boggling the home going schoolgirls and in some cases their Milfy mothers.

A great day, all in all, and thanks to SB for organising and to Eddie for waiting on us all.

I remind all that this is NOT a “write-up” and future essays to this blog will………………

But I digress