As the weather improves we like to book in a series of walks together. Roughly once a month. We take it in turns to plan the route, which can be urban or rural – even a combination of both – but the ground rules are simple. Start with a coffee, end with a beer, and talk bollocks throughout.
On Good Friday we planned a mystery tour of Oxford, which met all the rules, and even allowed for several beers on route. With some clue solving involved taking us to a number of famous Oxford landmarks – there’s plenty to choose from! So a learning experience as well as the usual light hearted fun. Unfortunately No 5 had to drop out at the last minute so we abandoned the mystery tour for a day when the Urban 4 could be complete again.
Instead we decided (Nos 4,6 and 8) that we would still go into Oxford (on the bus, compliments of our bus passes, not No 4, his Bus Pass Scotland does not work in England – quite right too!) and take an unplanned meander through the streets of the famous City. In days gone by, we might have called it a pub crawl, but I will leave the reader to label our trip as they see fit. Does 8 glasses of wine qualify as a pub crawl?
We headed for Jericho, an area full of character and history, and the setting of the very first Inspector Morse episode. The Dead of Jericho! Guess what, someone dies! In Jericho.
The Oxford Wine Cafe blocked our route, so that was our first stop. Next was the Old Bookbinders, a lively pub worthy of a visit, and named as such to reflect the printing and publishing heritage of the Jericho area. The Rickety Press is another such pub and it looked very busy when we later walked past. In the Bookbinders we encountered a group of lads who were on a proper pub crawl. They put us to shame. They were younger mind. Much younger.
Our final stop was BB (formerly Brasserie Blanc) in Walton Street where we had a very civilised and leisurely lunch, despite the lack of calamari, before a final meander through the centre of Oxford and the Covered Market, and then back to our bus.
Did we talk bollocks? We always do. We tried to solve the mystery that is English rugby. How come, with such playing resources, do England continually underperform? We should be regular world beaters, not limping to third in the 6 Nations. Yet we struggle to perform consistently, (unless you count losing regularly as performing consistently), three of our premiership teams have folded in the last two years, and we struggle to keep players from the clutches of the French. Not just players in the twilight of their careers but young, exciting and upcoming talent, nurtured and developed by the game in England.
Did we find the magic solution. Probably not, but we did enjoy talking about it, to the point that No 4, who is a Scotsman through and through felt we should leave things as they are. Me thinks he wants the Calcutta Cup for a 5th consecutive year. Greedy beggar!
So there we have it ……. And by the way, when I say 8 glasses of wine I didn’t mean each, but between us! Pathetic I know.
Mind you, that didn’t stop us heeding the best advice of the great Billy Connolly! “Never pass a toilet!”
Ruck on!
No 8.