Aah somehow these pictures bring us back to the days of Beer, Skittles and Sandwiches in Downing Street, with the oul trade union guys from those hard pressed seventies. Do you remember them...aah those heady days of Old Labour Government in fast forward mode....another brown ale Jack lad!! Right y'are Liam!
But I digress. I ambled off to meet the lads to fulfill my new role as meeting adjudicator and as I rounded the Dress Hire shop in Biggin St..there they were, Keef and Howard, standing in the blue coloured roped off area for fag abusers, outside Wetherspoons 8 Bells. It was 7.30 and 30 seconds and Keef was giving me a finger waving admonishment for being late..struth...30 seconds! But it was a laugh. Howard had fag in one hand and a near finished large glass of red wine of the 250 ml variety in the other.
The lads decided that Wetherspoons was probably too full for the task in hand so we adjurned to the ungloriously empty Bar Ellie. Two guys propping up the bar were the entire clientele so we had no trouble getting some booze in and then got right down to it. Howard whipped out a two -page list of grievances which momentarily baulked our Keef, but he rallied and we preceded to go through the list. Some were large scale grievances about Priory Forum matters and some were smaller...of friends who have just for a time gotten out of kilter.
The evening wore steadily on and we had some more drinks, then some more, like ye do...
and then suddenly everything took on that rosy glow of late evening fulfillment only ever achieved after a few jars.
Of course its not for me to talk of the individual grievances, but by the end of the evening a certain progress had been made and we chatted about everything from football to forums.
I made one last rally with the little Hewlett-Packard camera and got this exclusive...Keef and Howard shaking hands.
So all's well that ends well. I left the lads walking off together into the night towards their individual homes in far off Clarendon..like two oul chums shuffling westwards through the darkness. I myself headed off to the Castle St chippie for a cod and chips on the way home. Well thats the English thing to do after a night in the pub and I try so hard to conform!!
Alas I was thwarted...the chippie was shut. But not to be outdone, I retraced my way to the late night KFC, the only sign of culinary life, and munched it merrily on my way home...chucking hordes of salt on it on the way for added satisfaction. I love these healthy organic nights out.
As an aside...as I ambled past The Funkey Monkey i noticed it was still a solid hotbed of life with plenty of people..so there we are... The only two places thriving on a warm wednesday night in downtown Dover were Wetherspoons and the Funkey Monkey. It was gone 11pm and everywhere else was either empty or closed.