Rum Cocktails by Rail

I hardly ever drink cocktails. For one thing, they're expensive and that offends my sense of meanness. For another, they are so often sweet and easy to drink that I'd find it too easy to become uproariously drunk in a very short time. However, John E Vistic and cohorts were playing at the Tunnels the other evening; Moonface and I like the music so we went on down.

AS part of the ticket price, early birds were given free rum cocktails - and they were really pleasant, just rum, lime and ginger beer . The music was good, too. We went early as Daisy Chapman was first on. He songs are so dark and twisted that I sometimes wonder about her upbringing: a cloudy mix of murder, obsession, incest, kidnapping and other unpleasantries.

We gave the folk style singer a miss.

Emily Breeze played with her new band: she looked as if she'd crawled off the cover of an early Roxy Music album after a bad night out, and she sounded like the offspring of Eartha Kitt and Ozzy Osborne.

JohnE Vistic was as rocking as ever, but Moonface & I decided to wimp out early, before the pole-dancers got going. We'd taken the train down and as the last return was impending, we nipped across the concourse and walked the last few minutes home from Montpelier. I do like going out by train.

:o)

Boosted!

With Moonface out walking for the day, I decided to go for a cycle in Leigh Woods. Crossing the Downs was a pleasure with the sun on my face and primroses growing beside the paths. As the quarries that I use as a warm-up spot were free of kids I spent longer there than usual before pootling over towards & across the Bridge.

Where the paths start off North Road, there is a short steep gravelly section with a sharp bend half-way up. I arrived there just after three other cyclists , blokes in their late 20's - 30ish on newish bikes. I was riding my very tatty old singlespeed which I tend to use more an more when I'm out on my own.

And I burned them off! I overtook two and gained on the third; me with twenty-six fewer gears and at least twenty-six years older! I was so pleased with myself that I had a huge smirh=k on my face for the rest of the ride. Perhaps I'm not as unfit as I feared.

:o)