I was reminded that the reason I lay awake in bed at 4am was probably because I fell asleep on the settee at 8.30pm. I eventually got up to make the tea at 7.15 having drifted in and out of consciousness since the initial awakening. It’s a single time zone equivalent of jet lag. Alcohol lag. The effects of the book club meeting in the Straight and Narrow at 5pm. Anne is very skeptical of the book club and thinks it is simply a cover for a drinking bout with the boys. If I tell you that we discussed the book I am currently re-reading – Churchill’s masterpiece and definitive History of WW2 and that I was happy to reveal the ending to the boys – we won – you will know that it is indeed a book club.
This morning I will be pottering around and mentally preparing myself for the afternoon and evening ahead. Two rugby matches and a pub quiz. You will sympathise with me when I tell you that not being a Sky Sports subscriber I have to go to the Peacock with the boys to watch England v Australia. Ordinarily I would be happy to watch Wales v South Africa at home on terrestrial TV but the chances of me being able to push through the dense crowd towards the pub exit are likely to be minimal. I will have to take pot luck.
Afterwards it’s the pub quiz at the Burton Club. I realise it will come as a shock when I tell you I’m rubbish at pub quizzes but it is so. Your brain has to be in tune with the person setting the questions and mine rarely is. There was a funny exception to this when we were doing the Coast to Coast walk. The 20 miler leading to Kirkby Stephen was a killer and instead of going to the B&B we headed straight to the pub. After several pints of lime and soda followed by a few lager shandies (yes) on the picnic bench outside we went in to the pub for some food only to find that there was a pub quiz on. Tucking in to our nightly steak and chips we joined in the quiz. During the first half there was a bonus question, the answer to which was the British philosopher Bertrand Russell. Now I was the only person in the pub to know the answer and won the £30 bonus prize. The only problem was you had to stay until the end of the quiz to collect. There was no way I was doing that. It was already 8.30 and bedtime. We left the pub leaving the thirty quid behind and the next morning continued East towards Keld.