So it’s Sunday night, and although – thanks to it having been being New Year’s Eve when husband’s shanty band, The Beach’d Buoys were performing in the Dolphin, and although we also had to go down to the Dolphin yesterday as it was New Year’s Day, we drifted down to the pub this evening because it was Sunday night.
We arrived and it was somewhat empty, not surprisingly as Sunday nights are often quiet and it had been busy over the last little seasonal while. We didn’t mind, it’s like another room in our own home so we felt quite comfortable and relaxed. Our usual seats are down at the end of the crossbenches, as we call the bar between the two other bars at either end of the pub. The reason behind our nickname is this:
one of the benches in the House of Lords of the British parliament which is set at right angles to other benches and on which neutral or independent members sit
Tonight the first bar, what might be called the lounge was empty, but there were some folk in the far end in what might be called the public bar. We greeted Sam, behind the bar, bought some Otter and took our seats, the three of us, son, husband and me. As usual our conversation was wide-ranging and varied – Russia during WW2, ditto Pearl Harbour, Emma Raducanu, Afrikaans, beer and pubs and landlords we have known, sten guns/bren guns, shooting, beer, pubs, shanties, the Dolphin, and much, much more. It was what you might call a typical night in the pub, although a somewhat empty pub as mentioned above.
I don’t think I could ever live somewhere there wasn’t a pub like the Dolphin!!
Lois Elsden 