Pub tonight, we just fancied drifting down,and drift down we did. We went through to the middle bar, which we call the cross-benches referencing the parliamentary area where those MPs not allied to a particular party sit. The Dolphin has three bars, so the pub is shaped like an E without the middle bit – ∏ , one end is ‘our’ bar. the other is the sports bar, the bit in the middle is where we sat tonight. It’s all open-plan so you can see though to the other areas and see who’s in and what’s going on.
When we arrived it was pleasantly full despite there being no-one in the first bar. We got our drinks and sat down; there were a couple of friends sitting at the bar, chatting away to each other, and then a little further along a family, parents and children and their friends who might have been celebrating something, and other people further on and in the other bar. It was pleasant, friendly, comfortable and I can’t tell you how happy we were that it was like that. Well, in fact, i can tell you so it was rather a silly phrase to have used! Landlords come and go, and some seem to run the pub better than others, and having had a lovely family who were in charge of the Dolphin for fifteen or so years, I guess we were spoiled and accustomed to a certain standard, a high standard.
Things change, as they always do,, and a new management arrived – and to be honest they were an absolute disaster, more than a disaster, we feared that our beloved Dolphin would be no more, and then what would we do? Where would we go?
Thankfully this state of affairs did not last long, and we have lovely landlords again and the Dolph is back to how it was, welcoming, friendly, truly an extension to our own home. We had a pleasant and enjoyable evening, wittering on to each other about nothing much, enjoying our own company, observing the other groups of people enjoying theirs, and then time called, we wandered home beneath the stars
Lois Elsden 