So tonight, for no other reason than it was Friday night and we hadn’t been to the pub for at least, ooooh, um, some days, we drifted down to the Dolphin. It may be a family tradition, certainly my dad who actually lived next door to the Dolphin would float in at about ten o’clock, and so we do too. We’re not daytime drinkers, and much as we love pubs we don’t want to spend all evening there, so our custom is to drift in at about ten for the last hour.
Float in we did just after ten tonight and latched on to Terry who was sitting in his usual place by the bar. I’m not a great fan of people who sit or stand along the bar because it can make it awkward and difficult for the rest of us to get served. Terry, however, is an institution and has his own stool, tucked into a corner and isn’t in the way of anyone. We’re always pleased to see him, he’s an interesting cove with plenty of stories, and this evening we stood, chatting about all sorts of things. He finished his pint and headed off and we headed down to the other end of the pub where we had spied our friends. We had a pleasant hour or so chatting to someone who is the inspiration for my Mike Scott story, which is well and truly on the back burner, and to Nige, a lovely man whose knowledge is encyclopaedic and thus his quiz team is often champ of the Dolphin – although we do try our best.
Goodness knows what we chatted about, all sorts of fascinating things no doubt, but time called, and we bade farewell to our chums ‘See you Tuesday for the quiz!’ We wandered back down what I always think of as the High Street, but which is in fact Old Church Road. Yet another pleasant evening in the pub.
A postscript: this is my 10,000th blog post, rather apt that it should be about the Dolphin, our second home!
Lois Elsden 