As the old line goes, show me a marathon, I’ll run a mile.
This weekend I’ve covered some 400 miles, albeit few of them on foot, but still with the same mixture of exhaustion and satisfaction that running promises to provide.
Here are 26 highlights from my weekend…
#1: The Tuckers Maltings Beer Festival. Last year I travelled for three hours to enjoy Devon’s finest array of 270 West of England brews. This year it took me 35 minutes on the train, and cost £3.50 in train fare.
#2: Box Steam’s ‘Dark & Handsome’, the best of the beers I tried. “Massive flavour, subtle finish, 9/10” say the scribbled tasting notes in the margin of my programme. Sums up my evening beautifully.
#3: Being pursued by a drunk woman looking for beer advice, and being gently warned off by her boyfriend. She thought I was an expert; he thought I was a threat. The wonders of beer.
#4: Breakfast at Cap’n Jaspers, the Plymouth legend who supplies hot-dogs by the yard, and whose ‘shack’ sports an array of gadgets powered by old wiper motors. His many relishes have become my bi-weekly treat. Twice a week.
#5: Finding my newly washed Beetle had survived the night without accumulating a single streak of seagull shat.
 #6: NSC’s 40th Birthday Bash, a party for people like me. To mark the anniversary, vintage buses took to the roads around Nailsea, Backwell, Wraxall, and Long Ashton – all time favourite buses, in all time favourite settings. Magic.
#7: A journey to Clevedon on a Bristol Lodekka, sitting behind the driver. He took a wrong turning, and ended up performing a three-point-turn in a side street opposite Clevedon pier.
#8: Being recognised by a friend of my father, despite not having seen him for fifteen years. “How are YOU?” he asked in a familiar brummy accent. “Haven’t you grown up like your Dad?”. Yes - though you’d never catch him riding on a Bristol LH…
#9: Roaring through the North Somerset countryside and spotting Diana Thomas driving the other way, 100-odd miles from our respective homes.
#10: Being called back by Diana Thomas, who’d spotted “the kind of bus David Sheppard would mess about on” coming towards her. Lovely to catch up – let’s arrange that binge.
#11: Listening to Clifford T Ward’s beautiful ‘Mantlepieces’ in the places it always makes me think of.
#12: Playing Clifford T Ward’s beautiful ‘Mantlepieces’ on the radio, to the places it always makes me think of.
#13: Having this week’s Countdown Challenge resolved by Mary in Melksham, whose calls I used to answer at Radio Bristol back in 1485. I still remember her number by heart. Just as well – we had to call her back…
 #14: A trip into beautiful Crafthole for Sunday lunch at the Finnygook Inn. The Cornish do a good line in comedy names, just as they do in roast beef. This was rare, and yet plentiful?
#15: A post lunch walk down towards Portwrinkle and Whitsand Bay. The post-lunch walk back up wasn’t such a highlight, however.
#16: Completing ‘the other end’ of the 81C, surely one of the world’s most breathtaking bus routes, and just as surely my favourite for so many reasons. I won’t bore you further.
 #17: Arriving at The Edgcumbe Arms (the ‘other’ end of the 81C) to find that not only was St Austell Ales’ ‘Proper Job’ available, they’d just changed the barrel. (For the uninitiated, this is good because it means it’ll taste fresh, but largely because it means there’s a whole barrel left to drink.
#18: Being engrossed in conversation at the bar by one of life’s most entertaining beards, itself a shield for one of the most engaging raconteurs you could wish to meet.
#19: Discovering that the engaging raconteur behind the beard was in fact a retired BBC Editor, now living in the South West to indulge his passion for lifeboats.
#20: Becoming so engaged in conversation that I failed to notice the Cremyll ferry arriving, and departing, from the other side of the landing stage, and having to catch the bus home. The 81C at sunset… Shame.
#21: Having my first wee on the Torpoint Ferry. Surprising this, given the frequency of my visits of late (to Torpoint, I mean). I should add that there are facilities on board, and not just a deck.
#22: Cooking with my beautiful new garlic bulbs from Bideford. Ever since my visit to a garlic farm on the Isle of Wight (not such an unlikely garlic capital, it turns out), I’ve toured the UK’s greengrocers in search of decent stuff – and finally I’ve found a good source. The cloves are huge, peel easily, and taste marvellous. When I told the woman behind the counter hers was the best garlic around, she seemed content. “Ohh”, she said – “we’d bett’r make a sign”.
#23: Buying a DVD copy of The Titfield Thunderbolt for a fiver, from a man who clearly thought it was porn. In a way, it is… more breathtaking views of Somerset.
 #24: Venturing into my local model shop to look, knowing full well I’d buy a model, and coming out with two.
#25: Taking my new models to meet their big cousins. The colours aren’t quite right, but we’ll let them off. It’s the weekend.
#26: The serenity of Torpoint depot at sunset, where buses are being washed to the sound of classical music on the radio. Roll over, Beet-hos'em.
As the other old line goes, I’m back at work tomorrow – for a rest. |
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