An Autumn evenings gathering

Last night a few of our mates got together for a bit of a ride and, as it was the first time we’d got together for a while, naturally we had a couple of pints along the way. We met up at the Norfolk arms first for a quick Ale with which we toasted the start of the Autumn season. Our good friend Rich Baybutt came up with his camera and took these lovely photos to record this momentous gathering. His Dad also came along and seemed to really enjoy the fun. Being thirsty we all drank it down pretty quick before heading off to our bikes for a bit a gentle ride. I say gentle, but being the competitive types we are it inevitably got a bit out of hand. Even before we’d sat on our saddles we were trying to elbow each other out of the way. Once we’d got on our bikes we peddled off down the valley on our pre-agreed route smiling and joking with each other and anyone we passed. Unfortunately it wasn’t really a very nice evening and it rained a bit and was bloody cold. As we made our way futher down the valley, we bumped in to a few of our other mates, Bilsey, Helen Taylor and Ginge’ who we were very grateful to see. Our final destination for this little ride was the Lescar, my local. Our really good friend, Simon Choppin had been kind enough to get the drinks in and there was a pint waiting for each of us. He and Tom Allen had done a wonderful job of laying them all out and, as we’d all ridden so hard, we were all really really thirsty so supped back our pints amazingly quickly. So fast that some of us were actually a bit sick afterwards. For a bit of fun, cos you know we like stupid little contests, we figured out who’d actually managed to finish their drinks first. Stupid but fun.

Anyway, we all had a lovely evening out and it was great to get together, because we just don’d do it often enough. But hopefully we’ll be doing it a bit more often. Thanks to everyone for making the effort to get together and all our other mates who we didn’t have time to stop and chat to.

All photos courtesy of Richard Baybutt.

Nick

All Friends Together again

That was a quick pint!