A Night With Rodger

We parkrun at Markeaton this morning as I promised a friend of mine that we’d be there to witness his first even parkrun. He doesn’t show up.

We have a leisurely post-run coffee and bacon roll as L as no pilates today due to it allegedly still being Christmas but it’s not too leisurely as we need to fit in a late lie-in before I head off to the match this afternoon. Which turns out to be a disappointing 0-0 draw.

Then it’s a question of deciding what to do tonight and finding somewhere that doesn’t need a ticket to get in to. In the end we head off to the Horse and Jockey at Stapleford where get to rub shoulders with various Rock stars - Freddie Mercury, Meat Loaf, Axl Rose (at least we think it was him), Madonna (possibly) etc.

The dark beer range is rather impressive with Aurora Big Dark nicely strong at 5.3% and to water that down Burton Bridge XL Mild. Then I spot something nestling discretely at the end of the bar, it’s Marston's Owd Rodger. I add it to my trail although I'm not sure if it technically is a 'dark' ale but as it’s around 25 years since I've seen this in a bar on hand pump I'm including it. It takes me back to my student days when we always used to have two pints of the 7.4% Owd Rodger in the Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem before heading off to a gig at Rock City.

At around 11pm we get a bus home, yes Trent Barton are running a few, and get back in time to spend New Year with the boys along with Jools’ Hootenanny of course.

(Saturday 31^st December)

Moral Support Amid Pyrotechnics

Just three us in work today, while outside it's bucketing it down and blowing a gale. None of this stops those people who aren’t at work from heading to Sainsbury’s causing an almighty traffic jam. Do these people not have jobs to go to? Then I can do the weekly shop in peace.

We’ve been looking for somewhere to go for a meal tonight which isn’t as easy as you’d think. Lots of places are either closed or booked for private parties on New Year’s Eve.

Surprisingly we manage to get a table at our posh local Chinese Mr Mans and we invite my parents over to join us. They give us a table upstairs; I didn’t even know they had an upstairs. It proves a good choice as it’s much quieter up there. It’s a good meal with a lot of wine and a correspondingly big bill but it’s a very good night.

Then its home in time for midnight but only just. We make it just in time to offer Doggo moral support during the expected fireworks. At least our local pyrotechnics didn’t go on as long as those in London that were televised by the BBC. After seven minutes we switched back to Jools Holland's Hootenanny, so I’ve no idea how long they went on for. By the time they get around to Auld Lang Syne it’ll be almost February.

(Monday 31st December)