And They're Off!

Monday and Tuesday I've been off horse-racing with friends. First Wolverhampton and then Lingfield. The boys came over from IOM to visit, so it ended up as a 48 hour drinking session too! In terms of the racing there isn't much to tell. I didn't bet in every race, I picked up one winner at each track and had a wonderful two days. I'll use this blog to tell you about everything that happened 'around' the race meetings.

We started on the Sunday. I met them at the airport, and after a quick train journey to their hotel it was onto the local pub - The Quayside. As luck would have it, it was also kareoke night. After introducing them to the quiz machine and sinking a few beers I was up to my usual tricks. Living Next Door to Alice (accompanied by the entire pub swearing along in the chorus) and Stuck in the Middle With You just so I can act like I'm in Reservoir Dogs for 3 minutes.

We parted company at about midnight and met up again at 9.00am for the first train journey. 2.5 hours to Birmingham. I'd brought beer for everyone, but one look at their faces meant it was going to be hard work getting them to drink it. It seems that we had all overdone it the night before. They had all been drunk though by the time we got to Wolverhampton, and everyone had perked up by then, so not too much damage done.

The train home was going to be direct, but we had a couple of hours to kill. Walking away from the station we stopped off in the first pub we could find - The Prince Albert. The name might have given us a clue, but we went in anyway. Yes, it was a gay bar. It didn't matter though. They had a quiz machine, cheap beer and food! Not only that, it was free curry night. Buy a beer and you got a free plate of curry and chips. Just for that alone it was worth the effort. When the disco started at 7.30 we politely made our apologies and left for our train.

We all came close to dropping off to sleep on the trip back. There was a brief arguement about sit-com actors that I believe I comfortably won, but other than that we were all fairly placid. Trying to restore lost energy in time for the second day.

An extra hour in bed on the Tuesday, then a shorter trip to Clapham Junction before changing for Lingfield. Again I brought beer and much to my surprise everyone seemed a lot more alive. Must have been the lie-in. There were one or two amazing downpours of rain whilst at the track, and a side-game of trying to guess the age of one of our fellow punters (something we never got to resolve). We had over an hour to kill after the last race, so we tracked down the local - The Star. Not a gay bar this time, but also no food. We raided their crisp selection instead before returning to the trackside station for the journey home.

Back at Southampton it was back to The Quayside for final drinks. Quiz night tonight, but the machine version was much more fun. I also got into a sulk over a question in the pub-quiz about the music used in The Omen so I'm glad we weren't taking part!

We were turfed out at 11pm when the pub shut, but that wasn't enough for us. Right next door is Leisure World, a cinema complex with a few bars and a night club. Time for a few more drinks, even though we were the only 4 people anywhere in the building! We parted company at about 12.30am and I walked home. I managed to burn my evening meal by falling asleep whilst it was cooking, so I was reduced to a Pot Noodle and several rounds of toast. All in all a lovely time...

...helped take my mind off things for a short while.