RUN 1011

24 October 2010

Bedford Arms, Toddington

Hares: Rapid Withdrawal & Ringer

HASHERS: 16  NEWBEES: 3  MUTTS: 1  APRES: 1

Hello peeps and welcome once again to Mira's weekend blog. Well the big news this week is that I met a real live Count. Yes I know, you don't do that every day do you? Well I don't anyway. A charming man he was, as you'd expect, as also was his wife Lady P, short for Pamela or Patricia or Penelope - something like that. I don't think I actually heard her full name mentioned, but perhaps I missed it while I was chatting. I'd have thought she'd be a Countess, but perhaps she has her title in her own right.

Anyway, Sunday morning it was. Priscilla and I had been talked into going for a walk with a sort of running club, only not an athletic one, more like a ramblers group really. One of the girls, Sue, had asked us if we would go with her. She had been out with a similar group before where she was known as Forget-me-not; it seems these groups have difficulty remembering names, so they make up something they can remember - like Forget-me-not.

It's a bit like the old paper chase game that the boys used to play when we were at school, but using dobs of flour to mark the trail instead - more eco-friendly I suppose. It was lovely and sunny when we arrived at the pub car park but quite cold. Fortunately I'd worn that nice warm coat that I bought last winter when I went to Colchester to visit Auntie Carol - or was it Uncle Bill at Winchester - I forget which now. Anyway we weren't the first to arrive; there were quite a few there already, so we parked the car and said could we join them. They were very kind and welcomed us to their group. At 11 o'clock sharp, a man in a red waterproof jacket - the hunt master I suppose - called everybody's attention and asked if anyone had a birthday or an anniversary to celebrate; a nice little touch that I thought.

Then two very nice men, one called The Ringer and other Rapid Withdrawal (one of them was really charming and the other VERY handsome, but I'm not going to tell you which was which) took over and tried to explain the flour markings to us. Well dears, it was really complicated - all about cheques and numbers and bars and teas - and I got completely lost so I just had to hope we'd pick it up as we went along.

Soon we left the pub and almost everyone went the wrong way to start with, following a Captain somethingorother, but once we'd got that sorted out we were off. A very nice man called Pongo or perhaps Thongo introduced himself and sort of kept an eye out for us, making sure we didn't get lost or anything. Wasn't that nice of him?

I was a bit concerned at first as we kept going down little alleyways in Toddington - almost as if they were trying to get us lost - but eventually we got out into the lovely countryside around the town.

After about an hour we arrived back at the pub and got ourselves some drinks and I thought that was it, but no we were ushered into the garden - the sun was really quite warm by this time - where a man called the secret RA (whatever that is) told a story about one of the lady runners having trouble with brambles tangled in her bush and having to have it trimmed, but the man couldn't come until Monday. I know I've got a bit of a risqué mind, and I couldn't help giggling to myself - if only they'd realised what they were saying.

Anyway I've got ahead of myself as usual, I haven't told you about Saturday yet...

On-On to next week at either Hardwick for Halloween - the theme is Christmas - or The Bell at Sandy.

Ringer&Rapid