.......I hold an empty glass.......

The Boss and I went up to the Rose tonight, last quiz of the year and a £20 voucher to spend! Yay!

What did we find? An almost empty car park but a very full pub. The Boss headed for the bar and I went for an empty table we'd spotted.............but no.reserved for 8pm. On to the next table..............reserved for 8pm. we were going to eat and then meet D & V, but it looked extremely unlikely.

I got to the bar to be greeted by a perplexed looking Boss and an apologetic barmaid...."There's no IPA", oh well a pint of Landlord will do, "Sorry none of that either".how about a Speckled Hen then......."No sorry"....Becks?...."Nope".....Carlsberg?......."Sorry"....."We've gor Stella or Carling"

So we ordered two Stella. Then we enquired about somewhere to sit. "Sorry you'll just have to take your chance", "So", I enquired politely, "You'll serve me food but can't give me a table to eat it at?".........."Er, yeah. Do you want to order? Only there's an hour and a half wait!"

At that point a huge party of several generations trotted in and swept up all the reserved tables. They didn't rush to order food, or even go for drinks, but they did let the three or four kids rampage round the pub for about 20 minutes until they decided on getting some drinks and having a look at the menu. I looked and thought...never seen them before, but that was true of most of the people in there...... they obviously wouldn't be finished and gone by the time the quiz started, but then no-one else looked in a rush either......the kids would still be there after the 9pm watershed despite the rule that all children had to be out by that time. I don't think I should get special treatment but as I've been a regular for over 20 years, I go every Sunday with D & B, we go every week for the fun quiz and I am the captain of the pub quiz team, getting a table and served in a reasonable time shouldn't be too much of a task. I know when the holiday is over they'll be glad to see us every Sunday and Thursday and most Mondays, but tonight we were just faces in the crowd and our patronage counted for nothing.

So, we looked at each other, downed the drinks, went home and ordered in a Chinese and settled down to watch the TV! We'll see them in the New Year, but only because we have that £20 voucher to spend.

Das vidanya.