PUBBING AND CLUBBING
I do really enjoy going out to the pub with mates and just sitting around chatting. I tend to prefer pubs where you find a seat as long as you're there early enough (ie they're not packed out by 8.30), and where the music isn't so loud that you can't hear yourself speak. Background noise is good, especially if it's a good juke box, but not when it becomes foreground noise, or the main feature of the place. It's a bonus if there's football on the telly, although I seem to lose the art of conversation when that happens, except with other footie fans…I lived in Reading for many years, and I was quite attached to The Lyndurst Arms, where you could usually grab a seat and a few drinks before it got too crowded (and they served coffee, which meant it was ideal as a meeting place in the afternoons too), and The Eastgate, which was a great Irish pub with a free jukebox. OK, so we always played the same twenty tunes, but we spent many happy evenings there.
I do enjoy a good pub quiz (and what a storming team the Jerseys were, to those who remember); I think our best ever team name was probably "Good Day for Tim", but I'm afraid I can't explain why without both boring most people to tears and embarrassing a couple of people I wouldn't want to embarrass.
I'm not such a fan of clubbing, not least because my dodgy knees mean that gyrating on one leg has become a dangerous pursuit. I also object to the endless dance remixes of decent songs, which all roll into one with the same monotonous beat. But I've certainly had some good nights out, and no doubt will have many more, and I do have the dubious distinction of having been refused entry on a student night because "they didn't need my sort there". It would have been funnier had the club not been miles from nowhere, the evening not been extremely cold and I not been about the least threatening of any of the group I'd gone with. But I have dined out on it since.
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Written by Jon Renyard
Last updated 11 August 1999