Day 18 (Thursday)

I seem to have got a day behind with my posts.  Blogging about what I did yesterday.  Meh....I'll stick with it for now and try and catch up soon.

Thursday was a long, hard day and I was tired throughout.  Perhaps it is the smaller portions and lack of snacks causing a drop in energy?  Or perhaps I'm fighting off the cold which everyone else in the office seems to have succumbed to? 

Either way, it was a tough day but I stuck to my guns (nearly) until the end!  Thursdays are always tricky for me as I go into the office, go straight from work to french and then dash home to grab something to eat, change and head out to darts and dominoes.  Yesterday was slightly more frenetic as the darts and dominoes was away at the furthest pub in the league. 

I've been to The Grouse before but not for a match or in the evening.  It is a cool, quirky pub miles from anywhere out on the moors above Grindleford.  I've been there for a drink and snack while out walking and the views are spectacular.  I don't know how, in these days of struggling, closing pubs, that this one contunes to do so well, especially considering the prices it charges but it does.  I suppose, if you can tap into a wealthy market who are willing to travel for good food, an interesting atmosphere, good drinks and individual service, there is still a market out there.

Anyway, the dominoes are coming on alright.  I still lost my league match but only narrowly at the very end and I didn't make any stupid mistakes this week.  And I won the "pub game" at the end.  It is a deceptively difficult game.  Easy to play but tricky to master.  You find yourselves playing againstolder chaps who have been playing for decades and seem to know, as if by magic, what you have in your hand.  I barely know what I have inmy hand but they chuckle and tut as I stumble through.  I'm getting there!

I like being part of something though.  Keeping an old tradition alive and contributing towards keeping pub culture alive.  Pubs are so important in rural areas like ours.  They provide somewhere for old folks to congregate and for young folks to meet each other.  Where else can 3 and 4 generations mix??

Trouble with supporting local pubs is that one tends to buy drinks and I was no exception - I got through 3 glasses of red wine and 3 malt whiskies which is more than I intended to say the least.  Hey ho.  I kept off the beers which is better than nothing I suppose and we had a good gossippy natter.  Blokes are much worse gossips than women in my opinion!

So, that was Thursday.  No harm done I hope and my exhaustion from earlier in the day had disappeared by 2am after 3 malt whiskies!!