"Tossed aside, like an old sock..."

I think our love affair with The Hare at Loddington came to an end tonight. I phoned Keith up from work and suggested we go out for a drink this evening as he is a lot better after his operation and it's been a month since we managed to escape out for a drink.

I've been winding him up a bit by saying that now his mate Dave is much improved, he's tossed me aside like an old sock, no longer wanted as a drinks partner! Keith knows I'm joking but I do miss going out a couple of times of week and visiting different pubs, much like we used to do before the children arrived.

I suggested a pub in the village of Orlingbury where we used to go but Keith wanted to return to The Hare and what a mistake that was! We took a long and winding route to the pub because I needed diesel and Keith needed money so we called into Tesco's at Kettering first and then headed off along an extremely busy A14 to Loddington.

We didn't have a great deal of time and when we arrived the pub was busy. We stood and waited and when it was our turn the barmaid apologised and said she had to go and serve some food. As the pub has a "Happy Hour" on between 6 and 7pm you'd think they'd have more staff available! Keith was not best pleased that his favourite draught beer, Abbot, was not on, so he chose a local ale instead but when she went to pull the pint it hadn't yet been pulled through! This was the last straw for us as there was nowhere for us to sit (most tables had a Reserved sign on them) so we left. It's very rare for us to walk out of a pub but the vibes were certainly not right tonight!

We went instead to our local and of course, the man who had forbidden me entry to the village on Monday night was sitting at the bar. We know each other fairly well, but I studiously ignored him and he did the same so it was a tiny bit awkward at first, especially as the pub was very quiet indeed!

We had a couple of drinks and then it was home to a very hot curry that Keith had prepared. He ate a chilli whole and had steam coming out of his ears for the rest of the meal! That'll teach him!!!