The Rake's Progress

Saturday, October 17

And it came to pass that Marg would make her first appearance in the year of the Blog, of course there have been many appearances BB. An Airmiles flight with BA to Gatwick should have been a straightforward experience, alas, a ninety minute delay at Glasgow coast us VDT. Danny was waiting to take us to Crawley, where after a brief check-in at Maison de Johnson we were aboard the train to Victoria.

Soho was the first port of call passing Clive's place of work, Geigers, where Marg did not get " a handbag!"! Then we went on to see the Sir John Snow memorial at Broadwick St. Having watched a certain programme about Cholera many times with his pupils, Hector was motivated to visit the site of the 1848 outbreak which led to perhaps the first application of Geographical Methods and Techniques, to solve the mystery that was Cholera. The bier at the adjacent pub, of the same name, was poor...Smiths from a keg.

Earlier in the year, Clive and Dr Stan took Jonathan and Hector on a tour of pubs which were closed at the Borough Market. This time the Rake was open. Selling two Brewdog biers, but not the best ones, Hector soon started barking at the fridge. Clive was not really aware that there is a fridge selling an array of Belgian and German biers? Marg went round the market and returned with a gluhwein and a smile on her face. We were joined by Ross and his new lady, Emma, who is much more normal than the previous one (“Get me a taxi!”). Ross joined Hector in the array of Oktoberfest biers which were consumed after Christophell and La Chouffe.
Maggie was finally let loose from her Saturday job and we headed towards Brick Lane. We were hijacked immediately but Ross negotiated our release for a £12 curry, with main course, sundries, starter and a round of bier and wine. The starters were excellent, always a worrying sign. The curry was good judging by the fact that Hector could still taste it at 04.30 the next day.

It was at the end of the meal when Emma declared that for a genuine curry we should have gone to Tooting High St. Sadly, Bernard had claimed this the previous evening and even phoned Hector that very morning to tell him where to go...
It has taken us years to get to Brick Lane, apparently we were too late.