3.00 - 5.00pm - Villa v Stoke City
5.30 - 7.30pm - A change of starting venue for Xmas, meet up in Edmunds.
7.30pm - onwards - A sortie somewhere around town, maybe ending up with a ruby?
Since it was Xmas a pre-match drink was in order, so Chap, Sim, Tone and his mate Brian (who is a Celtic nut) met up in the OC's for a couple of jars and whiskies prior to the game. Brian must have been particularly knackered after flying in from 4 days in Vienna watching Celtic play, arriving at Glasgow airport around midnight before flying down to join us!.
We set off for the match meeting up with Phil who had one of Tone's spare tickets - the game was not particularly inspiring but the result was right with BJC scoring our only goal in the victory. Time to head for the pub to celebrate.
Change of plan initially as we headed for the Old Royal to meet up with Tone's brother, Steve and Alan who were joining in the evenings festivities. Plenty of ale and good banter ensued with Phil re-joining us after going home to get changed and Dave departing early in the proceedings - he must be going for the record number of church bazaars in the year!!. Jo and Brian's wife joined us for a swift couple of jars until the chaps decided to head of for the original planned port of Edmunds.
The final ale stop on the chaps list, we were joined by Steve and Ian for a last drink to see out what had been a crap year for some of the chaps. A Few more beers and spirits were consumed until it was time to head for the curry house.
We'd planned to go to the newly opened Shah's in Fletcher's walk, but when we got settled in we found out that they had sold up again 2 weeks before to someone else!. The food was reasonable although the menu was not in the traditional curry house language easily understood after a few ales. Brian tried to persuade chap to go to a discothèque to carry on getting bladdered and offer gently refused. The final chap act of the year resulted in some confusion over the bill which took some time to resolve successfully I think, before the chaps headed for home.
He's hoping for a better 2010.
Chap 28.12.09