If you’re ever down our way give us a shout and we’ll do the tour again… we can stop in The Three Pigeons for a pint of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord afterwards if you want…?

And when we woke up at 7am (not in the bath) we dragged ourselves off to Gatwick to pick up our jet-lagged people, drive them around the English countryside, through Guildford and Farnham and finally home to Farnborough. After dropping off suitcases we dragged our travel-weary relatives through the shops for a few more errands until I saw their eyes glaze over with tiredness… we took them home and let them get a well-earned rest at 2pm.

So by 8pm we were in the Crown & Cushion, Minley (you know, our local pub just on the other side of the forest) where we dropped off the Subaru and met my bro, his girlfriend and my step mum. William & Julie, landlord and landlady of the aforementioned drinking establishment, put on quite a party… there was a Thai curry buffet, good music, good people and a curiously-shaped ice sculpture through which alcohol was poured to dribble out of the bell-shaped end… Becky took a good mouthful, so be prepared for an edit here and photos to follow…

I’m off to cycle through the wet woods around Hawley Lake and retrieve the Subaru from the Crown & Cushion car park… HaPPY NeW YeaR

“Madness, madness, they call it madness
Madness, madness, they call it madness
It’s plain to see, that is what they mean to me
Madness, madness, I call it gladness

Yee-ha.”

Well it was a bit mad deciding on Saturday night (post midnight) to go to Guilfest 2007 on the Sunday.

And it was a bit mad that I called a bunch of mates on Sunday morning expecting them to go at the drop of a hat.

It was even more mad that Psycho Si said “Yeah man” and was ready to rock n roll in 5 minutes.

Mad was the fact the train got cancelled leaving us an hour late to the festival.

Even more mad was that we were told this by a random person at the train station who just happened to be, as yet un-met fellow Farnborough blogger Val.

It would have driven us mad waiting for the train and twiddling our thumbs, so to go down the Prince of Wales and have a couple of pints was a great idea.

Once in Guildford I was mad at myself for not packing a waterproof jacket in my bag – rain, thunder and much wetness followed.

I bumped into my bro & his girlfriend and we hooked up with the Guildford Ghost woohoo! MAd!

But then the rain cleared, the sun came out, we ate burgers, drank beer, watched The Icicle Works, drank more beer, watched Simon Friend (from The Levellers) do an acoustic guitar set, drank some pear cider, drank some pear cider again, went down to listen to Toots & The Maytalls (first time in 20 years), drank some more pear cider, had some country music band from Texas play that honky tonk stuff in our ears whilst we ate noodles, shouted at Duke Special from the front row, got some more cider, then a gin & tonic and watched, listened and danced to the mighty MADNESS.

“NIGHT BOAT TO CAIROooooooo…”

If my BBFK and baby BBFK had been in England they have caught this show and danced their little socks off… I bet they’re mad they couldn’t go :p

And Becky hadn’t been there either, so when our neighbour offered to take us down “The Thatch” for a pint or three we jumped at the chance; what better to do on a Sunday evening when the kids are safely chained up ’round a friend’s house?

No sooner had we crossed the threshold and ducked under the old oak beams, we were drinking Adnam’s Broadside and drawn into the pub quiz with the promise of prizes for the winning team and the best team name. After quips about trimming Becky’s thatch and other silly suggestions we settled on the name “The Thatch Doctors” even though between a web designer, an aviation engineer and a medical writer there was only one PhD.

After 30 questions about pop music, boxers, motorways and the make-up of atoms, we waited with baited breath…

…and found out that we’d won on 24 points.

No time for another pint, unfortunately, but we did bag a nice bottle of Semillon Chardonnay.

Go Thatch Doctors. Go Thatched Cottage.