Hash 1409

'As I write this Hash report, I can see the house from here where the lead singer of the Damned grew up.  We both also started our working lives in Hemel: me pulling pints, he digging graves. I wanted to follow him into the Punk world as I was singing under the name of Juan Rotten with my band the Pistoles.  However, Malcolm McLaren preferred bands that sang in English and the rest is history.

What is also history is Ade's run from the Bounty in Bourne End as it's Monday and I've been to Canada and back since. However after the non-stop rain on my run, the sunny weather and the location made it a memorable hash (provided one had £2.20 to feed the parking meter).  Ade aka Moose caught the mood of the moment when he announced that even the Long would be Short and the Short even Shorter than the Long.  The long and short of it was that he had included walking to the pub across the bridge from the car park in his calculation of 4.5 miles and 3 miles respectively.

It was a family affair as Jilly was there along with their son Kye.  We set off away from the river, resisting the mattress that had been laid in front of our trail.  Unlike the previous week, where virtually everyone insisted on running the full 5.5 miles in pouring rain, we were more sluggish and Ade often had to ask for a regroup at the next check.  Ant looked lonely doing all the on-backs without Andy.  The latter had apparently Peaked too soon.

We went past the Black Lion pub and then took a left towards the Spade Oak.  At this point there was a long/short split, with the longs going right towards Little Marlow and us shorts going straight on past the pub.  We passed a few fields which I could remember when they were all houses.  Then we reached the River Thames with a lovely view of England on a calm summer's evening. It was a short walk back to the car and then to the Bounty.

Even despite the relative shortness of the run, it was too late to order food.  I would have had Chicken Tarka: it's like Chicken Tikka but it's 'otter.

When the longs got back, the GM said the run was brilliant apart from the humility (or was it humidity?).  Chips were good and we had the pub to ourselves: no Morris Dancers this time.  Beverley was a blast from the past.  She promised to come to every Hash between Ade's run and the Friday of that week, when she's moving to Scotland.  A note on independence fears: even the Bank of Montreal has moved their headquarters from Quebec to Ontario. 

Barny was given a Star Trek t-shirt for his 1,150 runs (23 t-shirts just for each for 50 milestone, leaving aside annual awards and special occasions).  Apparently he keeps all the t-shirts.  If I'm correct, the Magneto award was given to Paul Evans aka Fat Boy for exploits with a repair kit on the Wantage bike weekend.  Appropriately, a Pirate theme was announced for August 6th, and we all went away very happy after a great summer hash.  Thanks, Ade.'