Tuesday 6th March
Yes it does say walk to Syston! I know I said we were going to walk to Leicester but we spent quite a lot of time in the morning titting about with 12 bags of coal and a battery charger and didn’t leave ourselves enough time to do the walk to Leicester. That’s our excuse any way!
After a frosty start it turned out to be a fairly warm day and we were totally over dressed for walking so by the time we got to Syston (30 mins) we were hot and bothered! We made the usual pilgrimage into Wilko’s for more rubber mats to put the coal on, cornering the market once more! Then we went to the fishing tackle shop, as we always seem to have to if there is one within a 5 mile radius!
Now I know you think we are incapable of passing a pub during opening hours and you would be right! We decided to try the Dog and Gun, which we hadn’t been into before as they never seemed to open lunchtimes but which has now been taken over by the Steaming Billy brewery and was indeed open.
It is not a bad pub and they do some interesting brews, Ken tried a couple and I tried one of my own and some of his as well. There was a chap in there who looked like a cross between Captain Sensible and Citizen Smith who had clearly exceeded the stated dose. As he appeared to be drinking John Smith’s and as the pub had only been open since 12 and it wasn’t yet 2 o’clock we were wondering how he had managed to get so pissed! Any way, he went off into the garden for a cigarette and sat there for some time. As he got up to return to the bar he lurched about for a bit then just keeled over backwards, smack on the ground! Ken rushed out to see if he was ok to find him prostrate but with his glass and beer still intact! Some time later staggered back in, put his glass on the bar and left. There is hope for us yet!
After the excitement of the Dog and Gun we went to the butchers for some of their HUGE sausages (6 weigh nearly a pound and a half!) and some belly pork slices. Next door is a green grocers where we had an interesting conversation with the proprietor about the Queen coming to Leicester on Thursday and holiday venues in Norfolk.
Wednesday we are going to Leicester – on the bus!
