The
Jester: On 27 March 1963 I came into the world with so much hair
on my head that my mom thought she had given birth to a chimpanzee, I trolled
the archives and hoped that on that day something significant (other than me
being born) would have happened, well
apart from me as well as Quinton Tarantino being born the only other newsworthy
event was the following
1st Beeching Report 27th March, 1963: The
chairman of the British Transport Commission, Dr Richard Beeching, says nearly
1/4 of British Rail stations and track need to be closed to make the British
Rail Network Viable, this equates to over 2,000 stations and 250 train services
which could be withdrawn immediately on economic grounds. The outcome of his first report and a
second report in 1965 led to the loss of 2,128 stations closed and many branch
lines leading to the loss of 67,700 jobs.
So Friday 27/3/2015 some 52 years
later I was to have perhaps the best birthday evening that a Tequilaspiderman
could wish for. The Baroness was as sultry as ever, The Swordmaster was a tad
blunt due to being with a date (one he hadn’t paid for), the Scribe was as
usual pensive and the Hangman was on top form, as you shall see later.
But I digress. This Blog is
sort of a review, but at the same time I am bragging about what great, awesome,
amazing, Lekker friends and a partner I am gifted with in my life.
Meeting The Swordmaster and
the Hangman at Pool City (Newton park) after work set the tone for the rest of
the evening, waiting for the Scribe and the Baroness we had a couple of “lemonade’s”
and played some pool, when the ladies arrived we had a couple more “lemonades”
and played some more pool with the Swordmaster perfecting the “claw” pose for future
pool competitions. We had a good laugh and the usual sledging took place prior
to difficult shots.
I have to say I actually
prefer the Newton Park pool city to the one on Heugh road as I do feel it’s a
tad more friendly and I find the bar staff way more welcoming than the ones
that work on Heugh road. There are 9 pool tables so if don’t you want to watch
a game on the big screen you can have a few games and watch on the
strategically located Tv’s. They don’t serve food other than bar snack type
items but they do have regular drink
specials and happy hours. The omnipresent V Slot machines are also present for
those that like giving away their hard earned money.
A couple of us (read all) were famished and
decided that a trip to Old Grey sports club (across the drag from Mount Road
Police station) for the hamburger special was in order. The Hangman was ordered
by the Scribe to leave his car at Pool city for collection on Saturday and we
all headed off in various directions to Old Grey.
Here we ordered the burger and
at R20 it’s is without doubt the best value for money burger in PE and we had a
drink or three and it here that the surreal happened. The Swordmaster and I
after hearing that the Hangman actually held hands before a breakfast with his
running friends after a 5 or 10 k run on
a Saturday decided that we needed to hold hands as the burgers arrived and sing
Kumbaya, to my utmost surprise the Hangman grasped hands and we proceeded to
sing Kumbaya, much to the ladies surprise who just shook their heads and
pretended not to know us and I am sure we had a few of the patrons wondering
WTF was going on.
Apart from the great burger
deal Old Greys also offers value for money specials on a daily basis and
apparently serves a well-priced breakfast every morning. Old Greys gets busy
but the service levels are more than adequate. The drinks are reasonably priced
and I love the fact that they serve Miller Quarts.
After we had embarrassed the
better half’s, wolfed down the burgers and consumed a drink or two, I wanted my
friends to experience the joys of having a Gecko baby at my favourite pub, it
took a little persuading but we all found our way to the Gecko and we shared the
delights of a Gecko baby (a vodka soaked wine gum or jelly baby) to those Tequilaspidermen
present who had not experienced their potency before.
The Hangman and the
Swordmaster’s latest squeeze had a couple of interesting animated “fillysofical”
discussions about modern art as well as meems, while the Swordmaster and I
decided to do our own rendition of the YMCA to Boney M’s “by the river of
Babylon”. Yeah it was a really strange evening.
During the discussions,
dancing, drinking of gecko babies, 750ml quarts of beer and general mayhem we
learnt that the Hangman has not only geek night on a Thursday but every
alternate Sunday as well, but even more surprising was that he volunteered the
fact the Scribe had made him a wizards hat for those geeky get together’s and
as is the norm between good mates especially the TequilaSpidermen we ragged him
mercilessly.
For some reason during the
evening the Swordmaster became known as “Spongerob” and the Hangman as the “Wizard
of Odd” and somewhere in between all of this we sang Kumbaya again.
While it was getting late I
wanted to finish the evening of with a drink at Café rouge a mere stone’s throw
from the Barking Gecko, a vote was taken and by a slight majority a night cap
at Café Rouge won the day, or as the Hangman pronounced at
this stage of the evening “Rafe Couge”
Café Rouge is a French themed
bar with a Chinese menu and the ever present V slots, actually the only thing
French about the pub is its name and we usually get to meet some interesting
characters there, such as the interpretive dance lady, the old guy in a trench
coat, the lady I thought was with the FBI or the dude that says he “roofies”
himself to get lucky.
Here the conversation got
animated with Rudy using his hands extensively to get his point/s across, on
one particular flourish of the arms he knocked over the Scribes beer and it
landed all over my jeans as well as the Baronesses bag………………hence I became
known as “Sparepants”, that single act was the signal that the evening was over
but while the rest of the
TequilaSpidermen decided to go home the
Baroness and I decided to stay for one last drink we were surprised to see Shane from the
Barking Geko walk through the door, so we had a dop with him and then headed
back home. Like I mentioned at the beginning of the story it was a great night
and on a TequilaSpidermen scale of Lekkerness I give my birthday evening a
9…………… “Epic but don’t need bail money”