July's Lunch 'Ramble'

Thanks for the replies, guys. Let us meet on Wednesday July 1st. Details to follow!
Cheers

Harry

July "Ramble" Lunch Meeting.

At the recent CORDS meeting, some Legacy NERDS members expressed an interest in meeting up for a non- ramble at Glynde. We had previously discussed taking the train to Glynde and visiting both pubs, probably lunching at the Steamworks.
Looking at the calendar I would suggest Wednesday 1st July or possibly 2nd, 6th or 7th. Let me know if any of those dates are good for you. If I have some idea of numbers I will try to book a table at the Steamworks.
Look forward to hearing....

This feels like old times!
Harry

May

 

Difficult to set a date this month. Charlie is away, I am due to fly next week, Frog is away at the end of the month. Matt may well be afloat somewhere.... So let us have a fallow month and give it a miss. Regroup and meet sometime in June. Don't forget that back in the mists of time when we were all employed and had little kids - then we used NOT to have a Ramble in August.

Incidentally, I discovered that if you Google 'newhaven rambling drinking' then the very first 'hit' is ' Residential Alcohol Rehab - Call for Help and Advice'. I am not making this up!

Cheers
Harry

P.S. This link takes you right here!  http://thenerds-bt.blogspot.com

Sounds like a plan! I’m at present riding the very rough seas in the Bay of Biscay.

Regards to all 

Matt 🤮🤮🤮🤮

March 2025 "Ramble" arrangements

Hi all,

This month's non-ramble takes place on Wednesday 19th. As previously stated, we are visiting The Laughing Fish in Isfield. Obviously we are being transported by bus from Lewes. The arrangements are as follows:

Seaford/ Newhaven contingent to take the usual 10.25 train and I will meet you at the usual place. Then to Cliffe for either a beer or a coffee (or both?) and then we take the 29A bus from outside Waitrose to the Fish at 12.20.

Dave, it makes sense if you get the same bus from outside Lewes Prison which is, I think, the nearest stop for you, This gets to the Prison at about 12.20. We will board at Waitrose and probably go upstairs, if we can drag our arthritic limbs up the stairs of course!

Hope this all makes sense.

See you on the day.

Harry (Sandyballs)

Happy Chinese NEW YEAR

 

January 2024 Birthday Ramble

It was Lafayette's 77th birthday, the only time when for a short period he was two years older than Sandyballs,

There was to be a cast of thousands - well twelve since it was a special occasion. There were, representing the NERDS: Sandyballs, Paco, Froggy, Dio and Imogen (minus dog) plus Moi. Then there were, representing The Darksiders: Marion, Jane, Debbie, Roger, Ed and Peter Thompson.

The NERDS waited at 12 at Lewes for the Gatwick lot who were wasting time sitting about in the Runaway cafe. However Laf rounded everyone up and passed the baton to Sandyballs who had organised the brief walk.

The weather looked ominous, it was warmish but threatening heavy rain so we all set off past the Lewes Football Club and down in the direction of the Town Dump.

After about half a mile Laf called a halt so that he could have a brief rest (bad legs).

By now we were near to The Mighty Ouse which was showing signs of raindrops beginning to fall.

We hurried on. Lafayette had another brief calvados stop thanks to the kind attentions of Ed who knew when to oil the wheels. There was a brief photo stop by the river

where we admired the back of the posh flats near Harvey's Brewery Bridge. At this point it started to rain like hell so we all legged it fast for The John Harvey Tavern, aka the BrewerTap.

There were lots of pints of Old ordered and we all managed to cram into the back room for our pitstop. Imogen got bored and went to the Harveys shop where she bought all next year's Christmas cards and a bottle of cider. (Another NERDS' alchy.....)
After one or two pints and because it was nearly time for lunch Laf. whipped everyone up and out into the now pissing down rain with the prospect of scampering up the length of School Hill to get to the pub.


The stars were aligned for Lafayette who got to the bottom of the hill with Paco and spotted a number 28 bus

which obligingly took them both one stop to the Rights of Man.

There we met Dio who had been keeping a bar stool warm and had had the sense to bypass the walk and go straight to the pub. Marion was startled to see Laf and Paco ahead of us in the pub since they had definitely been behind her at one stage. Nobody mentioned buses.

We settled in and Laf got some prosecco going which made everyone feel in the mood.. Then the rest of the festivities began. As usual the food in the R of M was magnificent, although pricey. But there again What the Hell...... There were scallops and pheasant and beefy things and panna cotta and lots of red wine and coffee and illicit calvados and it was a real swinging party.

Finally we all poured outside about two hours later when fortunately the rain had more or less stopped and Laf led a bunch of hard cores down to the Depot where more coffee cognacs were drunk. The Gatwick lot made for the trains.... hope they got home because......Dio returned with Imogen from the station to say most trains were not running because of flooding on the line. However, Froggy and Paco took a dry train to Eastbourne and a number 12 bus back to Seaford, and Dio, Laf and Imogen took an expensive taxi back to Newhaven and Seaford so the day did not end in total disaster.

It had been eventful and thanks to Sandyballs for organising the "ramble" pity he had to leave the pub early to attend to familial duties but I expect he managed to get home ok.

Thanks to all those who came and made it exciting. Hope they all got home as well. 

Lafayett(Bowles Club)

Lafayette.

Cats Update

 Lettie:-

Fif':-

The UK and the EU ?

Hello All,
It appears today, 6.12.2019 that we have already left the EU!!

BT

June 2018

It’s halfway through June and there has been no sign of any “Flaming June”

this year! We have had just two dry days so far this month. Fif’ and Lettie have spent most of their days sleeping on the bed or sofa. They have popped out occasionally

for calls

of nature or a spot of hunting. Fif’ had a small Bullfinch from amongst the very many which have hatched this year. There is an abundance of fledglings presently but the parents have been teaching their offspring of the dangers of cats!

The continuing story of mice.

After mowing the lawn all afternoon we settled down to relax and recuperate. However, Fif’ had other ideas. She caught her mouse and then Lettie joined the hunt seeking moths. They both achieved their goals. Fifi cornered the mouse

and Lettie brought down the moth. At this point I closed the cat flap so that the gifts could not be brought into the house (alive) as they normally are! Some time later, Lettie tried to enter the house but was prevented by the closed cat flap. This was opened to let her in and at the same time I noticed that Fif’ has “posted” her mouse, which was deceased, in the cat flap tray!

APRIL

It is mid-April now and the weather has changed from winter to spring almost overnight. It was only a few days ago that we had hail stones the size of marbles

followed by snow. Now we have temperatures in the mid twenty’s during the day and the overnight frost has gone. However, it was a similar experience last year until in mid-May an overnight frost killed of all the fruit blossom! Hopefully it will be better this year.

The cats have begun mouse hunting again and Fif’ has brought in two these past two nights. She usually sleeps most of the day.

She brings them in alive and lets Lettie play with them for a while until she gets bored!

It is then up to me to find and catch them before letting them go as far away as possible from the house.

February 2018

Having had a couple of visitors gate crashing through the "cat flaps" recently we decided to fit an electronic 'door'.  We had to get Fif' chipped, Lettie had already been chipped when we picked her up.  Fitting the door was not a problem but getting the cats to use it has been more difficult.  Fif' has now accepted it and has no problem using it now.  Lettie is having more of a problem adapting to it.  But then she had a problem using the original one.  Hopefully it will all be sorted out soon.

December 2017

December 2017 has arrived with snow. By the 2nd it was over six centimetres deep.

This was all new to Lettie who had never seen or walked in snow before.

Fif’ took it all in her stride rushing out quickly and returning speedily to settle down to sleep for the rest of the day on the bed. The bird table has had to be replenished several times

and all the garden birds have taken shelter there and dined well.

June 2017

June has been a peculiar month. It started hot with temperatures of over 30 degrees then the temperature dropped down to less than 15 and yesterday it was over 37!

Then we had a mouse problem. Both cats brought into the house several mice which they then let loose, became bored and abandoned them. It became so bad that several traps were brought into use which eventually solved the problem. I am sure we got the cats to solve any mouse problems rather than extubate the situation.

Then Lettie went missing. We had just printed off a “Perdu” poster when she reappeared. She was totally unaware of the stress she had caused – just tucked into a meal and got on with life!

April continues

Although we have had a couple of very cold nights the frost has not damaged too much.  However, the' mouse in the house' season has returned with Fif'

bringing them in one at a time for Lettie.  Luckily we have been able to catch them and return them to the wild before Lettie

has a chance to get her claws into them.  We have seen our resident hedgehog trundling up the garden path at night and have a desman

 resident in the bank next to the stream.  So far he has been too quick to photograph.

First mouse

Wednesday night Thursday morning. At some unholy hour there came a thumping, scratching, rasping and jangling noise. On examination there was Lettie comfortably stretched out with an expired mouse under her right paw. As she had not been out I can only surmise that Fif’ brought it in for her. She used to do that for Willie. However, it was not difficult to retrieve the mouse from Lettie; Willie used to growl loudly and strike out if anyone else wanted his mouse! So, Lettie has now experienced two species of our local wildlife.

It is the end of March 2017 and we have lived through “Brexit” but as we are both French; Fifi and Lettie, we do not really care.

However, the owners have taken precautions to ensure we will be well cared for as one is French and the other is Irish. The weather has improved and we can go out hunting

and carousing and enjoying the work done in the garden.

It really is amazing what a noisy lawn mower can accomplish together with a ‘strimmer’ in good hands! Last year’s bulbs have survived and the trees planted on the bank are growing nicely.

But at the end of the day we both know where to rest and recuperate best.

Winter's back?

The sun had been shining and we thought that spring had arrived.

However, winter has a sting in its tail as we woke up this morning to this.

So we decided that a day on the bed was the order of the day!

More adventures

10th March and Lettie got her first lizard.

 She has been exploring the wood pile

and the other parts of her playground.  She appears to be very busy but no one is sure what she is doing! She now has learnt to climb fences

and get through all sorts of entanglements. Water always tastes better out of a watering-can.

 She certainly enjoys being outdoors and is always tired after supper.

Spring

It is March now and “spring” is here.  Although it has rained occasionally it is mainly dry and sunny so far. 

The daffodils are out

and the cats are exploring their domain enjoying their freedom.  It’s all new to Lettie but Fif’ has seen it all before and is enjoying showing off to the youngster!  Lettie’s coat is very well adapted for camouflage

and she can hide anywhere.  However, the birds are very aware of her.  She has her vantage points

and places to sleep.