Golf Day

After July's pitiful postings, I will attempt to blog more in August. I am sure that news has delighted any readers :-)

The first Friday in every August is "Golf Day". This is an annual tradition and the Golf Day in question is held in memory of Roy's brother Robert, who was killed in a road accident at the very young age of 22 on July 25th 1994. I never met Robert - I met Roy in 1995 when he was still very much grieving his brother and coming to terms with what happened.

So, Golf Day involves a tournament in the morning at Temple Newsam Golf Club, and then the players retire to local pubs for as long as they can stay standing. I never, ever go anywhere near the event... for me, it's a "lads" thing (the only girls who go are Roy's nieces who were very close to Robert as they're a similar age) and I like Roy to have this day out to himself. The closest I've ever got to it was the year I went to pick Roy up and I sat outside the pub beeping my horn because there was no way I was going in there to greet him and his drunken pals!

Usually I am working on the first Friday in August - obviously not this year. Renee, my future sister in law (she's engaged to Roy's brother Gary) was off work on holiday and suggested that we have a girly day out in York. Sounded like a good idea to me.

The weather was lovely - bit cloudy at times but warm and largely sunny. We caught a train into York and arrived about 1-ish. Had a good mooch around the shops stopping only for coffee and cake (well there was a European market on in town and it would have been rude not to contribute to the French economy).

After shopping, we wandered down to the Kings Arms on the riverside. We managed to grab a seat outside and stayed for hours, having a few beers and chatting. I felt like I was on holiday, it was so warm and this pub has a great atmosphere... a mix of locals and tourists. The pub is famed for being York's most flooded pub... they have markers on the walls to show how high the river has come up.

We'd decided to eat at Loch Fyne, a seafood restaurant, as they were doing a good offer (2 courses plus glass of wine for £11). It was quite a way out of the centre of York and we walked there at about 6-ish. We were surprised when we were offered a table at 9.30pm! We declined and walked back towards the main shopping area. There's a quaint olde worlde part of York called the Shambles and it's full of little pubs and bistros, so we headed over that way. Found a nice little place called Kennedy's and settled on their rooftop garden for our dinner.
http://www.kennedyscafebar.co.uk/index.php

So, after 2 courses and a bottle of wine (a bargain at £28 in total) we wandered round to the Station and caught the train home. I was impressed by the amount of walking I'd done today - and even more impressed that my feet were not killing me! Maybe the wine and beer had numbed any pain.

When we arrived back in CrossGates, Renee phoned Gary to see where they were... he said they were at the Devon pub about a 15 minute walk from the station. We walked up there to meet them (so I broke my promise of never going near Golf Day) and then Roy and I walked home. It took us ages, because one of us (me) was walking in a straight line and the other (Roy) was decidedly drunk and zig zagging along the pavement!