You know that feeling you get when you know you shouldn't, but you do anyway?

Well I did.

It's just that I cannot resist Armagnac. Especially a full bottle of 10 year old, a willing host, a belly so full of good food, that the thought of a longer drink brings tears to your eyes and the prospect of no work the next day sets the seal on the whole bad idea..

And, so it came to pass, that I arrived (finally) at the Green Man Old Harlow*, still feeling very sorry for myself from the over-absorbtion of said same Armagnac the night before. The thought of yet more alcohol during the forthcoming Reunion Dinner was a bit of a downer. So I decided not to drink.

Heh, heh.

Back-tracking slightly, I managed to cadge a lift from London to Old Harlow with Phil Alexander. It was he that bore the brunt, therefore, of the nightmare drive in atrocious weather conditions on the Motorway. In fact, I'm glad I was a bit late meeting him, as a few minutes earlier would have seen us involved in the 8 car smash. Which would have made it a 9 car smash, I suppose.

Anyway...

Having done all the donkey work, Phil was all for hitting the bar the second we got there, for a few large ones. Naturally, as I was in his debt for the transportation, I could not let the man drink alone!

Sometime during the next 2 hours or so, we both managed to get changed into the glad rags (it seems funny, these days, to be putting a tie on when, normally, you'd be ripping it off after the day is done... still, I digress) and it was while we were into yet another large one that we realised that we were alone.

Well, alone as any two blokes can be, in a pub full of regulars and a pre-wedding or christening party in full swing. Not sure which. The answer changed, depending on who you asked.

Anyway, there we both were... attending a reunion and not a soul else was wearing the famous Old Boys Tie.

You know that other feeling you get? When you first realise that you have screwed up? That hollow, sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? When, through the renewed alcohol haze, the realisation that maybe you've got the wrong night? No? Well Phil and I know that feeling very well. Which is why we legged it up to St Johns to see if any other ex-prisoners had turned up. Phew! There they all were.. drinking their own booze that they brought with them, thus avoiding bar prices at the Green Man! Ummm!

By then, of course, what with the sudden aerobics, my brain was somewhat befuddled and the rest of the dinner seemed to pass in a sort of blur.

So I'll tell it like it was...

... met up with Roger Brickwood a new old boy I had not seen for nigh on 40 years... met up with Alan Pollitt (41-49) who actually joined the same regiment as I eventually did... I know this was true, because he had on a tie just like I've got in my wardrobe and he knew the same people that I remembered... bit like two reunions in one here... food was good... the red French stuff Brickwood brought was every bit as good as the red French stuff I brought.... and Phil Alexander brought a bigger bottle of whisky even than the one last year... I didn't win the raffle.... I didn't heckle the speakers... I did understand everything that Robin Le Male Fawssett said to me... I didn't understand what Bill Billings was banging on about regarding the May/June thing during questions... I didn't make any wild promises like I did last year (the website thing)... I remembered thinking that we could spend the surplus in the treasurer's piggy bank on dancing girls next year, but forgot to put this forward in Any Other Business... I remember hearing the best excuse ever for not buying cuff links from Michael Dyke, as Brickwood intoned gravely, that he always wore short sleeved shirts these days!... brilliant... but, then , he is a lawyer... I managed to get back to the Green Man in one piece and a lot easier than the jog there earlier in the evening. And that's when it started. What started? The survivors thing... in the bar... old Bill Billing's war stories, Alexander's whisky... Brickwoods tales of France... betting on whether any of us would make breakfast (we all did... at various times) the main bar staying open all night and buzzing... the prospect of no work the next day...

Anyway...

You know that feeling you get when you know you shouldn't, but you do anyway?

Well I did!