Fox for lunch

The sound engineers at the Talking Newspaper have regular lunch meetings to discuss any problems, swap ideas and generally meet up as a group. According to the engineers, it’s always profitable and a good chance to touch base as they don’t normally meet in anything but dribs and drabs during recording session change-overs.

Anyway, Tony decided it would be a grand idea for the presenters to do the same thing. After a flurry of emails suggesting times and dates and pubs, we settled on the Fox at Lower Bourne for a 12:30 lunch and meeting, today.

So, in a light but irritating drizzle I caught the bus to the pub.

One of the great things about the Fox is the bus stop. It is right outside the door. A patron can just stumble off the bus and fall straight into the main bar. Another great thing is the room at the back.

More like an oversized snug, this room sits 12 almost comfortably, around a collection of similar sized tables. This is the room Tony booked for our lunch. It has the benefit of being in the pub and yet separate enough to have a good meeting.

Given I’m always at the mercy of the bus timetable, I was a bit early so I ordered an IPA and settled down for a read. I didn’t read for very long as I was soon joined by Ann, our chairman.

Ann didn’t quite start the conversation very well by accusing me of reading on a Kindle. After my usual snort of derision, I explained that it was a Sony e-reader and far more superior to the plastic Amazon toy. She apologised profusely, explaining she preferred books.

This is an old argument and one I countered with the fact that I rather liked books as well but for the sheer ease of carrying vast quantities of books around with me, an e-reader won hands down.

We quickly left the subject of digital technology versus the analogue of yesterday and started discussing a rather touchy series of emails that had been exchanged with various committee members last week. I agreed with her and she was overjoyed, thinking she’d erred in her responses.

It wasn’t long before our discussion was curtailed with the arrival of steadily more and more presenters. Eventually all 12 of us were snugly sat around the big table tucking into our food. Being in a pub, I obviously had ham, egg and chips (which was delicious) which went down nicely with my beer.

It was very nice being with a group of people who almost exclusively drank real ale. The only exceptions were two women who had wine and two who had fruit juice. I guess it’s an age thing but it clearly demonstrated that this was a group of people who drank beer for the pleasure of the taste. No fizzy rubbish here!

Anyway, having eaten, it was time to get down to brass tacks. Tony had a sort of loose agenda which we dutifully and loosely followed. And I have to say, it was one of the nicest meetings I’ve ever attended. No political agendas, no nasty back-biting or complaining. It went very, very well and was quite enjoyable.

All the presenters are lovely people who treat me like I’m the young whipper-snapper (they all dressed very well for a pub lunch on a Monday while I was in t-shirt and jeans…of course) with my youthful perspective on things. Seems quite funny given I just celebrated my 57th birthday but, hey, I’m not complaining.

Eventually the meeting ended and we started drifting off. I walked across the road, the drizzle still drizzling but was waved back over by Pam, who gave me a much appreciated lift back into Farnham. I noted with a fairly high level of relief, that I was almost home by the time the bus was due to arrive outside the pub.

The Fox Inn, Lower Bourne

Of course, by the time I reached home, it was almost dark which meant I couldn’t do anything in the garden (though it would have been rather wet). I’m hoping for blue skies tomorrow so I can connect the water butt.