It’s that time of year. Warming up for Christmas, and what better way to do it than join the traditional Wrinklies ride to a Christmas dinner.
Arrived at Hatchmere in shorts and a long sleeved top, just to mark the fact that we are sharing a climate with the Australian Christmas, except that we aren’t supposed to, and it is most unseasonal for England on the 16th December for it to be 14 degrees celsius!
Nevertheless, the riders started to arrive, adorned appropriately.
It was a great turnout with over 30 of us setting off. An excellent meander followed through increasingly nicely lit lanes, with the sun making an appearance, and plenty of the usual light hearted chat. We chucked in a couple of loops, and landed at the Ice Cream Farm before 12.
We were greeted warmly, with reserved tables complete with Christmas crackers, and were served tea and coffee whilst others arrived separately.
It was fine meal, and no sooner had we stuffed our faces with turkey and all the trimmings, Mel came over and said ‘Who’s for seconds?’. There was the briefest of pauses, and then hands went up with shouts of ‘yes please’ reverberating about the area.
The ladies kindly brought loads more turkey, spud, sprouts, and carrots, and we royally overfaced ourselves. Each of us wondered how the hell we’d actually pedal home.
Then, we had the Christmas Pudding. This was fantastic, and Al’s little face lit up when he saw it.
Actually, Al only had two helpings of Christmas pudding and custard, but then, just to test his mettle as king, Jim organised a further cheeky surprise..
At first, Al looked as though he may have been beaten, but no. Sharing just a little with Derek, who had opted for the same confection…
We thought that was it. Oh no, out came the mince pies, and we thought that this might kill off poor Al. This was not to be, for after sharing a few out, he almost took the lot. Evidence below, and he only got away with one that he stashed for later..
A great cafe stop thus ended. We struggled out but had a tail wind home (what could be better?). We pedalled out bloated bodies through the lanes in the afternoon December sunshine to complete the 2015 Wrinklies Christmas Dinner ride. Superb.
None of this would have happened of course if it wasn’t for Terry, who organised it again, so a big thanks to him for the day, and an equally huge thanks to Mel and the staff at the Ice Cream Farm (http://www.theicecreamfarm.co.uk/) who really looked after us and fed us and fed us, and then fed us some more! 🙂