Deep and crisp and even

Here I am, writing the folk club report when I should be at the folk club. I was to be in charge this week, since Colin is out and about barn dancing. Expecting a low turn-out I did quite a bit of advertising: some directed, some scatter-gun, so it was difficult to tell everyone that we were unlikely to have an effective session. The upshot was that I decided to put in an appearance if at all possible.

So, off I set, about 20 minutes earlier than usual: out of our village the first issue was the hill up to the motorway. I came to a halt, wary of an oncoming car and had difficulty getting going again. The motorway wasn't too bad - 30-40 miles per hour seemed reasonable. There were one or two stranded cars on the way and emergency vehicles around to help. The ring road wasn’t much worse than the motorway, and then I made my way up the road towards Pucklechurch. While it was easily navigable, there were stationary cars everywhere, presumably abandoned there last night. I should have been warned by the car trying to free itself from the Shortwood turning but no, I carried on for a little way, turned round and found it gone when I regained the turning. I turned in and was immediately and, so it seemed, irretrievably stuck.

Ah ha, I had a shovel in the boot. It had never before been used, and in the dark it was difficult to see how to assemble it; inevitably, the catch which secures the handle broke in the process. Nevertheless, I put the shovel head to good use, clearing the snow from around my driven wheels. I got free just as I was passed by a tractor and what I assumed was a snow plough. Should I give up since my usual route to the Bridge Inn was obviously impassable without a serious off-road capability? No! Next I tried a route though Emerson’s Green but the roads there weren’t too good, so I ended up heading round Downend and Mangotsfield. Almost stuck again on the road in front of The Bridge, I took the less risky approach of parking on the bridge itself.

I walked to the pub without my guitar or the club accoutrements. Mark, the friendly landlord, was behind the bar and there was a warm and jolly atmosphere. I established that no one else had turned up for the folk club and with a handshake I was off again into the night, arriving home safely some time later.

Thank you to those who intended to come to tonight’s session (I know there were some) and were understandably put off by the elements. All being well we will be back to normal next Friday when we have no particular theme though some may like to carry over this week’s St David’s Day theme. See you there, and I hope my journey will be less eventful than today’s.

(Number of people present - 1 [2 - see comments below], of whom none performed)