Army Pals

It’s not every day that you get recruited on a pub crawl with the British Army. All I was intending on doing was delivering some magazines to a local pub followed by a visit to the bar to see what ales were on offer. Two people were waiting to order, and I wonder if they thought I was trying to push past them when I walked straight up to the handpumps. So I let them order and they asked me to recommend an ale. I said I’d personally choose the pale one as it was one that I hadn’t tried before so they bought a pint of it and asked for a taster too. Then they pay for the drinks and hand me a pint and asks me to join them in the beer garden. Well, it’d be rude not to. It turns out that they were all from the army reserves and they were having a send-off for two of their squaddies who’d got called up to the Gulf. I ended up singing along with them to karaoke on a mobile phone which is probably on YouTube somewhere. I found it hard to walk away from their hospitality and ended up at the next pub with them well singing a song about a lemon tree. Eventually they started on about their past services to each other so I found it a great opportunity to say my goodbyes and leave before I got drafted.