Last night was a weird one and a half. My good friend Mel and her fella Naill were in town to visit her parents for dinner/stress/arguments etc. Later in the evening I popped over to save them on the way to our local pub. Which by the way I hadn't been to for at least six years I think. That pub has a lot of history for both Mel and me, we grew up in this sleepy little town and sometimes the only refuge from it was the pub. Your local is an extension of your living room but with a cigarette machine to replace the irritating family.

When I got to Mels' place her Mother was showing Niall old family photographs of her to him, the kiddy ones were cute but you know how those teenage years can be embarrassing. But it made me think of how everyones' parents just love the opportunity to humiliate them in front of other people. I mean what is this revenge for the pain of childbirth? But hell I thought it was funny. But it was like a old times; I'd go to Mels' place on the way to the pub and by the time we'd turned the corner from her house, Mel would grumble about her parents and then I'd grumble about my parents until we got to the pub. It made me giggle, some things just don't change.

Anyway, along with a couple of other peeps went ended up at the pub. Hilda, the original landlady has long since gone and now it's run by some other nameless people. But this place has changed a lot, and for the better I might add. The beer garden at the back has those nice wooden tables and benches. It has flowers and even a small lawn making it a really nice place to chill and catch up with old friends. But it was a bit strange seeing people you kinda knew at high school and how they've changed, or hadn't as was the case with most. What was even more strange was seeing their younger Brothers and Sisters there who are all now in their mid twenties. Man it made me feel old. And there were some other pub characters who I guess when the pub was sold were bundled with the furniture and fixtures.

But I think about all those evenings I spent there with all of my friends. Christmas and New Years Eve spent in the pub, Sundays afternoons. I remember some pretty funny things like two friends, Adrian and Karen having a competition to see who could drink more pints of Snakebite in ten seconds and the resultant jet stream of purple puke from Karen. I laughed so hard I hyperventilated.

But it was kind of reassuring that some aspects of you hometown hadn't changed, I meant the pub not Karen puking.