Three Months in Albion

22.06.12 (Evening, Cambridge, UK) - "Cull me ere I wilt to thee!: and, but a little later: Pluck me whilst I blush! Well may they wilt, marry, and profusedly blush, be troth! For that saying is as old as the howitts. Lave a whale a while in a whillbarrow (isn't it the truath I'm tellin ye?) to have fins and flippers that shimmy and shake.Tim Timmycan timped hir,tampting Tam. Fleppety! Flippety! Fleapow!"

I spend most of Friday writing, but when it's close to 7pm I decide to head to pub to watch the Germany v. Greece quarter-final match. I'd looked at a few places in Google Maps, and the reviews pointed me to The Old Spring, tucked-away on Hamilton Road and just off Chesterton. It wasn't even a positive review, but a negative one, that made me think I had to try it out. Here it is from Google reviews:

"Seems like a good place but the clientele seem deranged. Upon arrival we were abruptly greeted an overtly camp man asking us for " acid " then a young woman exposed herself and asked me if " I fancie it " I polity [sic] declined."


What's not to love? I figured this might be a good place to sit down and enjoy a book while I wait for the game to start. I walked in and ordered the Abbot Ale, but the server said it was at the end of the barrel, so I ask for the Cambridge, a 3.8% deliciously malty ale (that went well with my reading material). The Old Spring is crowded at this time of day. There are few seats, but I manage to find a couch opposite another.  I look around at times, hoping a party of three or four will come join me and talk.

Finnegans Wake and The Cambridge Ale (slightly sipped): "Pluck me whilst I blush!"

When no one comes by, my book and beer suffice for company. I've read Finnegans Wake once before, but I honestly have no idea what I'd read. I have only a semblance of it from articles explaining what it probably means. Sometimes when English nerds geek out, we've got to do it properly and then again. Here is one of those times. Admittedly, the beer should be a Guinness, but  I have those so much in the States that I have to do the English thing. English and Irish thing, that is.

Inside The Old Spring looking dapper

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on what you want out of a bar), there is no television in the whole place, so the game will have to wait and I'll have to find another bar in short time. I decide to make the best of my beer 'n' book combination and I sit reading on a leather couch for nearly twenty minutes. I look around and a man attempts to get my attention. I figure he might want to join me before he says--

"Can we switch with you? We've got quite a big group."

"Oh, sure," I say, lurching stupidly to my feet."Go for it."

One of his compatriots says, "He switched with you? How did he negotiate that?" A few others in the group thank me.

I end up at a tall table with a few chairs that has a "Reserved" sign.

"Wait, is this table reserved? Am I going to get kicked out?"

"It says that," says one of the other compatriots, "but we've been here a while and they didn't care."

I resign to the "Reserved" table, feeling like I've done the right thing, even though I was a pushover. After a bit more reading, I look to find a clock. It's seven fifty, the game has been on for ten minutes! I quickly finish the rest of my beer and rush out the door with Finnegans Wake tucked under my arm. 


There's another pub just down the street called the Portland Arms, so I head there. When I arrive, I look to make sure they have televisions and they have two: one by the bar and another in an anteroom clearly set up for watching sport events. I'm in the right place. I order a Abbot Ale, which is 20p cheaper than the Cambridge Ale at The Old Spring, and I sit down in the anteroom and watch the game. I chat sporadically with two blokes sitting close by and watch Germany dismantle Greece. The pub seems to be all rooting for Greece (who have done well for themselves in the tournament so far) and we all cheer when Greece's Samaras levels the score 1-1. Ultimately, Germany nets four, but the game was entertaining. On my way from the Portland Arms, heading back up Chesterton, I snap this photo.