Simon and I had a nice Sunday afternoon planned. At midday we would take a leisurely stroll into town, where we would go to the Slug and Lettuce wine bar, enjoy a light lunch and drink while watching the Man Utd/Liverpool match followed by the Reading/Arsenal game. Things didn’t go exactly to plan…

The weather was shit, the typical English type. Lots of fine rain, the type that soaks you through.

Crap weather

Upon arrival at The Slug and Lettuce, we discovered, to our annoyance that they did not have Sky Sports. The wall mounted plasma screens were just showing BBC News 24. We left and headed into the pouring rain, walking down Bath high street, passing recently erected Christmas decorations – it’s only fucking October!

Christmas! Bah humbug!

We went in and out of various food serving pubs, all of which were either packed full of Manchester United fans or old people and therefore not showing football. We even tried TGI Fridays, but ran off when the French waiter wasn’t looking as the menu was less than impressive (don’t worry, we hadn’t ordered anything).

In the end we ate at Garfunkles (just for a change). It was lunchtime and I only fancied a light meal. I ordered a club sandwich. The waitress brought out a massive platter filled with great slabs of bread, mountains of chips, all on a bed of salad, very nice, but a little more than I wanted.

Once our hunger had been addressed, we went back to one of the previous pubs. We had missed the ManU game, but were hopeful of finding somewhere to sit and watch Arsenal. St. Christopher’s Inn was able to suffice and we parked our wet selves on the sofas.

It was a nice pub and not packed with lager filled football hooligans cheering every time Arsenal won a corner. I always like to join in with chants and singing when it’s a Leeds match, but anyone else, I become rather perturbed. All in all, a very civilised place to go, although I did receive a rather puzzled look from a barman when ordering a coffee. Is it really a crime to have a hot drink (while cold and wet) in between pints? Apparently yes.