"You're the worst dancer I've ever seen."

I can't remember exactly when I first went into the cellar bar in Withington. I think it might have been as long ago as December 2005 or January 2006. It was after I'd been to Woody's for Christmas, but before I'd started to drink at the bar at Gina and Sophia's. I bumped into Phil in the street, as he was carrying a chair, and he invited me down for a look. At the time, I think it was going to be called Alioli at the time. After Kate's party, I was invited to the eventual opening night through Facebook, and that was this evening.



I arrived, and it was empty. Ghost town dead. Nice, but deathly quiet. Kate was working - how nice to see her behind a bar in Withington again! Like old times, but with a twist. Soon enough Tag showed up, then Little Laura, then Kate Bell - a compendium of familiar Sol's faces. Steve was a bit surprised to learn that I worked in R___ S____, and that I had been for six months. I was catching up with Kate Bell, and he was shocked to hear the news. Have I been that bad at telling my friends about my job, I wondered. Blimey! Woody, Clare and Paul soon showed up, and we retired to a table (pictured above) for a chat. The general vibe from everybody was that the cellar bar was pretty good. Funky Dunk, Al, Megan and Chaw arrived later on, and we had a de-brief of the party from the weekend. Al thinks I'm a bad dancer. A very bad dancer. Ouch!

Everybody drifted off apart from Pippa. She came and sat with me as I finished my pint and, bless her heart, listened to me complaining again. It seems that everytime I've seen Pip recently I've ended up whinging to her about something or other. What an absolute saint she is.