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I COULD WRITE A SONNET …
AH3 run no. 1338, March 23, Easter Sunday.
Location: Sunnyside something-or-other, Drumoak
Hare: Numskull
… but I won’t. This was AH3’s Easter run, so you would expect a colourful turnout of harriers and harriettes in bright outfits to celebrate the end of lent and the rite of spring.
The hash sheet gave this weeks’ on in as Sunnyside something in Drumoak. An urban location, should be easy to find. However, being grateful to their benefactor, George, Lord Sunnyside, for the gift of a magnificent sewage works [the pride of Deeside] on the site of the old stagecoach repair factory, the good folk of Drumoak had decided to name every bloody street after him. Through the blizzard I managed to see Numbskull’s home-made AH3 sign before driving out of Drumoak altogether, but then spent 15 minutes I’ll never see again driving along Sunnyside Road, past Sunnyside Crescent, down Sunnyside Way, into and out of Sunnyside Drive, around Sunnyside Circle, through Sunnyside Gardens, back into Sunnyside Street and Sunnyside Wind, up and down Sunnyside Close and Sunnyside Rise, not to mention Sunnyside Avenue, before finally turning into Sunnyside Lane. Here, fortunately, because the AH3 committee had taken all the AH3 signs off to Interhash in Perth, was hash beer wench Threepennies dressed up as Mr. Egg in a rather fetching yellow kagool, directing traffic into Sunnyside fields. Apparently, Numskull’s role as Chairman of the Sunnyside Veteran’s association meant he could drive his cars across the community field, presumably a great honour in this riverside hamlet.
Not unsurprisingly, given the competing attractions of an Easter in sunny Perth [Interesting fact no. 2, every shop, museum, sports arena, brothel, restaurant, betting shop and public building in Perth and Fremantle closes on Good Friday, the only other day, apart from Christmas Day, where this happens – how will the Interhashers manage?] and an “Esoteric Challenge” whatever that was, only a few hardy harriers made it to the on-in. Or perhaps they just got lost driving around the myriad of Sunnysides.
There were only a dozen or so harriers around by the time the ubiquitous Threepennies called for a circle. Only Tiger Feet was dressed up in rural Easter attire, and had two new-laid eggs to boot. Although he actually threw them at the RA rather than boot them. I had 5 layers on and was still cold in the bitter wind. There was a large loop around the southern edge of Sunnysides through the first check, and we saw Numbskull the hare on his bike, so we knew that most of the run would be on tarmac. And it was. The first quarter of the run was up though Drumoak village. Past the church full of happy Drumoak folk, past little lanes to interesting places, past lots of interesting little bridle paths and trails through woods, until we hit on a cart track leading to Drum castle. The sun was shining by now, and we joined the National Trust visitors in admiring Drum castle and its gardens. It was just as well we stuck to the roads through the Drum castle estate, as the woods seemed to be full of SAS look-alikes, interfering with the undergrowth.
The hash had kept together pretty well up to now, but I must have lost time searching in the wrong direction when the flour trail ran out, and now only found empty nests at the Easter egg checks. We headed down to the river and the local duck pond. The ducks must have eaten all the eggs at the egg-check here, or tried to hatch them. On the way out of the woods, some harriers broke one of the sensible rules of hashing: if you lose the trail, go back to the last place you saw it. But some harriers (no names, but we know who you are) instead followed the primrose path to Sunnyside Villas when they saw the town so near across an open field. Well more fool them. We sensible, or perhaps just more gullible, harriers, listened to the hare and picked up the real trail to the beer stop. This turned out to be Numbskull’s holiday home on the banks of the Dee. We had beer, eggs (finally), a view of Kevin’s folly, sunshine, and a good spot for a picnic. Numbskull said it was a good spot for swimming too, but he refused to demonstrate, even when pushed.
So, another good run – a lot of tarmac perhaps, but good scenery, no dodgy bridges and no irate landowners. Well done Numbskull. And well done to the harriers and harriettes who made it around the trail.
The snow started on our trek back to Sunnyside Mansions. Here we found the rest of the pack tucking into mulled wine (an excellent vintage) and champagne to celebrate Numbskull’s child bride’s birthday. Numbskull was very proud of his new extension, which he popinted out in great detail to a few harriettes. I’m not a great fan of the modern minimilistic décor, myself. In fact Mrs. Numbskull thought the same, and persuaded us to redecorate with down-down beer, champagne, mulled wine, chilli, etc. Possibly because of the mulled wine and champagne, not to mention chilli and birthday cake, the harriers spent a lot of time chatting and being nice to each other, even the hare. It might as well have been spring. At this point, feeling full of the joys of Sunnyside Mews, I also made the mistake of mentioning to the acting GM that she hadn’t appointed a scribe. Ah well, inspired by her rather feeble efforts in last weeks’ report, I dashed off a little art work of my own, reproduced below. Can you tell what it is yet? (And why is it relevant to this week’s run?)
Pip! Pip!
T Rex Cock
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