The School House, Thorganby: July 26

As we were earlier than the appointed time agreed with Paul, we visited York first. This time, Beng parked at a different side of York. While walking along the fortress wall, we realised we were indeed quite far from our usual shops. We managed to visit a few shops before lunch. Though we were quite keen to have fish and chips for the first time this trip, the difficulty in finding a toilet led us to patronise the Oscar pub, a favourite with Alex. In fact we were there on our last trip.

Paul phoned Beng a couple of times to find out what time we would be there. Anyway, he used his new BBQ set to cook chicken, Barracuda fish, salmon and some mixed vegetables, and bread. Somehow, it looked as well as tasted really good. Harry, like last year, joined us. Alex and Clem were on our minds, though out of sight!

Later, we got a call from the Ferryboat Inn that a certain Brian did not know what to do with himself. So it was time to get ready to go to the pub. Because of the unpredictable weather, we decided to take the car instead of walk, though Helene had to minutes later.

The invited musicians came soon after we got our first round of drinks. Besides guitarist, Brian, there is Sue who is an accomplished flamenco guitarist and flautist and plays an Irish drum that looked like a kompang using a bone-like stick (I remember the Corrs using it), Jack who plays a different kind of flute (like John Kaizan), and of course, blues guitarist and harmonica player, Paul! We were honoured to have the landlord of the pub, Phil, who joined them too. It seems he seldom takes part, yet he took part the two times, we were there!

I realised later that music, though universal, is so wide in variety that it is not surprising not to have heard of certain songs before, like those folk songs played and sung by them. Paul mentioned that he has seen me and friends playing some Shadows tunes but he was not familiar. Then, Brian tried out Apache but it was nothing like it, so he really wasn’t familiar. Only later in the night did I realise that I should have at least shown them what little I know eg. melody, just to refresh their memory, then the rhythm, and then bass line. With their standard of play, they would have picked the tune without difficulty.

Later, Phil said that his acoustic guitar was made by a well-known guitar player in York and his present guitar is worth GBP3,500!